This cutting-edge edited collection brings together 17 scholarly essays on two of cinema and television’s most enduring and powerful themes: law and crime. With contributions by many of the most prominent scholars in law, sociology, criminology, and film, Framing Law and Crime offers a critical survey of a variety of genres and media, integrating descriptions of technique with critical analysis, and incorporating historical and socio-political critique. The first set of essays brings together accounts of the history of the Law and Cinema Movement; the groundbreaking genre of “post-apocalyptic fiction;” and the policy-setting genesis of a Canadian documentary. The second section of the book turns to the examination of a range of international or global films, with an eye to assessing the strengths, frailties, and possible functions of law, as depicted in fictional cinema. After an international focus in the second section, the third section focuses on law and crime in American film and television, inclusive of both fictional and documentary modes of narration. This section’s expansion beyond film narratives to include television series attempts to broaden the scope of the edited collection, in terms of media discussed; it is also a nod to how the big screen, although still a dominant force in American popular culture, now has to compete, to some extent, with the small screen, for influence over the collective American popular cultural imaginary. The fourth section, titled brings together various chapters that attempt to instantiate how a “Gothic Criminology” could be useful, as an interpretative framework in analyzing depictions of law and crime in film and television. The fifth and final section covers issues of pedagogy, epistemology, and ethics in relation to moving images of law and crime. Merging wide-ranging analyses with nuanced scholarly interpretations, Framing Law and Crime examines key concepts and showcases original research reflecting the latest interdisciplinary trends in the scholarship of the moving image. It addresses, not only scholars, but also fans, and will heighten the appreciation of connoisseurs and newcomers to these topics alike.

In a world in which media images of crime and deviance proliferate, where every facet of offending is reflected in a ‘vast hall of mirrors’, Framing Crime: Cultural Criminology and the Image makes sense of the increasingly blurred line between the real and the virtual. Images of crime and crime control have become almost as 'real' as crime and criminal justice itself. The meaning of both crime and crime control now resides, not solely in the essential – and essentially false – factuality of crime rates or arrest records, but also in the contested processes of symbolic display, cultural interpretation, and representational negotiation. It is essential, then, that criminologists are closely attuned to the various ways in which crime is imagined, constructed and framed within modern society. Framing Crime responds to this demand with a collection of papers aimed at helping the reader to understand the ways in which the contemporary ‘story of crime’ is constructed and promulgated through the image. It also provides the relevant analytical and research tools to unearth the hidden social and ideological concerns that frequently underpin images of crime, violence and transgression. Framing Crime will be of interest to students and academics in the fields of criminology, crime and the media, and sociology.

Avoid Major Investigative TrapsWhat causes competent and dedicated investigators to make avoidable mistakes, jeopardizing the successful resolution of their cases? Authored by a 21-year police veteran and university research professor, Criminal Investigative Failures comprehensively defines and discusses the causes and problems most common to faile

Meet Edward Wayne Edwards, the most evil serial killer you've never heard of. In this chilling case-by-case analysis and story of the killer's life, former detective John A. Cameron argues that Edwards was not only responsible for the five torture-murders he confessed to and was eventually convicted for, but for dozens more across the U.S., over decades. Tracing the murderer's life from his beginnings as a misguided boy who witnessed his mother's suicide, Cameron conducted hundreds of interviews, including exchanging phone calls and letters with the killer and interviewing his family. The result is a complex, terrifying, and fascinating analysis of Edwards' travels across the U.S. in the periods of his life: as a young itinerant handy man, an escaped fugitive on the run after a jailbreak, and of all things, an author on tour to promote a book about his life as a reformed criminal, followed years later by his arrest and confession. Each part of this haunting timeline is tied by Cameron to murder cases in the areas Edwards lived, based on his MO and his sick joy in taunting police, attending trials on the cases, and getting people wrongfully convicted for the murders he claims he did. These cases and ties include links to the famed Zodiac Killer, and more.

While undocumented immigration is controversial, the general public is largely unfamiliar with the particulars of immigration policy. Given that public opinion on the topic is malleable, to what extent do mass media shape the public debate on immigration? In Framing Immigrants, political scientists Chris Haynes, Jennifer Merolla, and Karthick Ramakrishnan explore how conservative, liberal, and mainstream news outlets frame and discuss undocumented immigrants. Drawing from original voter surveys, they show that how the media frames immigration has significant consequences for public opinion and has implications for the passage of new immigration policies. The authors analyze media coverage of several key immigration policy issues—including mass deportations, comprehensive immigration reform, and measures focused on immigrant children, such as the DREAM Act—to chart how news sources across the ideological spectrum produce specific “frames” for the immigration debate. In the past few years, liberal and mainstream outlets have tended to frame immigrants lacking legal status as “undocumented” (rather than “illegal”) and to approach the topic of legalization through human-interest stories, often mentioning children. Conservative outlets, on the other hand, tend to discuss legalization using impersonal statistics and invoking the rule of law. Yet, regardless of the media’s ideological positions, the authors’ surveys show that “negative” frames more strongly influence public support for different immigration policies than do positive frames. For instance, survey participants who were exposed to language portraying immigrants as law-breakers seeking “amnesty” tended to oppose legalization measures. At the same time, support for legalization was higher when participants were exposed to language referring to immigrants living in the United States for a decade or more. Framing Immigrants shows that despite heated debates on immigration across the political aisle, the general public has yet to form a consistent position on undocumented immigrants. By analyzing how the media influences public opinion, this book provides a valuable resource for immigration advocates, policymakers, and researchers.

In a world in which media images of crime and deviance proliferate, where every facet of offending is reflected in a ‘vast hall of mirrors’, Framing Crime: Cultural Criminology and the Image makes sense of the increasingly blurred line between the real and the virtual. Images of crime and crime control have become almost as 'real' as crime and criminal justice itself. The meaning of both crime and crime control now resides, not solely in the essential – and essentially false – factuality of crime rates or arrest records, but also in the contested processes of symbolic display, cultural interpretation, and representational negotiation. It is essential, then, that criminologists are closely attuned to the various ways in which crime is imagined, constructed and framed within modern society. Framing Crime responds to this demand with a collection of papers aimed at helping the reader to understand the ways in which the contemporary ‘story of crime’ is constructed and promulgated through the image. It also provides the relevant analytical and research tools to unearth the hidden social and ideological concerns that frequently underpin images of crime, violence and transgression. Framing Crime will be of interest to students and academics in the fields of criminology, crime and the media, and sociology.

Monsters, Law, Crime, an edited collection composed of essays written by prominent U.S. and international experts in Law, Criminology, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication and Film, constitutes a rigorous attempt to explore fertile interdisciplinary inquiries into “monsters” and “monster-talk,” and law and crime. This edited collection explores and updates contemporary discussions of the emergent and evolving frontiers of monster theory in relation to cutting-edge research on law and crime as extensions of a Gothic Criminology. This theoretical framework was initially developed by Caroline Joan “Kay” S. Picart, a Philosophy and Film professor turned Attorney and Law professor, and Cecil Greek, a Sociologist (Picart and Greek 2008). Picart and Greek proposed a Gothic Criminology to analyze the fertile synapses connecting the “real” and the “reel” in the flow of Gothic metaphors and narratives that abound around criminological phenomena that populate not only popular culture but also academic and public policy discourses. Picart's edited collection adapts the framework to focus predominantly on law and the social sciences.