Faculty Publications

Lights, Camera, State Crime

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Media depictions of state crime, Media representation, State crime

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture

Volume

14

Issue

4

First Page

330

Last Page

343

Abstract

Over the past two decades, a steady amount of research on state crime has been conducted. While most of this research has been documented and distributed in written form, scholars have also begun to make better use of the mass media to disseminate information on state crime. Unfortunately, no one has yet chosen to write about films that focus predominantly on state crime. In order to understand this body of work, we asked experts in the field to submit titles of movies dealing with state crime, reviewed the databases of major online DVD-rental businesses and nongovernmental sources geared toward addressing the worst forms of state crimes, and then performed a content analysis of the films. Based on the database of films collected, we then briefly summarize their content in the following paper, and then discuss how these movies can contribute to students' understanding of state crime in the context of courses that focus on this topic. This paper concludes that films on state crime are useful pedagogical tools in the classroom. © 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany.

Department

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Original Publication Date

12-1-2007

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