191-438 Criminal Fictions

37.5 points of second/third year criminology subjects for third year. Admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth year honours in criminology for fourth year.

This subject involves theories and methods in the cultural analysis of crime, with particular reference to the stories told about crime by victims, offenders, criminal justice agents, criminologists, and general members of the public. The aim is to examine narrative structures and genres in stories about crime; to read narratives about crime in their social, historical and cultural contexts; to study the legitimation of particular voices and stories. Examples to be studied include detective fiction; crime fiction; news media accounts of crime; survivor testimony; eyewitness testimony; policy reports; criminological studies. Students who complete the subject should be able to analyse critically the construction of crime narratives, and the implications of their purpose, audience, and genre.