Books and journals Case studies Expert Briefings Open Access
Advanced search

Search results

1 – 10 of 10
To view the access options for this content please click here
Book part
Publication date: 8 April 2010

Here be dragons: Lombroso, the gothic, and social control

Nicole Rafter and Per Ystehede

Purpose – To propose a radically new way to understand the science of Cesare Lombroso, the first scientific criminologist, and thus to broaden understanding of the origins…

HTML
PDF (391 KB)
EPUB (435 KB)

Abstract

Purpose – To propose a radically new way to understand the science of Cesare Lombroso, the first scientific criminologist, and thus to broaden understanding of the origins of criminology.

Approach – Using both comparative and analytical methods, we locate Lombroso's science of criminal anthropology in the context of late nineteenth-century Gothicism.

Findings – Lombroso's born criminals were Gothic creations, holdovers (like the crumbling castles of Gothic novels) from an earlier, less civilized period, human gargoyles (like the characters of Gothic romances) redolent of death and the uncanny. Moreover, Lombroso's Gothic science, with its depictions of physically and psychologically abnormal criminals, contributed to a transformation in social control by scientifically legitimating the social exclusion and intensified control of those perceived as morally monstrous.

Originality and value – This study creates a new framework for understanding Lombroso's contributions to criminological science and social control. Moreover, in a way that is almost unique in criminology, it combines historical research in literature and art with the history of science.

Research implications – To a degree not usually recognized, a science and its social control ramifications can be shaped by the artistic sensibilities and cultural traditions of the period in which it develops.

Details

Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2010)0000014015
ISBN: 978-1-84950-733-2

To view the access options for this content please click here
Book part
Publication date: 2 July 2020

Feminist Perspectives in Criminology: Early Feminist Perspectives

Loraine Gelsthorpe

This chapter focuses on the early history of feminist explorations in criminology in the UK in particular, but with reference to developments elsewhere. The chapter…

HTML
PDF (526 KB)
EPUB (27 KB)

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the early history of feminist explorations in criminology in the UK in particular, but with reference to developments elsewhere. The chapter discusses the achievements of early feminist perspectives in criminology and assesses their impact in terms of ‘transforming and transgressing’ the criminological enterprise. In particular, the author focuses on the case for transformations in traditional research methodologies and looks at the different ways in which feminist writers in criminology grappled with the question of how to produce good quality knowledge. The chapter takes a chronological approach, identifying developments pre-1960s in a phase which might be described as an ‘awakening’ and then describing initiatives in the 1960s and 1970s. The discovery that ‘woman’ was a conceptual term which could be incorporated into the criminological framework really took off in the 1970s with the publication of Carol Smart’s pioneering work. Notwithstanding faster developments in other disciplines, slowly, mainstream criminology took stock of feminism’s early claims.

Details

The Emerald Handbook of Feminism, Criminology and Social Change
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78769-955-720201004
ISBN: 978-1-78769-956-4

Keywords

  • Feminist perspectives
  • woman
  • Carol Smart
  • epistemology
  • standpointism
  • transformation

To view the access options for this content please click here
Book part
Publication date: 8 April 2010

List of contributors

HTML
PDF (42 KB)

Abstract

Details

Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2010)0000014002
ISBN: 978-1-84950-733-2

To view the access options for this content please click here
Book part
Publication date: 8 April 2010

Introduction: The criminology of popular culture

Mathieu Deflem

Crime and social control present important issues that move and affect large segments of society. Whether we consider the impact of criminal events in terms of…

HTML
PDF (56 KB)

Abstract

Crime and social control present important issues that move and affect large segments of society. Whether we consider the impact of criminal events in terms of victimization, the construction of deviance into criminalized acts, or the many socially relevant aspects related to criminal justice policies and other social control activities, crime and justice are matters that deserve our most serious attention. It is largely for this reason that scholars develop astute theoretical models and sophisticated methodologies to study crime and social control in their many significant components. Yet, the world of popular culture, which we tend to associate with playfulness and fun, has also embraced themes related to crime and its control. It is perhaps a sign of the very earnestness associated with crime and social control that these themes are also dealt with in the social institutions of entertainment. The study of such portrayals of crime and criminal justice in popular culture is the focus of the present volume.

