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As Seen On Screen: American Ambivalence Shown Through Death Penalty And Vigilante Films, Lisette Donewald
As Seen On Screen: American Ambivalence Shown Through Death Penalty And Vigilante Films, Lisette Donewald
Honors Scholar Theses
The United States is one of the last western nations still practicing capital punishment. A history of and commitment to vigilantism and its ideals offers an explanation of America’s retention of capital punishment. Employing scholarship on law and popular culture and vigilantism, this thesis finds that pro-death penalty frames are prevalent in vigilante films while anti-death penalty frames are prevalent in films that focus specifically upon capital punishment. Since the 1960’s however, there has been a gradual shift towards anti-death penalty frames and away from pro-death penalty frames as well as changes in the themes presented in the two genres …