"Crime and Media Studies concisely and efficiently pulls the curtain back on the reality of crime and punishment and the role media has played in the United States becoming the world's leader in incarceration. By addressing literacy rates that have remained virtually unchanged since 1935, the stark ramifications of the communication disconnect between those who study key issues and the ordinary citizen is explored. Crime and Media Studies calls for the dismantling of ideological divides between qualitative and quantitative researchers in favor of a united multidisciplinary front to create an informed citizenry. Divided into the key parts of the criminal justice system (crime, law enforcement, courts, corrections, etc.), the text explores prominent issues (drugs, domestic violence, race, gender, etc.) facing the criminal justice system. Each section contains crime and media research articles that analyze a variety of media (print news, broadcast news, movies, court TV, crime dramas, comic books, hip-hop, etc.) using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies. In the tradition of Gregg Barak's ""News Making Criminology,"" each section contains discussion questions (designed for traditional and online classrooms), writing assignments (blog posts, press releases), literacy level exercises, brownbag sessions, and community engagement projects to help students understand the importance of being able to effectively communicate both with the press and the public. Crime and Media Studies is well suited for undergraduate and graduate courses in the social sciences that seek to address the role of media in policy and legal issues. The text, its test questions, discussion sessions, and writing assignments are designed to be used in both traditional and online classrooms. Franklin T. Wilson is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Indiana State University. He received his Ph.D. from the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University and has taught crime and media studies courses for over a decade. Dr. Wilson is the founding and current chair of the Annual International Crime, Media, and Popular Culture Studies Conference and is the editor of the Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for CRIMCAST. His research has been published in such noted journals as The Prison Journal, Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, Race & Justice, and Women & Criminal Justice. Dr. Wilson's research has also been featured in a variety of media outlets including the New York Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Houston Chronicle, and Texas Tribune. "

This book critically examines the complex interactions between media and crime. Written with an engaging and authoritative voice, it guides you through all the key issues, ranging from news reporting of crime, media constructions of children and women, moral panics, and media and the police to ′reality′ crime shows, surveillance and social control. This third edition: Explores innovations in technology and forms of reporting, including citizen journalism. Examines the impact of new media including mobile, Internet and digital technologies, and social networking sites. Features chapters dedicated to the issues around cybercrime and crime film, along with new content on terrorism and the media. Shows you how to research media and crime. Includes discussion questions, further reading and a glossary. Now features a companion website, complete with links to journal articles, relevant websites and blogs. This is essential reading for your studies in criminology, media studies, cultural studies and sociology. The Key Approaches to Criminology series celebrates the removal of traditional barriers between disciplines and, specifically, reflects criminology’s interdisciplinary nature and focus. It brings together some of the leading scholars working at the intersections of criminology and related subjects. Each book in the series helps readers to make intellectual connections between criminology and other discourses, and to understand the importance of studying crime and criminal justice within the context of broader debates. The series is intended to have appeal across the entire range of undergraduate and postgraduate studies and beyond, comprising books which offer introductions to the fields as well as advancing ideas and knowledge in their subject areas.

This engaging and timely collection gathers together for the first time key and classic readings in the ever-expanding area of crime and media. Comprizing a carefully distilled selection of the most important contributions to the field, Crime and Media: A Reader tackles a wide range of issues including: understanding media; researching media; crime, newsworthiness and news; crime, entertainment and creativity; effects, influence and moral panic; and cybercrime, surveillance and risk. Specially devized introductory and linking sections contextualize each reading and evaluate its contribution to the field, both individually and in relation to competing approaches and debates. This book provides a single source around which criminology, media and cultural studies modules can be structured, an invaluable revision and consultation guide for students, and an extremely useful resource for scholars writing and researching across a wide range of relevant fields. Accessible yet challenging, and packed with additional pedagogical devices, Crime and Media: A Reader will be an invaluable resource for students and academics studying crime, media, culture, surveillance and control.

