Dynamically written and richly illustrated, the Routledge International Handbook of Visual Criminology offers the first foundational primer on visual criminology. Spanning a variety of media and visual modes, this volume assembles established researchers whose work is essential to understanding the role of the visual in criminology and emergent thinkers whose work is taking visual criminology in new directions.

This book is divided into five parts that each highlight a key aspect of visual criminology, exploring the diversity of methods, techniques and theoretical approaches currently shaping the field:

* Part I introduces formative positions in the developments of visual criminology and explores the different disciplines that have contributed to analysing images.

* Part II explores visual representations of crime across film, graphic art, documentary, police photography, press coverage and graffiti and urban aesthetics.

* Part III discusses the relationship of visual criminology to criminal justice institutions like policing, punishment and law.

* Part IV focuses on the distinctive ethical problems posed by the image, reflecting on the historical development, theoretical disputes and methodological issues involved.

* Part V identifies new frameworks and emergent perspectives and reflects upon the distinctive challenges and limits that can be seen in this emerging field.

This book includes a vibrant colour plate section and over a hundred black and white images, breaking down the barriers between original photography and artwork, historic paintings and illustrations and modern comics and films. This interdisciplinary book will be of interest to criminologists, sociologists, visual ethnographers, art historians and those engaged with media studies.

About the Author

Michelle Brown is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee, USA.

Eamonn Carrabine is Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex, UK.

Reviews

"This collection of original essays shows how quickly the visual landscape has become an integral part of an engaged and critical criminology. It is a breath-taking achievement and fitting testimony to the influence of the late Nicky Rafter."

Piers Beirne, Professor in the Department of Criminology, Economics and Sociology, University of Southern Maine, USA

"With its stress on emotion and affect, this book further extends the canon of cultural criminology and research in crime and media, developing a critically engaged approach to the study of visual imagery in criminology. Containing essays by established and emerging figures in the field, with topics ranging from formative ideas in visual criminology to emergent trends and new directions, the volume provides students, teachers and researchers with a wealth of textual and visual information. The book is premised on a view of crime images as inseparable from reality, and having a constitutive role in defining crime, determining its outcomes and consequences, and contributing to its legacies. Moreover, it suggests images of crime, punishment and control are infused with relations of power and resistance, meaning criminologists should take seriously the politics and ethics of visual representation, and consider how that might affect activism and interventions in criminal justice processes."

Dr Greg Martin, Associate Professor of Socio-Legal Studies, University of Sydney, Australia, Editor of The Sociological Review and Associate Editor of Crime, Media, Culture

"Brown, Carrabine and the contributing authors have produced a game-changing anthology that does more than offer incremental advances in knowledge and understanding. In situating established and emerging theoretical and methodological perspectives in a context of carefully framed ethical debate, The Routledge Handbook of Visual Criminology brings intellectual coherence to an entire subfield of study. This book should finally open mainstream Criminology's eyes to the visually-driven nature of crime, justice and social order. It is an outstanding achievement."

Professor Chris Greer, Head of the Department of Sociology and Co-Director of the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism, City, University of London, UK, and Associate Editor of Crime, Media, Culture

"This is a ground-breaking collection that brings together theory, method and image across disciplines, and showcases some of the most exciting work in the burgeoning field of visual criminology. The handbook is intellectually stimulating, immensely engaging and visually stunning. It will transform the way we understand the power of the image in crime, punishment and global (in)justice. An outstanding volume and essential reading for students and scholars in criminology, sociology and media studies around the world."

Professor Maggy Lee, Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong

"This is the most authoritative and comprehensive account of what has come to be known as 'visual criminology'. Brown and Carrabine's volume is little short of outstanding in its vision, reach and content. One would hope that in years to come this text will be discussed as a defining moment, a kind of nodal point, in the evolution of criminology's relationship with the visual... (it) is an exceptional text, one that should be read, understood, debated and enjoyed by criminologists and other interested parties far and wide. But, crucially, it is one that they really should see, too."

Dr. Steve Wakeman, Liverpool John Moores University, British Journal of Criminology

Book Information
ISBN 9780367581213
Author Michelle Brown
Format Paperback
Page Count 620
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g