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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
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Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: September 25, 2008
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ 385 Media, Crime, Criminal Justice

You will be held accountable for the readings and discussion questions listed here. There will be no "testing." That means that you will not have to live in anxious anticipation of what we will ask and how much you will have to know. Instead, we will provide weekly discussion questions, lectures, essays, and concepts we feel that you should know as a result of having taken this course. You will assure us of that learning and receive your grade for the questions and concepts about which you choose to write and talk with us. In addition you will find detailed explanations and examples on our grading policies in the first week's reading.

* * * * *

Week 5: Week of September 28, 2008

Monday, September 29th - Sign up for your "First Meeting."

Friday, October 3rd - Bring crayons, markers and/or color pencils.

Topic: Crime & Criminality

Preparatory Readings:



• Potter and Kappeler. Constructing Crime. - .
• Rafter . Shots in the Mirror. Chapter 3.
• Surette . Media, Crime and Criminal Justice . Chapter 3.
• Documentary : "Outfoxed" (to be shown in class)
  
  
• Metaphor and Theory. Read the Blind Men and the Elephant fable. Think about how this fable relates to the course.
• "theory, policy, practice"
• W.I. Thomas "Definition of the Situation
  
  

Lecture related links:



• Sociology of Knowledge Files
• Ray Surette's website
• Internet Movie Database




Concepts to be covered:



• predatory criminality
• psychotic super-male criminals
• criminogenic media
• copycat crime
• media-oriented terrorism
• infotainment



Discussion Questions:




Note: Incorporate this week's documentary into your answers.

1. How much crime and violence in society would disappear if there were no crime-and-justice media? [Surette, p. 88]
2. Do you feel that some types of media (films or books, for example) are more criminogenic than others? Is some content more dangerous than other content? Describe the content you think is most dangerous, and explain why you think it is. [Surette, p. 88]
3. What public policies would you support to reduce media criminogenc influences? What policies would you be adamantly against? [Surette, p. 88]
4. Why does the predator criminal enjoy such lasting popularity? [Surette, p. 88]



Suggested Creative Measures:




Note: Start thinking about ideas for your creative measures. Must relate to "media, crime, and the criminal justice system." Must be approved before starting your creative measure. Cannot be something that you are doing or have done for another course. Research cannot be 100% online (i.e., google, askjeeves). Must conduct library research using scholarly works, (not the popular press -- Time Magazine, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated). No term papers! Allow time to dialogue and present your creative measure in class. Email me your idea.



• Make an "explosion box/card" that focuses on this week's topic.
• View the movies suggested in Chapter 3 of Rafter: "Psycho," "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "The Boston Strangler," "Dirty Harry," "White Heat," and "Bonnie and Clyde." Pick one of the following topics to explore further: slashers, serial killers, and psycho movies.
• Watch "The Silence of the Lambs" as a basis to discuss predatory criminals in the media. [Surette, p. 88]
• Examine recent "copy cat crimes." What makes them copy cats? Why.



Recommended Readings:



• Karen Boyle. Media and Violence.
• Dennis Rome. Black Demons: The Media's Depiction of the African American Male Criminal Stereotype. [only if you have not read it for another course]
• Philip Simpson. Tracking the Serial Killer through Contemporary American Film and Fiction.
• Valerie Callahan. Feeding the Fear of Crime:Crime-related media and Support for Three Strikes.
  
  
• Internet Movie Database
  
• Lawrence Lessig. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford University, has made his book free online.