Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture

Media, Crime and Racism draws together contributions from scholars at the leading edge of their field across three continents to present contemporary and longstanding debates exploring the roles played by media and the state in racialising crime and criminalising racialised minorities. Comprised of empirically rich accounts and theoretically informed analysis, this dynamic text offers readers a critical and in-depth examination of contemporary social and criminal justice issues as they pertain to racialised minorities and the media. Chapters demonstrate the myriad ways in which racialised 'others' experience demonisation, exclusion, racist abuse and violence licensed—and often induced—by the state and the media. Together, they also offer original and nuanced analysis of how these processes can be experienced differently dependent on geography, political context and local resistance. This collection critically reflects on a number of globally significant topics including the vilification of Muslim minorities, the portrayal of the refugee 'crisis' and the representations and resistance of Indigenous and Black communities. This volume demonstrates that processes of racialisation and criminalisation in media and the state cannot be understood without reference to how they are underscored and inflected by gender and power. Above all, the contributors to this volume demonstrate the resistance of racialised minorities in localised contexts across the globe: against racialisation and criminalisation and in pursuit of racial justice.

This book examines the media and cultural responses to the awful crimes of Brady and Hindley, whose murders provided a template for future media reporting on serial killers. It explores a wide variety of topics relating to the Moors Murders case including: the historical and geographical context of the murders, the reporting of the case and the unique features which have become standard for other murder cases e.g. nicknames for the serial killers, and it discusses the nature of evil and psychopaths and how they are represented in film, drama, novels and art. It also questions the ethics of the "serial killing industry" and how the modern cultural fixation on celebrity has extended to serial killers, and it explores the impact on the journalists and police officers from being involved in such cases including some interviews with them. The treatment of Brady and Hindley by the media also raises profound questions about the nature of punishment including the links between mental illness and crime and whether there is ever the prospect of redemption. This book draws on cultural studies, criminology, sociology and socio-legal studies to offers a multi-dimensional analysis of the impact of this case and then uses this as a basis for the analysis of more recent cases such as the crimes of Peter Sutcliffe and Harold Shipman.