Details

Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2010)0000014003
ISBN: 978-1-84950-733-2

To view the access options for this content please click here
Book part
Publication date: 8 April 2010

The Dark Knight: Constructing Images of Good vs. Evil in an Age of Anxiety

Nickie D. Phillips

Purpose – This chapter explores the commercially successful and critically acclaimed motion picture The Dark Knight as a cultural artifact that both reflects and…

HTML
PDF (189 KB)
EPUB (76 KB)

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter explores the commercially successful and critically acclaimed motion picture The Dark Knight as a cultural artifact that both reflects and influences popular notions of crime and justice in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Design/methodology/approach – From a cultural criminological perspective, this chapter examines ideological messages pertaining to crime and justice presented in the film, including the framing of conflict as one between good and evil, justifications for extralegal violence, and reliance on absolute power as a means of social control. This chapter assesses reactions to the film as a “ritual moral exercise” in which viewers assuage their anxieties and insecurities in a post-9/11 world.

Findings – This chapter investigates representations of justice in the film, including the construction of the villain as “other,” the perception of constitutional procedures as impediments to justice, the embrace of vigilantism, and the willingness to sacrifice transparency of government authorities while accepting widespread surveillance in a time of crisis. Such themes resonated with some viewers who interpreted the film as offering explicit vindication for many of the questionable tactics used in the war on terror.

Originality/value – This chapter argues that popular media, specifically fictional entertainment media, play a role in reflecting and informing collective sentiments of justice. It offers an analysis of The Dark Knight as celebrating individualized, American-style retributive justice in a post-9/11 context.

Details

Popular Culture, Crime and Social Control
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2010)0000014005
ISBN: 978-1-84950-733-2

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 1 March 1996

Extending the clan: Graduate assistantships in the reference department

Nina K. Stephenson and Linda St. Clair

Reference librarians in today's academic libraries are typically confronted with a growing array of simultaneous demands. Strained financial resources, staffing shortages…

HTML
PDF (852 KB)

Abstract

Reference librarians in today's academic libraries are typically confronted with a growing array of simultaneous demands. Strained financial resources, staffing shortages, the challenge of adding new services, the explosion of information, and the electronic revolution have complicated (and sometimes compromised) the delivery of quality services. In response to many universities' growing commitment to offer nontraditional degree programs, reference staff are also assuming more responsibility for night and weekend instruction.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049286
ISSN: 0090-7324

To view the access options for this content please click here
Book part
Publication date: 5 December 2007

Remorse and Psychopathy at the Penalty Phase of the Capital Trial – How Psychiatry's View of “Moral Insanity” Helps Build the Case for Death

Richard Weisman

This chapter documents how the shift in psychiatric representation from the “morally insane” perpetrator of the 19th century to the modern psychopath or person with…

HTML
PDF (204 KB)

Abstract

This chapter documents how the shift in psychiatric representation from the “morally insane” perpetrator of the 19th century to the modern psychopath or person with anti-social personality disorder involves a recasting of the offender from someone afflicted with an illness whose criminal misconduct is merely a symptom of their disorder to someone whose criminal misconduct is perceived as an expression of their true character. Drawing upon recent case law, the article then shows how prosecutors deploy this modern psychiatric reconfiguring during the penalty phase of the US capital trial to persuade jurors to decide in favor of death over life without parole. Central to the building of this narrative is the reframing of the offenders’ silences as well as what are taken as their unconvincing attempts to show remorse as evidence of a pathology whose primary manifestation is the incapacity to feel or experience moral emotions. Applying but also modifying Harold Garfinkel's work on degradation ceremonies, the chapter shows how the pathologizing of the offender's lack of remorse involves a rite of passage in which he or she is symbolically demoted from someone worthy of life in spite of their grievous crime to someone for whom death is the only appropriate penalty.

Details

Special Issue Law and Society Reconsidered
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1059-4337(07)00008-7
ISBN: 978-0-7623-1460-7

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 8 January 2018

The tattoo as a document

Kristina Sundberg and Ulrika Kjellman

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how tattoos can be considered documents of an individual’s identity, experiences, status and actions in a given context…

HTML
PDF (347 KB)

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how tattoos can be considered documents of an individual’s identity, experiences, status and actions in a given context, relating to ideas stating that archival records/documents can be of many types and have different functions. The paper also wants to discuss how tattoos serve as a bank of memories and evidence on a living body; in this respect, the tattooed body can be viewed as an archive, which immortalises and symbolises the events and relationships an individual has experienced in his or her life, and this in relation to a specific social and cultural context.

Design/methodology/approach

To discuss these issues, the authors take the point of departure in the tattoo practice of Russian/Soviet prisoners. The tattoo material referred to is from the “Russian Criminal Tattoo Archive”. The archive is created by FUEL Design and Publishing that holds the meanings of the tattoos as explained in Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume I-III. The authors exemplify this practice with two photographs of Soviet/Russian prisoners and their tattoos. By using a semiotic analysis that contextualises these images primarily through literature studies, the authors try to say something about what meaning these tattoos might carry.

