Crime and Media

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

This session examines the representation of crime and criminal justice in the media. Papers in this session examine crime stories in both news media and visual popular cultural forms including film, television and the Internet. Crime stories in the media impact popular conceptions of crime and justice and set the tone for public debate about the nature of crime and appropriate responses from the justice system. In addition, news media and popular cultural representations of crime often feed into and inform each other. Criminological analysis of crime stories in the media extends the scope of scholarly inquiry and interrogates neglected dimensions of crime and justice not easily captured by more traditional forms of data. Analyzing crime stories in the media extends academic criminology and promotes serious engagement with what Nicole Rafter (2007) calls “popular criminology” – which encompasses all efforts to understand crime including those found in popular culture. The papers in this session employ diverse methods and conceptual approaches to examine the nexus of crime and justice with media and visual forms of popular culture.

Sub Unit

• Area X. Perceptions and Responses to Crime and Justice / 52. Media and Social Construction of Crime

Individual Presentations

• Murder at the Movies: Depictions of Homicide within Contemporary Popular Films - Kenneth Dowler, Wilfrid Laurier University at Brantford Campus

• Murder in the Media: Restrictive Representation, the Fragmentation of Crime, and “Loose Ends” in Crime Reporting - Thomas Fleming, Wilfrid Laurier University

• Violence, Villainy, and Vigilantism: The Positioning of Restorative Violence in Genre Television - Kristi Brownfield, Northern State University; Courtney A. Waid-Lindberg, Northern State University

• Of Superbots and Techno Fears: Constructing On-line Child Sexual Exploitation in the Media - Steven Kohm, University of Winnipeg

Chair

• Steven Kohm, University of Winnipeg