Serassis / Kania / Albrecht (Eds.) Images of Crime
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Serassis / Kania / Albrecht (Eds.) Images of Crime III Kriminologische Forschungsberichte Herausgegeben von Hans-Jörg Albrecht und Günther Kaiser Band K 144 Images of Crime III Representations of Crime and the Criminal Telemach Serassis / Harald Kania / Hans-Jörg Albrecht (Eds.) sdfghjk Duncker & Humblot ! Berlin Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. DOI https://doi.org/10.30709/978-3-86113-096-6 Alle Rechte vorbehalten © 2008 Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V. c/o Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Strafrecht Günterstalstraße 73, 79100 Freiburg i.Br. http://www.mpicc.de Vertrieb in Gemeinschaft mit Duncker & Humblot GmbH, Berlin http://www.duncker-humblot.de Cover picture: George ’Crime79©’ Ibanez Druck: Stückle Druck und Verlag, Stückle-Straße 1, 77955 Ettenheim Printed in Germany ISSN 1861-5937 ISBN 978-3-86113-096-6 (Max-Planck-Institut) ISBN 978-3-428-13058-0 (Duncker & Humblot) Gedruckt auf alterungsbeständigem (säurefreiem) Papier entsprechend ISO 9706 Preface Robert Reiner When Ioriginally agreed to write thePrefacefor this third volumeofthe Images of Crime series on ‘Representations of Crimeand the Criminal’, it was my intention to praise avaluable andflourishinginitiative. Yet it seems, sadly, that my role is theob- verse of Shakespeare’s Mark Antony. Icametopraise the series,not to bury it – but unfortunately my role seemstohave become that of valedictorian.The series was valuable and vitallyimportant becauseitembodied aconception of criminologythat has beensomethingofanendangeredspecies in the last three decades of neo-liberal triumphalism, and remains imperilleddespite the weakeningofmarketfundament- alism sincecreditcrunchedlastyear. The editors of the firstvolume, published in the first yearofthe millennium,de- clared itssubject matter to be the examination of ‘representations of crimeand the criminal in science, the arts and themedia’,anagendathatthe Preface to thatvolume described as ‘rather understudied’. This is in my view less true now thanitwas then, with the proliferation of studies of crime and the media, and thebuzz around the cul- turalcriminology perspective.But what Ithink was even more valuable than the idea of analysing images of crime, was the series’commitmenttoahighly eclectic appro- ach, ‘interdisciplinary as well as transnational’ to quotethe originalPreface again, and strongly committed to acritical perspective. Thevolumes themselves were exciting and stimulating in large partbecause they broughttogetherscholarsfromawide rangeofcountries and adiversity of discipli- nes, including not only criminology – itself of course a‘rendezvous’ subject for many different perspectives as David Downes memorably referred to it – butalsosociolo- gy,psychology, psychoanalysis,philosophy, politics, literature, law, architecture.The topics in this third volumeare characteristic of the varietyinthe previous two books. They encompass abroad array of conceptionsofcrime, criminals, and crimecontrol strategies, from constructions of images of criminalityinthe discipline of criminolo- gy itself, through those implied in public discourse and penalpolicy, to the mass me- dia and popular and serious literature. VI Preface The title of the volumes, Images of Crime,ratherundersellsthe richness of what they contain.The connecting thread between the disparate topics and treatments is that they allsomehow relate to representations of crime. Yet in aloosely coupled and eclectic waytheyalsomount acollective challenge to the dominantdiscourse about crimeand control in neo-liberalism.AsIhave triedtoshowinmyrecent book Law and Order: An Honest Citizen’s Guide to Crime and Control (Polity, 2007), neo- liberalism is responsible both foraggravatedproblemsofcrimeand violence, and al- so forpublicand policy responsesthatthreatenhumaneand democratic values. In the media, politicaldiscourse and the prevailing social imaginary, crimeisasummation of all thatisfeared in an increasingly insecureworld,but is never questionedorana- lysed: all that matters is that politicians,policing and penal practitioners get tough on it. For all thelip-serve to notions of realismand what works,this is alargely futile, symbolic endeavour. Understanding the complexities of crime, even pledgesto‘gettough’ on thecau- ses,have been side-lined. So the Images of Crime series’ commitment to amulti- disciplinary and criticalexcavation of ideas of crimeremains vitally apposite, how- ever much it is arather quixotic battle against the dominant currents of our time. It is very much to be hoped that, again reversing Mark Antony, the good it did is not