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Book part
Publication date: 2 August 2023

Joanna Bourke

Myra Hindley is typically described as an ‘icon of evil’. In the 1960s, Hindley and her boyfriend Ian Brady sexually tortured and murdered at least two girls and three boys, aged…

Abstract

Myra Hindley is typically described as an ‘icon of evil’. In the 1960s, Hindley and her boyfriend Ian Brady sexually tortured and murdered at least two girls and three boys, aged between 10 and 17 years, in the Manchester area of the UK. All except one were sexually assaulted. She has provoked a huge amount of public commentary for more than three and a half decades after her conviction. This chapter asks how Hindley's actions were understood and interpreted at the time. Central themes are the concept ‘evil’, sexual violence, pornography, permissive society and patriarchy, as refracted through gender and class.

Details

The Emerald International Handbook of Feminist Perspectives on Women’s Acts of Violence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-255-6

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 June 2016

Mark Pettigrew

– The purpose of this paper is to explore supposed inevitable personal decline for long-term prisoners, particularly those serving a sentence of life without parole.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore supposed inevitable personal decline for long-term prisoners, particularly those serving a sentence of life without parole.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the prison records of a life without parole sentenced prisoner.

Findings

Findings suggest that prisoner deterioration is not inevitable in a whole life prison sentence.

Research limitations/implications

Findings are based on one account, of a female prisoner.

Practical implications

Distinct services and support are required for those with a natural life prison sentence.

Originality/value

To date, there is limited research of prisoners serving life without parole, particularly the mental health implications of denying a prisoner future parole.

Details

International Journal of Prisoner Health, vol. 12 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-9200

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 2 August 2023

Belinda Morrissey

Murder is overwhelmingly a male affair (UNODC Global Study on Homicide, 2019). So, when women kill, their crimes gain a lot of attention and even more hysteria in both courts and…

Abstract

Murder is overwhelmingly a male affair (UNODC Global Study on Homicide, 2019). So, when women kill, their crimes gain a lot of attention and even more hysteria in both courts and media. This chapter will analyse the cases of Sally Challen, Belinda van Krevel and Maxine Carr to show that portrayals of women who are involved in killing exist on a continuum, from abused victims to those simply ‘born evil’ to the incomprehension of those whose crimes render them outside society altogether; or in simple terms, from sad, to bad, to mad. In all cases, the agency of the women is presented as incomplete or impossible, indicating our inability in heteropatriarchy to acknowledge that women are as capable as men of exhibiting the full spectrum of human behaviour. Denying agency, particularly to violent women, allows Western societies to avoid having to face and thus, attempt to understand, the female capacity for aggression.

Details

The Emerald International Handbook of Feminist Perspectives on Women’s Acts of Violence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-255-6

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 27 January 2022

Helen Gavin

Abstract

Details

Women and the Abuse of Power
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-335-9

Abstract

Details

The Spectacle of Criminal Justice: Mass Media and the Criminal Trial
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-823-2

Abstract

Details

The Emerald International Handbook of Feminist Perspectives on Women’s Acts of Violence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-255-6

Book part
Publication date: 28 May 2021

Francine Tyler

Purpose: One of the objectives of this research was to identify whether “mad”, “bad” and “sad” frames, identified in modern news reporting in other Western nations, are also…

Abstract

Purpose: One of the objectives of this research was to identify whether “mad”, “bad” and “sad” frames, identified in modern news reporting in other Western nations, are also evident in historical newspapers in New Zealand, a nation geographically distant. Methodology/approach: Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze reporting of multiple-child murders in New Zealand between 1870 and 1930. Content was sourced from a digitized newspaper database and identified media frames were analyzed under the categories of “mad”, “bad” and “sad”. Findings: Historical New Zealand media constructed “mad,” “bad,” and “sad” frames for the killers, however, instead of being classified with a single frame many killers were portrayed using a combination of two or even three. In some cases, media ignored facts which could have provided an alternative portrayal of the killers. In other cases, no obvious frames were employed. Research limitations: This research does not include analysis of media frame building in modern news reporting. Originality/value: Media construction of frames for multiple-child killers in historical New Zealand news reporting has not been explored before.

Details

Mass Mediated Representations of Crime and Criminality
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-759-3

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 31 August 2018

Matthew Spokes, Jack Denham and Benedikt Lehmann

Abstract

Details

Death, Memorialization and Deviant Spaces
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-574-6

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2004

Azrini Wahidin and Jason Powell

Drawing from Foucault’s methodological terms of archaeology and genealogy this article critically engages with understanding the inter‐relationship between old age and prison…

Abstract

Drawing from Foucault’s methodological terms of archaeology and genealogy this article critically engages with understanding the inter‐relationship between old age and prison life.We draw out the relevance of a Foucauldian paradigm for investigating how penal discourses and actual prisoners experiences exemplify issues of power, knowledge and surveillance in institutional settings. We draw out how violence impinges on the lives of older people in prisons by pointing out the implications of such experiences for both a critical ontology and epistemology of ageing. It is by transgressing the boundaries of the conventional understanding of the prison and by casting a critical gaze that will gain greater understanding of how elder abuse in secure settings goes unregulated.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 24 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 March 2013

David Wilson and Elizabeth Yardley

This paper aims to respond to a number of pleas for interdisciplinary – or integrative – approaches to psychology and criminology in exploring the value of simultaneously applying…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to respond to a number of pleas for interdisciplinary – or integrative – approaches to psychology and criminology in exploring the value of simultaneously applying micro and macro analytical tools.

Design/methodology/approach

The study reported in this paper applies both the revised psychopathy checklist (PCL‐R) and structural analysis to the historical case of Mary Ann Cotton, a nineteenth century British serial killer.

Findings

Findings suggest that multi‐level approaches to analysis are valuable in developing holistic understandings into serial murder, which are appreciative of both the psychological characteristics of the individual offender and their location in the broader social and historical context. Micro analysis would now label Cotton a psychopath, but we need to broaden the analysis and to consider macro questions related to gender, poverty and the wider social structure in which Cotton operated.

Research limitations/implications

In the absence of an interview with the offender, this study has supplemented alternative materials and as such, prompts debate into the application of contemporary tools to historical cases.

Practical implications

The findings imply that the application of PCL‐R alongside structural analytical tools reveals more in‐depth and socially rooted insights into the study of historical cases of serial murder and as such, provide a valuable addition to both criminological and the psychological methodology frameworks.

Originality/value

This research prompts academic debate within psychology and criminology into the potential value of a combined, integrative approach to historical cases drawing upon both micro and macro analytical tools.

Details

Journal of Criminal Psychology, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2009-3829

Keywords

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