Working broadly from the perspective of cultural criminology, Crime, Media and Culture engages with theories and debates about the nature of media-audience relations, examines representations of crime and justice in news media and fiction, and considers the growing significance of digital technologies and social media.
The book discusses the multiple effects media representations of crime have on audiences but also the ways media portrayals of crime and disorder influence government policy and lawmaking. It also considers the processes by which certain stories are selected for their newsworthiness. Also examined are the theoretical, conceptual and methodological underpinnings of cultural criminology and its subfields of visual criminology and narrative criminology.
Drawing on case studies and empirical examples from the increasingly blurred worlds of reality and entertainment, the dynamics of crime, media and culture are illuminated across a range of chapters covering topics that include: moral panics/folk devils and trial by media; fear of crime; cop shows and courtroom dramas; female criminality and child-on-child killing; serial killers; surveillance, new media and policing; organized crime and state crime.
Crime, Media and Culture will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in criminology and media studies. The book will also prove useful for lecturers and academic researchers wishing to explore the intersections of crime, media and cultural inquiry.
1. Introduction
2. Studying crime and culture
3. Moral panics, folk devils and trial by media
4. Crime fear and the media
5. Law, crime and popular culture
6. Bad girls and evil little monsters
7. Serial killers
8. Surveillance, new media and protest policing
9. Organized crime, terrorism and high crimes of state
10. Conclusion
Biography
Greg Martin is Associate Professor of Socio-Legal Studies in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has published widely in criminology, law and sociology, and is author of Understanding Social Movements (Routledge, 2015) and co-editor of Secrecy, Law and Society (Routledge, 2015). He is an Editor of The Sociological Review, Associate Editor of Crime Media Culture and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Social Movement Studies.
'Demonstrating an extraordinary command of the literature, Greg Martin offers a fresh perspective on the cultural criminology project that is destined to become a classic in the field. Crime, Media and Culture is nuanced in historical specificity, broad in scope, and as timely as the morning news. Superb.'
Mark S. Hamm, Professor of Criminology, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Indiana State University, USA
'Crime, Media and Culture offers a fresh and invigorating push at the boundaries of cultural criminology. Greg Martin's book expands understandings of crime-media relations by drawing upon the sheer diversity of contemporary media forms to engage with crime and criminal justice in contemporary society.'
Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of York, UK
'Crime, Media and Culture is a landmark achievement. It provides a thorough, creative and boundary-pushing look at a rapidly changing field of study. For anyone seeking a comprehensive and authoritative guide to it, this is an essential book. Bold, critical and ambitious it will serve as a foundational text. By incorporating classic scholarship with the latest cutting-edge interventions, it does more than simply cover or define a field, it takes criminology into areas it urgently needs to go.'
Eamonn Carrabine, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Essex, UK
'Greg Martin’s Crime, Media and Culture sparkles with theoretical insights and provocative case studies. Comprehensively outlining the foundations of crime/media analysis, it also traces the latest trajectories in cultural criminology and associated fields like visual and narrative criminology; chronicling long-standing substantive concerns in crime/media research, it also explores contemporary issues surrounding digital surveillance, gendered images of crime, representations of terrorism, and more. For anyone interested in the interplay of crime and media, it’s required reading.'Jeff Ferrell, author of Drift: Illicit Mobility and Uncertain Knowledge
