Media & crime: a critical introduction

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Theorizing Media and Crime

Media 'effects'

Mass society theory

Behaviourism and positivism

The legacy of 'effects' research

Strain theory and anomie

Marxism, critical criminology and the 'dominant ideology' approach

The legacy of Marxism: critical criminology and corporate crime

Pluralism, competition and ideological struggle

Realism and reception analysis

Late-modernity and postmodernism

Cultural criminology

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

2. The Construction of Crime News

News values for a new millennium

Threshold

Predictability

Simplification

Individualism

Risk

Sex

Celebrity or high-status persons

Proximity

Violence or conflict

Visual spectacle and graphic imagery

Children

Conservative ideology and political diversion

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann: a newsworthy story par excellence

News production and consumption in a digital global marketplace: the rise of the citizen journalist

News values and crime news production: some concluding thoughts

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

3. Media and Moral Panics

The background to the moral panic model

How the mass media turn the ordinary into the extraordinary

The role of the authorities in the deviancy amplification process

Defining moral boundaries and creating consensus

Rapid social change - risk

Youth

Problems with the moral panic model

A problem with 'deviance'

A problem with 'morality'

Problems with 'youth' and 'style'

A problem with 'risk'

A problem of 'source'

A problem with 'audience'

The longevity and legacy of the moral panic model: some concluding thoughts

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

4. Media Constructions of Children: 'Evil Monsters' and 'Tragic Victims'

1993 - Children as 'evil monsters'

1996 - Children as 'tragic victims'

Guilt, collusion and voyeurism

Moral panics and the revival of 'community': some concluding thoughts

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

5. Media Misogyny: Monstrous Women

Psychoanalytic perspectives

Feminist perspectives

Sexuality and sexual deviance

Physical attractiveness

Bad wives

Bad mothers

Mythical monsters

Mad cows

Evil manipulators

Non-agents

Honourable fathers vs. monstrous mothers: some concluding thoughts

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

6. Police, Offenders and Victims in the Media

The mass media and fear of crime

The role of the police

Crimewatch UK

Crimewatching victims

Crimewatching offenders

Crimewatching the police

Crimewatching crime: some concluding thoughts

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

7. Crime Films and Prison Films

The appeal of crime films

The crime film: masculinity, autonomy, the city

The 'Prison Film'

The prison film and the power to reform?

The Documentary

Documentary as Ethnography

The remake

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and The Taking of Pelham 123

Discussion

Concluding Thoughts

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

8. Crime and the Surveillance Culture

Panopticism

The surveillant assemblage

Control of the body

Governance and governmentality

Security and cybersurveillance

Profit

Voyeurism and entertainment

From the panopticon to surveillant assemblage and back again

'Big Brother' or 'Brave New World'?: some concluding thoughts

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

9. The role of the Internet in crime and deviance

Redefining deviance and democratization: developing nations and the case of China

Cyber-warfare and cyber-terrorism

'Ordinary' cybercrimes

Electronic theft and abuse of intellectual property rights

Hate crime

Invasion of privacy, defamation and identity theft

eBay Fraud

Hacking and loss of sensitive data

Child pornography and online grooming

Childhood, cyberspace and social retreat

Concluding thoughts

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

10. (Re)Conceptualizing the Relationship between Media and Crime

Doing media-crime research

Stigmatization, sentimentalization and sanctification: the 'othering' of victims and offenders

Summary

Study questions

Further reading

Glossary

References

Index