#Crime: Social Media, Crime, and the Criminal Legal System

210 Pages·2018·2.092 MB·English

by  Rebecca M. Hayes, Kate Luther

#Social Media #Crime
#Criminal Legal System
• Rebecca M. Hayes • Kate Luther
Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture
Series Editors
Michelle Brown
Department of Sociology
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN, USA
Eamonn Carrabine
Department of Sociology
University of Essex
Colchester, UK
This series aims to publish high quality interdisciplinary scholarship for
research into crime, media and culture. As images of crime, harm and
punishment proliferate across new and old media there is a growing rec-
ognition that criminology needs to rethink its relations with the ascen-
dant power of spectacle. This international book series aims to break
down the often rigid and increasingly hardened boundaries of main-
stream criminology, media and communication studies, and cultural
studies. In a late modern world where reality TV takes viewers into cop
cars and carceral spaces, game shows routinely feature shame and suffer-
ing, teenagers post ‘happy slapping’ videos on YouTube, both cyber bul-
lying and ‘justice for’ campaigns are mainstays of social media, and
insurrectionist groups compile footage of suicide bomb attacks for circu-
lation on the Internet, it is clear that images of crime and control play a
powerful role in shaping social practices. It is vital then that we become
versed in the diverse ways that crime and punishment are represented in
an era of global interconnectedness, not least since the very reach of
global media networks is now unparalleled.
Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture emerges from a call to
rethink the manner in which images are reshaping the world and crimi-
nology as a project. The mobility, malleability, banality, speed, and scale
of images and their distribution demand that we engage both old and
new theories and methods and pursue a refinement of concepts and tools,
as well as innovative new ones, to tackle questions of crime, harm, cul-
ture, and control. Keywords like image, iconography, information flows,
the counter-visual, and ‘social’ media, as well as the continuing relevance
of the markers, signs, and inscriptions of gender, race, sexuality, and class
in cultural contests mark the contours of the crime, media and culture
nexus.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15057
Rebecca M. Hayes • Kate Luther
#Crime
Social Media, Crime, and the Criminal
Legal System
Rebecca M. Hayes Kate Luther
Central Michigan University Pacific Lutheran University
Mount Pleasant, MI, USA Tacoma, WA, USA
Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture
ISBN 978-3-319-89443-0 ISBN 978-3-319-89444-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89444-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018941099
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer International
Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover image © myella/Getty Images
Cover design by Tjaša Krivec
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Acknowledgments
We both would like to thank some amazing colleagues for their time and
care that they took in reviewing drafts of the chapters. Thank you to Dr.
Gregg Barak, Dr. Raymond Surette, Dr. Emily Lenning, and Dr. Walter
DeKeseredy. Thank you also to contributors Inspector Sylva Polfliet,
Dr. Raymond Surette, Dr. Nicola Henry and Dr. Anastasia Powell. It is
always helpful to have experts on the matter contribute their own words.
Also, thank you to Chrissy Cook who went above and beyond to provide
additional information on trolling. It is colleagues such as these that
make this job worth doing.
Rebecca M. Hayes Writing a book was on my bucket list and was a very
difficult, frustrating, and yet rewarding experience. I would like to give a
special thanks to my patient coauthor, Dr. Kate Luther, who’s more than
a colleague, but also a wonderful friend. I would also like to thank my two
favorite coffee shop owners: Thomas Vreriks (Mr. Bean in Leuven,
Belgium) and Cara Nader (Strange Matter Coffee in Lansing, Michigan);
if your businesses did not exist, my business would never get done. Finally,
I thank my partner, Nick Garlinghouse as you had to provide all the stress
reduction at the end of this project. Thank you for your patience as well.
v
vi Acknowledgments
Kate Luther Writing this book with Dr. Rebecca M. Hayes has yet again
proven that she is an amazing coauthor and friend. I would like to thank
my students at Pacific Lutheran University, who I kept in mind through-
out the writing process as I framed arguments and wrote discussion ques-
tions. I would also like to thank my family for putting up with this project
that took over our dining room table during my sabbatical.
Contents
1 # Crime: The Theoretical Underpinnings 1
2 #CSI Effect: How Media Impacts the Criminal Legal System 43
3 # CrimingWhileWhite: Media’s Construction of the Criminal 79
4 # Notallmen: Media and Crime Victimization 123
5 # FutureCrime: What Is Crime in the Age of New Media? 153
6 Conclusion 193
Index 199
vii
List of Boxes
Chapter 1
O. J. Simpson 3
War on Drugs 16
Cologne 24
Areas of Research 27
Chapter 2
Making a Murderer 45
Experiential and Symbolic Reality 46
Stokes Croft Riot 50
Adversarial System 56
Pretrial Publicity 56
Information on Use of Forensic DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) 57
Chapter 3
Newsworthiness 81
Crime Myth 86
Crime Statistics Across Countries 88
A Brief Overview of Arrests in the United States 98
Amanda Knox 103
House Bill 2 105
Monica Jones 108
ix
x List of Boxes
Chapter 4
JonBenet Ramsey 126
Rape Culture 128
Delhi Gang Rape 134
People v. Turner (2015) or The Brock Turner Case 135
Title IX 136
Chapter 5
Boston Bombing 154
Chibok Girls of Nigeria 155
Anonymous 156
RIP Trolling 160
Flash Rob 179