Perilous Penology: Prison, Punishment, and Control in Silent Hill

• In Event: The Prison in TV and Film

Abstract

With few exceptions, criminology has failed to consider video games as cultural products worthy of concerned and critical analysis. Video games are not just objects of play—they are social products laden with meaning. In this sense, as recognized by cultural criminologists, media constitute a robust landscape for examining social meaning orienting around crime and crime control—video games being no exception. In an era of mass incarceration and a sweeping fascination with prisons and punishment, media can reflect these social and cultural trends. Video games, which regularly feature issues of crime and criminal justice, are under-examined wellsprings of penological significance. The current analysis thus analyzes one of the most (in)famous horror game franchises which regularly deploys prisons and punishment in imagery and narratives—the Silent Hill series. Using a grounded theory-based analysis, this study explores the implications of using prisons and punishment as interactive story-telling devices designed to revolt, repulse, and frighten.

Author

• Kevin F. Steinmetz, Kansas State University