In today's society, the public perception of crime has been skewed by how the media depicts it. People use the media for enjoyment, companionship, surveillance, and interpretation. The problem is that it becomes hard to separate fact from entertainment. This raises several questions. How are we consuming media? Are we consuming reality within the news? And are we consuming harmless pleasure from entertainment media? In Crime, Media, and Reality: Examining Mixed Messages about Crime and Justice in Popular Media, Venessa Garcia and Samantha Garcia Arkerson focus predominantly on the social constructions of crime and justice and how we absorb them. They look at the influence of crime news and true crime television series that prevent the public from understanding pure entertainment from the realities of crime and justice. They bring to light the social science knowledge missed by media "infotainment," which has blurred the line between information and entertainment. Throughout, all different forms of media are discussed, news media, crime dramas and true crime television series. In doing so, they keep all of its fascinating coverage while uncovering the reality of crime and justice. This book adds significant information to the constructs held by the general public by placing media depictions into historical, legal, and social context.

Why are newspapers and television programs filled with stories about crime and criminals? Is their portrayal of crime accurate? How do the media transform our attitudes to crime? Is fear of crime, for example, really created by the media? The book introduces the different ways in which relationships between crime and the media have been understood, including classic debates about the media's effects, news production, and moral panics, as well as more cutting-edge studies of the representation of crime in the contemporary media.

The rise of mobile and social media means that everyday crime news is now more immediate, more visual, and more democratically produced than ever. Offering new and innovative ways of understanding the relationship between media and crime, Media and Crime in the U.S. critically examines the influence of media coverage of crimes on culture and identity in the United States and across the globe. With comprehensive coverage of the theories, research, and key issues, acclaimed author Yvonne Jewkes and award-winning professor Travis Linnemann have come together to shed light on some of the most troubling questions surrounding media and crime today. The free open-access Student Study site at study.sagepub.com/jewkesus features web quizzes, web resources, and more. Instructors, sign in at study.sagepub.com/jewkesus for additional resources!

This edited collection from leading scholars in the fields of media, communications, cultural studies and a number of aligned areas looks to the intersection of capitalism, crime and the media. The text is founded on the principles of cultural criminology – that how we determine and understand crime lies in the social world and that the determination of crime and its mediation in popular culture have a political basis. The book consists of eleven chapters and is divided into three sections. Section one considers the intersection of crime and capitalism in a range of contemporary cultural texts. Section two examines how various power systems influence the operation of the media in its role of reporting crime and holding the powerful to account. Section three considers how texts in a variety of formats are used to conduct politics, communicate politics and enact political decision making.

As research continues to accumulate on the connections between media and crime, #Crime explores the impact of social media on the criminal legal system. It examines how media influences our perceptions of crime, the perpetration of crime, and the implementation of punishment, whilst emphasizing the significance of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. It offers an accessible and in-depth examination of media and in each chapter there are case studies and examples from both legacy and new media, including discussions from Twitter that are being used to raise awareness of criminal legal issues. It also includes interviews with international scholars and practitioners from Australia, Belgium, and the United States to voice a range of global perspectives. This book speaks broadly to those interested in criminology, criminal justice, media and culture, sociology, and gender studies.

A campus shooting. A gang assault. A school bus ambush. With each successive event, fingers are pointed at the usual suspects: violent films, bloody video games, explicit web sites. But to what extent can—or should—the media be implicated in youth crime? And are today's sophisticated young people really that susceptible to their influence? Adolescents, Crime, and the Media critically examines perceptions of these phenomena through the lens of the ongoing relationship between generations of adults and youth. A wealth of research findings transcends the standard nature/nurture debate, analyzing media effects on young people's behavior, brain development in adolescence, ways adults can be misled about youth’s participation in criminal acts, and how science can be manipulated by prevailing attitudes toward youth. The author strikes a necessary balance between the viewpoints of media providers and those seeking to restrict media or young people's access to them. And the book brings scientific and intellectual rigor to culturally and politically charged issues as it covers: Violence in the media. Media portrayals of crime and youth. Research on violent television programs, video games, and other media as causes of crime. Effects of pornography on behavior. Public policy, censorship, and First Amendment issues. Adolescents, Crime, and the Media is an essential resource for researchers, graduate students, professionals, and clinicians across such interrelated disciplines as developmental psychology, sociology, educational policy, criminology/criminal justice, child and school psychology, and media law.

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.