Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Shifting Perspectives On Crime: Empathy, Cognitive Reappraisal, And Media Sources, Gillian Sherman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

When reporting crime, media sources can influence public perception of the crime, the victim, and the perpetrator. They can also influence the justice policies that people endorse. With support growing for more community-oriented justice policies that allow for perpetrator reintegration (Maruna & King, 2009), it is important to understand how portrayals of crime may soften public judgements toward perpetrators without reducing concern for victims. In two studies drawing from empathy-attitude effect research (Batson et al., 1998) and emotion regulation theory (Gross, 1998) this research examines how media portrayals of a crime may cause people to change their perceptions of those …

The Geography Of Crime: Placing Geographers In The Space Of Criminologists, Anthony Wv Piscitelli

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Geography of Crime consists of five articles. The first article, Exploring opportunities for geographers to explain the spatial distribution of crime, serves as a key conceptual link between each of the other four articles. This paper provides a broad introduction to the dissertation showing what gaps in the crime literature exist, especially those ripe for analysis by geographers. Three primary directions emerged as a focus of this dissertation: overarching theoretical contributions, specialized geographic quantitative techniques, and qualitative approaches centred on the concept of place.

The second article, Connecting social disorganization theory to broken windows and routine activities proposes …

Criminal Heroes In Television: Exploring Moral Ambiguity In Law And Justice, Amy Henry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Criminal justice is a popular theme in both news and entertainment media. How crime and justice issues are framed can actually legitimize corruption in a society. As research reveals the public’s dissatisfaction with the current failing retributive justice system, popular television series’ are confronting its flaws (Jerre, 2013). Utilizing a cultural criminological and social constructionist orientation, the following research examines anti-hero narratives in two highly rated crime-drama series, Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy. The main research questions examine: How the criminal protagonist or anti-hero is constructed in television crime procedurals? What claims about crime, criminality, law and justice …