Representations of Law, Rights and Criminal Justice
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Electronic versions
DOI
Criminal justice and its institutions are key objects of popular culture and attract extensive media attention. The portrayal of the justice system, its rules, professions, and institutions has been invigorated with the invention of new media technology. The authorities’ reaction to wrong doing has proven not less exciting to the audience than the criminal acts themselves. French sociologist Emile Durkheim emphasized that every member of society has an interest in social cohesion and wishes to see perpetrators appropriately punished. The media plays to this basic inclination. From the reactions of the justice system to crime people take clues not only for its effectiveness but the public also wants to see its basic values represented in the work of officials and their decisions. Therefore, aspects of procedural and distributive justice are picked up by popular imagination and exploited to the full by media producers. Beyond recognition that media depictions of criminal justice will follow media conventions and will therefore be distorted in systematic ways, it has to be acknowledged that those representations and the expectations they formed have become a major force in society. Political repercussions and influences on how crime is dealt with are a consequence.
Keywords
- courts, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, law film, courtroom drama, TV law series
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology |
Place of Publication | New York |
Publisher | Oxford University Press USA |
Pages | 1-27 |
Number of pages | 27 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Research outputs (13)
- Accepted/In press
Character Development and Legal Message in Popular Culture
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Introduction: Law and War in Popular Culture
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
- Published
Law and War in Popular Culture
Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
Prof. activities and awards (15)
The process is the punishment “Anatomie of a Fall” in the context of the courtroom drama genre
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Representing Law and the Post Office Scandal
Activity: Talk or presentation › Oral presentation
What Film and Television Teach about Law
Activity: Talk or presentation › Oral presentation