Findings

The paper argues that it is possible to view the tattoo as a document, bound to an individual, reflecting his/her life and a given social and cultural context. As documents, they provide the individual with the essential evidence of his or her endeavours in a criminal environment. They also function as an individual’s memory of events and relationships (hardships and comradeships). Subsequently, the tattoos help create and sustain an identity. Finally, the tattoo presents itself as a document that may represent a critique of a dominant society or simply the voice of the alienated.

Originality/value

By showing how tattoos can be seen as documents and memory records, this paper brings a new kind of item into information and archival studies. It also uses theories and concepts from information and archival studies to put new light on the functions of tattoos.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 74 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2017-0043
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

  • Archives
  • Documentation
  • Documents
  • Memory
  • Evidence
  • Tattooing

To view the access options for this content please click here
Book part
Publication date: 27 October 2017

Gendered Prisons, Gendered Policy: Gender Subtext and the Prison Rape Elimination Act

Allison N. Gorga and Nicole Bouxsein Oehmen

Purpose: This chapter illuminates the ways in which the coherent arrangements of prisons contribute to variation in implementation, functioning, and consequences of a…

HTML
PDF (4.5 MB)
EPUB (182 KB)

Abstract

Purpose: This chapter illuminates the ways in which the coherent arrangements of prisons contribute to variation in implementation, functioning, and consequences of a purportedly gender neutral policy, the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), between women’s and men’s prisons.

Methodology/Approach: Guided by grounded theory, two waves of qualitative interviews with inmates, staff, and volunteers at two Midwest women’s prisons were conducted for a total of 61 interviews. Interviews were supplemented with archival data obtained from state historical archives, news outlets, and the Iowa Department of Corrections, as well as participant observation of prisoner advocacy group meetings and the Iowa Board of Corrections’ meetings, and a content analysis of an online discussion forum for correctional officers.

Findings: We find that the gender subtext of prisons shapes the way the PREA is perceived and implemented. Overall, we argue that due to founding logics that differentially shaped the coherent arrangements of men’s and women’s prisons, blanket policies operate differently in these institutions. The gender subtext of prisons, specifically the structural arrangements and cultural processes within women’s and men’s prisons form different landscapes in which the PREA is perceived, enforced, and responded to.

Practical Implications: Given these findings, we call for gender-informed policy that takes gender subtext into account but that also avoids the trap of statistical discrimination present in some gender responsive policies.

Details

Gender Panic, Gender Policy
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-212620170000024015
ISBN: 978-1-78743-203-1

Keywords

  • Qualitative Research
  • Prison Policy
  • Incarceration
  • Sexual Violence
  • Gendered Organizations

To view the access options for this content please click here
Article
Publication date: 1 January 1992

English/French building terms for surveyors

N.J. Foulds and P.F. Adams

Provides a glossary of some (around 150) English‐French andFrench‐English building and surveying terms. References the Technicalhelp to Exporters service, and three…

HTML
PDF (313 KB)

Abstract

Provides a glossary of some (around 150) English‐French and French‐English building and surveying terms. References the Technical help to Exporters service, and three specialist dictionaries dealing with architectural, real estate and building terms. Illustrates possible pitfalls of poor translation – ′hydraulic rams′ being translated in one firm′s technical literature as ′watery sheep.′

Details

Structural Survey, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/02630809210031735
ISSN: 0263-080X

Keywords

  • Architects
  • Building trade
  • France
  • Real estate
  • Structural surveys
  • Surveyors
  • United Kingdom

Access
Only content I have access to
Only Open Access
Year
  • Last 12 months (1)
  • All dates (10)
Content type
  • Book part (7)
  • Article (3)
1 – 10 of 10
Emerald Publishing
  • Opens in new window
  • Opens in new window
  • Opens in new window
  • Opens in new window
© 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited

Services

  • Authors Opens in new window
  • Editors Opens in new window
  • Librarians Opens in new window
  • Researchers Opens in new window
  • Reviewers Opens in new window

About

  • About Emerald Opens in new window
  • Working for Emerald Opens in new window
  • Contact us Opens in new window
  • Publication sitemap

Policies and information

  • Privacy notice
  • Site policies
  • Modern Slavery Act Opens in new window
  • Chair of Trustees governance statement Opens in new window
  • COVID-19 policy Opens in new window
Manage cookies

We’re listening — tell us what you think

  • Something didn’t work…

    Report bugs here

  • All feedback is valuable

    Please share your general feedback

  • Member of Emerald Engage?

    You can join in the discussion by joining the community or logging in here.
    You can also find out more about Emerald Engage.

Join us on our journey

  • Platform update page

    Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

  • Questions & More Information

    Answers to the most commonly asked questions here