Description based on print version record.

Introduction: the criminology of popular culture / Mathieu Deflem -- Part I: Crime and Social Control in the Visual Arts. Reefer Madness and beyond / Susan Boyd ; The Dark Knight: constructing images of good vs. evil in an age of anxiety / Nickie D. Phillips ; Superhero justice: the depiction of crime and justice in modern-age comic books and graphic novels / Bradford W. Reyns and Billy Henson ; Televised images of jail: lessons in controlling the unruly / Dawn K. Cecil -- Part II: Resistance, Crime, and Protest in Music. "I broke the law? No, the law broke me!" Palestinian hip-hop and the semiotics of occupation / Judah Schept ; Rap music's violent and misogynistic effects: fact or fiction? / Charis E. Kubrin and Ronald Weitzer ; Crime resistance and song: black musicianship is black criminology / Viviane Saleh-Hanna ; The different sounds of American protest: from freedom songs to punk rock / Ellen C. Leichtman -- Part III: Crime and Justice in Non-Fiction. Evil monsters and cunning perverts: representing and regulating the dangerous paedophile / Anneke Meyer ; Framing the scene: presentations of forensics programming in the news / Gregory G. Justis and Steven Chermak ; Beach crime in popular culture: confining the carnivalesque in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil / Stephanie C. Kane ; Here be dragons: Lombroso, the gothic, and social control / Nicole Rafter and Per Ystehede.

This volume contains contributions on the theme of popular culture, crime, and social control. The chapters in this volume tease out various criminologically relevant issues, pertaining to crime/deviance and/or the control thereof, on the basis of an analysis of various aspects and manifestations of popular culture, including music, movies, television, paintings, sculptures, photographs, cartoons, and the internet-based audio-visual materials that are presently available. Thematically diverse within the province of criminology, the chapters in this book are not restricted in terms of theoretical approach and methodological orientation. Using a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives, the volume is diverse in addressing dimensions of popular culture in relation to important criminological questions.