NCJ Number
205415
Editor(s)
Paul Mason
Date Published
2003
Length
319 pages
Annotation
This book examines the portrayals of various types of crime and criminals in the British media, as well as media representations of law enforcement, the courts, and prisons.
Abstract
The media that are the focus of this book are primarily television and film. The book's structure consists of three thematic sections. In part 1, "Criminal Visions in Context," the papers by different authors assess some of the primary subjects that have preoccupied the British media. This is done through an analysis of crime news reporting since 1945, a review of the arguments associated with violence in videos, and an analysis of the media's role in the phenomenon of "signal" crimes, i.e., crimes whose impact on the public's collective consciousness is such that significant changes are made in society's response to crime. Part 2 contains papers that analyze offending and offenses as constructed by the mass media. The focus of these papers is on media coverage and representations of bank jobs, sex crimes, the Mafia, terrorism, and serial killing. Part 3, "Criminal Decisions: Agencies and Agents," contains papers that address mass-media representations of law enforcement, the courts, and prisons. In addition to analyzing the content of these representations, these papers consider the implications of the representations for the public debate on criminal justice policies. Overall, the book presents the reader with the realization that individual citizen's awareness of and perceptions of crime and the criminal justice system's response to it are forged primarily through the media and media users' reactions to media representations. Chapter references and a subject index