Covert violence occurs in all social institutions—including families and close relationships, education, workplaces, politics, mass media, and healthcare—each with its own unique power dynamics that shape the incidence and patterns of these vicious acts. This book focuses on the types of surreptitious murder and mayhem that perpetrators intend to go unnoticed by would-be victims—until it’s too late. When such attacks are carried out with efficiency and competence, they may be disguised in official records as the result of illness, accident, or intentional self-harm, only on occasion to be later reclassified as the brutal crimes they are. This compelling and much-needed book is for all those who seek to understand—and strive to prevent—violence in society.

Covert violence occurs in all social institutions—including families and close relationships, education, workplaces, politics, mass media, and healthcare—each with its own unique power dynamics that shape the incidence and patterns of these vicious acts. This book focuses on the types of surreptitious murder and mayhem that perpetrators intend to go unnoticed by would-be victims—until it’s too late. When such attacks are carried out with efficiency and competence, they may be disguised in official records as the result of illness, accident, or intentional self-harm, only on occasion to be later reclassified as the brutal crimes they are. This compelling and much-needed book is for all those who seek to understand—and strive to prevent—violence in society.

Serial murderers generate an abundance of public interest, media coverage, and law enforcement attention, yet after decades of studies, serial murder researchers have been unable to answer the most important question: Why? Providing a unique and comprehensive exploration, Creating Cultural Monsters: Serial Murder in America explains connections between American culture and the incidence of serial murder, including reasons why most identified serial murderers are white, male Americans. It describes the omnipresence of serial murder in American media and investigates what it would take to decrease its occurrence. Presenting empirically supported arguments that have the potential to revolutionize how serial murder is understood, studied, and investigated, this volume: Places the serial murder phenomenon in a cultural context, promoting qualitative understanding and the potential for reducing its frequency Includes an illustrated model that explains how people utilize cultural values to construct lines of action according to their cultural competencies Demonstrates how the American cultural milieu fosters serial murder and the creation of white male serial murderers Provides a critique of the American mass media's role in the development and notoriety of serial murder Describes the framework on which the majority of definitions of serial murder are based Drawn from years of dedicated research of Dr. Julie B. Wiest, this volume presents a new approach to the study of U.S. serial murder, offers important implications for law enforcement and mass media, and forms a basis for future research on serial murder, murder, and violence in the U.S. and in other nations.

Serial murderers generate an abundance of public interest, media coverage, and law enforcement attention, yet after decades of studies, serial murder researchers have been unable to answer the most important question: Why? Providing a unique and comprehensive exploration, Creating Cultural Monsters: Serial Murder in America explains connections between American culture and the incidence of serial murder, including reasons why most identified serial murderers are white, male Americans. It describes the omnipresence of serial murder in American media and investigates what it would take to decrease its occurrence. Presenting empirically supported arguments that have the potential to revolutionize how serial murder is understood, studied, and investigated, this volume: Places the serial murder phenomenon in a cultural context, promoting qualitative understanding and the potential for reducing its frequency Includes an illustrated model that explains how people utilize cultural values to construct lines of action according to their cultural competencies Demonstrates how the American cultural milieu fosters serial murder and the creation of white male serial murderers Provides a critique of the American mass media's role in the development and notoriety of serial murder Describes the framework on which the majority of definitions of serial murder are based Drawn from years of dedicated research of Dr. Julie B. Wiest, this volume presents a new approach to the study of U.S. serial murder, offers important implications for law enforcement and mass media, and forms a basis for future research on serial murder, murder, and violence in the U.S. and in other nations.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS), this volume of Studies in Media and Communications features social science research that examines the practices, patterns, and messages related to representations of crime in mass media around the world. Chapters focus on a wide range of fact-based and fictional accounts of criminality as depicted in print and broadcast news, documentary and video-on-demand films, and television programs. Stories about crime and criminality have long been the mainstay of news and entertainment media content, and the intersection of crime and media is a common topic in scholarly research. Moreover, substantial evidence indicates that these media depictions are highly influential as people in economically advanced societies - who tend to have little personal experience with crime-form perceptions about criminality, crime rates, characteristics of criminals, and even their own likelihood of victimization. Thus, ongoing examination of crime images within various types of mass media aids in understanding the associated messages and meanings that are disseminated to consumers. This volume will enhance the knowledge of junior and senior scholars in criminology, sociology, journalism, and communication/media studies, particularly because of its inclusion of crime stories in a variety of formats and that represent media content from nations spanning five continents.

Sponsored by the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS),this volume in Emerald Studies in Media and Communications features social science research on criminality, policing, and mass media in the digital age. Chapters offer empirically supported studies that expand on knowledge about new possibilities for crime and policing, representations of criminality via digital media, and methodological considerations for contemporary studies of crime and media. Criminality, policing, and mass media are enduring topics in studies of the social world, and scholarly advances in these areas are particularly pertinent in times of social and cultural change. The digital revolution that began in post-industrial societies has affected, to varying extents, most nations in the world, introducing new opportunities for crime commission and law enforcement, transforming social structures and organization, and altering norms and practices of social interaction. Each chapter offers empirically supported insights into the new and evolving landscape of criminality and policing. Scholars address emerging patterns and practices such as technologically mediated intimate partner violence, digitally altered pornography and its consequences, and algorithm-supported methods of policing; representations of criminals and law enforcement in international news and entertainment media; and research methods for studying crime and media in a changing world.