Analyzing prisoners', law enforcement agents', and civilians' moral evaluations of The Sopranos

•Study provides insight in grounds of moral evaluations of viewers of The Sopranos.•Qualitative in-depth interviews (N=60) with viewers of 3 distinctive moral subcultures (i.e., prisoners, law enforcement, civilians).•Prisoners and law enforcement grounded their moral evaluations in professional experiences.•Civilians were more “lenient” in their moral evaluations than other groups.