Looks at the study of crime and deviance through written, spoken and visual representation. This book deals specifically with the role of language in representations and constructions of crime, deviance and punishment in the media. It provides a toolkit for the analysis of language and images in examples across a range of media.
There is now a long tradition of academic literature in media studies and criminology that has analysed how we come to think about crime, deviance and punishment. This book for the first time deals specifically with the role of language in this process, showing how critical linguistic analysis can provide further crucial insights into media representations of crime and criminals. Through case studies the book develops a toolkit for the analysis of language and images in examples taken from a range of media.
The Language of Crimeand Deviance covers spoken, written and visual media discourses and focuses on a number of specific areas of crime and criminal justice, including media constructions of young people and women; media and the police, 'reality' crime shows; corporate crime; prison and drugs.It is therefore a welcome and valuable contribution to the fields of linguistics, criminology, media and cultural studies.
With great cogency and insight Andrea Mayr and David Machin offer new ways of seeing what they term "mediatized language of crime". They provide an invaluable analytical tool-kit for such analysis, which is put to work on stimulating examples. From "chavs" to "drug addicts" and the crimes of the powerful, the authors explain the social practice of media discourse: what language does as well as what it says. Skilfully narrated, and assiduously assembled, The Language of Crime and Deviance is an important intervention into the studies of language, and cultural constructions of crime.
