Crime, Media, & Politics
Instructor of Record (Fall 2023, Fall 2024)
Images and discussions of crime and justice are everywhere. Local news publications and channels are filled with stories of local crimes while national news outlets frequently cover sensational crimes, including mass shootings. Politicians argue about rising crime rates, and also about injustices or problems with our criminal justice system, including debates over the death penalty, drugs, ‘tough on crime’ laws, ‘inner-city’ violence, ‘white collar’ crime, and police bias. Crime is also a central cultural focus: we seem fascinated by movies and television shows focusing on or featuring criminal offenders and victims, law enforcement, lawyers and judges, and prisons.
In this course we will survey, critique, and analyze the construction and consequences of portrayals of crime and justice in the media and politics. The course can be summarized by a series of (seemingly) simple questions:
In this course we will survey, critique, and analyze the construction and consequences of portrayals of crime and justice in the media and politics. The course can be summarized by a series of (seemingly) simple questions:
- How are crime and justice portrayed in popular entertainment, in the news media, and in political discourse? How is this done, both historically and contemporarily?
- Why is crime and justice portrayed or framed in these ways in each of these domains? Who is served by such framings?
- What are the consequences of these portrayals and framings of crime and justice?
- What are the roles of identities and social categories like race/ethnicity, gender identity, and class in such portrayals?
