NCJ Number
227652
Editor(s)
Telemach Serassis,
Harald Kania,
Hans-Jorg Albrecht
Date Published
2009
Length
225 pages
Annotation
This third volume of a project that brings together the views and research of scholars from various disciplines and countries in order to examine "representations of crime and the criminal in science, the arts, and the media" contains articles that move from theoretical positions to research in addressing images of crime, social control, moral panics, and law and order as portrayed in various media, including literature, television, and movies.
Abstract
A paper on sexual mores and their role in social control examines the changing roles of men and women as well as the status of children and adolescents and how this affects sexual-offense characteristics. Another article provides a perspective on moral panics in late modernity, as it discusses the role of youth culture, society, and the mass media in creating an era of "permanent moral panic." A third paper focuses on the new type of penal control, which has accompanied globalization and the associated proliferation of "social enemies" who must be identified and controlled through penal policies. Another article explains changes in criminological thinking, using insights from anthropological theory and actor-network theory. This is followed by an article that focuses on violence and its prevalence in daily life. Another article proposes an innovative approach to perceptions of crime that differ by age groups and diverge from conceptions of crime in criminal law. Other articles examine gender differentiation in attitudes toward crime; propose an unconventional approach to family violence; compare the affinities and interweaving of criminalistics and crime fiction; address the representations of prisons and prisoners from the Victorian novel to 20th-century films; examine prison representations in Hollywood films; explore how trials are portrayed in television dramas; and address the selectivity and impact of mass media reports on crime. Article-related bibliographies