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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: February 8, 2007
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 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 February 11, 2007

Due Wednesday, February 14th - Valentine Explosion Boxes

Topic: Crime and Criminality

Preparatory Readings:



• Rafter. Shots in the Mirror. Chapter 3.
• Surette. Media, Crime and Criminal Justice . Chapter 3.
  
  
• Potter and Kappeler. Constructing Crime . Chapters ---.
• Documentary: "---" (to be shown in class).
  
  

Lecture related links:



• Join the Yahoo Discussion Group with CSUDH students
  
  
• Ray Surette's website
  
• W.I. Thomas "Definition of the Situation
• Metaphor and Theory. Read the Blind Men and the Elephant fable. Think about how this fable relates to the course.




Concepts to be covered:



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



Discussion Questions:

Note: Be sure to incorporate the Surette and Rafter readings in 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: You should be well into the process of researching your creative measure/visual presentation topic, (i.e., reviewing the scholarly literature).


Your creative measure/visual presentation: 1) must relate to "media, crime, and the criminal justice system." 2) must be approved via email before starting. 3) cannot be something that you are doing or have done for another course. 4) 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! 5) Allow time to dialogue and present your creative measure in class (preferably before the March 2nd deadline).



• Make an "explosion box/card" that focuses on this week's topic, "Crime and Criminality."
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
• Internet Movie Database