inter- red withthe series,but lives after it. Ibelieve that thestrengthofthe scholarlycontri- butions in these volumes will indeedlead to theirbeing referenced and remembered as significantlandmarks in critical criminology. Table of Contents ROBERT REINER Preface...................................................................................................................V TELEMACH SERASSIS,HARALD KANIA &HANS-JÖRG ALBRECHT Introduction............................................................................................................1 NILS CHRISTIE &HEDDA GIERTSEN When SexualityLostits DiscipliningPower: Changes in Conditions for Control .................................................................................................................9 JAYNE MOONEY &JOCK YOUNG Youth,Moral Panicand LateModernity .............................................................21 NIKOS PARASKEVOPOULOS Targeting Majorities:New OrientationsofPenal Control...................................27 RONNIE LIPPENS Tribal Images, Fashionable Deviance, andCulturalDistinction: NotesonCriminologicalChange.............................................................................45 ANTHOZOE CHAIDOU Images of ViolenceinEveryday Life..................................................................57 KLAUS BOTT,KERSTIN REICH &HANS-JÜRGEN KERNER Images of ‘Crime’ from Kindergarten to High School: Development and DifferentiationofConceptsofCrimeand Criminals in the Early Life Course among Young People in Germany.......................................................................69 JÖRG HUPFELD Men’sand Women’s Theories about theCauses of Crime:The Influence of Severity and Type of Offence on Intentions to Punish....................................89 MICHAEL BOCK The Selective Perception of Domestic Violence................................................105 DANIEL VYLETA From CrimeScience to Detective Fiction: The CaseofAgathaChristie ..........119 JAN ALBER The Ideological Underpinnings of Prisonsand theirInmatesfrom Charles Dickens’s Novels to Twentieth-CenturyFilm......................................133 VIII TableofContents PAUL MASON Hollywood’s Prison Film:TowardsaDiscursive RegimeofImprisonment.....149 MONIKA FLUDERNIK &MARTIN BRANDENSTEIN Images of Crimeand the German Justice SysteminGerman Trial Soaps ........165 GABRIO FORTI ‘Public Harm’inthe Media Selection of Crimes: ADiscussionofaRecent ResearchProject in Light of CesareBeccaria’sPhilosophy..............................183 AUTHORS ............................................................................................................209 Introduction Telemach Serassis, Harald Kania &Hans-JörgAlbrecht “We look forward to continuing the Images of Crime project – not onlydoesitraise important issues and bringtogether scholars from different countries and disciplines, but it is also apleasure working on!” With this phraseended our introduction to the second volumeofImages of Crime.1 Unfortunately, things don’t always turn out as we wish:The scholars were present, with their ideas and contributions, the pleasurewas still there, but the times they are a-changin’.** It’s rather ironic, butinanera when critical discourse is most needed and the incentivesare multiplying, it’s becomingmoreand more ar- duoustoproduce thiskindofdiscourse.Robert Reiner concluded hisflattering review of ImagesofCrime II*** with the exhortation “Criminologists of the world unite – you have nothing to lose but your researchgrants”.Yet,itseems thatre- search grants are an important stake, and on the other hand, there is much more to be lost when you try to raise issues whichare not mainstream or even tolerable – Voltaire must be turning in his grave!**** In such an environment and under rather unfavourable circumstances, Images III appears as the swan song of avery promising and – we darebelieve – veryfertile project. Againateamofgreat colleagues – older and younger – shared our cause and embraced the endeavour. The result is acollectionofarticles, covering awide range of subjects, which contribute significantlytothe respective debate. We chose not to group the contributions – since the boundaries are not always so clear – but ___________ 1 Hans-JörgAlbrecht, Telemach Serassis &HaraldKania (eds.), Images of CrimeII: Representations of Crimeand the Criminal in Politics, Society, theMedia and the Arts, EditionIuscrim,Freiburg, 2004. ** Bob Dylan, Columbia, 1964. *** Crime,Media, Culture,vol.1/no.2,2005, p. 225. **** Though he wasaware of the fact that “it is dangeroustoberight in matters where established men are wrong”(‘Catalogue pour la plupart des écrivains français qui ontparu dans Le Siècle de Louis XIV, pour servir àl'histoire littéraire