The gypsy’s lot: myth and reality

This chapter focuses on the lived experiences of gypsies (collectively referred to as gypsies rather than Roma or travellers). The author argues that the relationship between the legal system and the specific lifestyle of this group is itself causing many tensions which cannot be separated from the long-held myths about gypsies. Jago shows how the standing of gypsies in the UK legal system has, in turn, become the object of various myths. He demonstrates how judgements by the European Court of Human Rights in favour of gypsy claims created in many an image of the law being always on the side of the gypsy. A perception which Jago demonstrates is far from true. After addressing the nature and role of myths in general the author illustrates the tension between positive, romanticised myths about the freedom of gypsy lifestyle and three derogatory myths, namely gypsies as "child-snatchers", as thieves and as "land grabbers". Jago illustrates that these myths are linked to deep-rooted beliefs around property and its ownership.

Criminology and the legacies of Clarice Starling

This chapter explores the enduring myths about the phenomenon of serial murder generally and serial killers in particular, in Britain between 1960 to the present. The Chapter argues that many of these myths have been created and continue to be perpetuated by the print and broadcast media. It is suggested that this process was ignited by American popular culture about serial murder, to the extent that many British students engaged on university courses do so because they want to emulate the heroine of the popular novel The Silence of the Lambs and become the fictional character, Clarice Starling. This observation is used to explore other myths about offender profiling, the role of the profiler in police investigations and the idea that this involves entering the mind of the serial killer by the profiler. Based on his own applied work with serial murderers and on police investigations and after their conviction, the chapter reveals the realities of the phenomenon of serial murder, serial killers and the limits of offender profiling. The chapter uses a number of situations encountered during police investigations and with serial killers to illustrate its arguments. It concludes that we need to harness, rather than dismiss, student interests in this territory in more productive ways. It adopts a structural/victim perspective about serial murder, as opposed to a relentless focus on what might motivate the serial killer to kill. The chapter suggests how this might be done both within the academy and, more broadly in public policy.

‘Kony is so last month’ – lessons from social media stunt ‘Kony 2012’

This chapter explores the role of social media in the creation of myths and public beliefs about justice and law. Using the case study of the YouTube clip Kony 2012 the author identifies a number of myths and public beliefs this video creates and sustains, looking at three principal myths, namely the myths regarding the background and facts of the armed conflict and the current situation in Uganda, the myths regarding possible military and legal solutions and last but not least the myth surrounding the effectiveness of online activism itself. Rauxloh argues that the portrayal of a very long and complex conflict as simply a war of good versus evil and the presented solution of the “mighty West” helping the “helpless Africa” perpetuates dangerous stereotypes which are in direct contradiction to the aims of international criminal justice in general and the International Criminal Court in particular. It is also argued that one of the most damaging myths is the notion of the internet as the freely accessible democratic forum which opens up the power of voice to everybody. Rauxloh warns that social media have an unprecedented potential for creating, spreading and perpetuating myths and public beliefs.

Regurgitating the media image: towards a phenomenology of the ‘visible’ in criminal justice

This chapter discusses the problematic social construction of crime, law enforcement, and jurisprudence and highlights some of the consequences of these media portrayals for the public and students of this topic. It then sets out an ethic of phenomenological reduction of crime and the incumbent legal processes as a solution. The chapter draws upon the work of Jean-Luc Marion, Claude Romano, Werner Marx, James Mensch, and Immanuel Levinas, to describe how reducing the complex experience of crime, law enforcement, and jurisprudence opens new understanding and new potential for exploring the very complex nature of crime and the resulting legal processes. The reduction, in this case, entails an ethical argument to reduce what is given to those experiencing these processes and to us as observers. In the case of the one accused of crime, a reduction of their experience often breaks our understanding free of the “good-guy, bad-guy” portrayals in media. Likewise, a reduction of the experience and activity of law-enforcement and jurisprudence professionals highlights their professional, personal, and interpersonal complexities as they do their jobs. Finally, it proposes that this phenomenological ethic, when taken up by the media, would actually not only increase the portrayals of these processes in a more authentic manner, but increase the potential for sharing the dramatic stories of the criminal, law-enforcement, and legal professionals. This would serve to further their agenda of telling marketable and engaging stories by highlighting the incredible personal and interpersonal complexities of the people caught up in these experiences.

What do they know of law who only cop shows know?

This chapter shows how it is not the law, as such, but only representations of it that affect behaviour. Citizens act in terms of how they think the law is and not necessarily as it actually is. Knowledge of the law is drawn increasingly from a range of media and persons download, view and ingest this knowledge in an ad hoc and unsystematic manner. There is now an established victim’s rights discourse embedded in journalistic practice and media generated legal narratives tend to play down the rights of defendants and undermine important legal principles that safeguard the efficacy of the trial process. A diet of victim-centred news coverage over time has tended to make the general public more retributive in their thinking. The public learn about the law through the media and there is a tendency to highlight the sensational and to see the world as far more violent than is typically the case, to hold to worse police detection rates than is actually the case and to misrepresent the racial make-up of offenders. Though there is excellent coverage of crime in the media there is little consideration of legal principles and procedures and the notion that law is a technical and elaborate system of knowledge is largely absent in the portrayal of crime in both news and drama. The chapter considers the so-called CSI-effect: the notion that citizens, notably jurors, hold to absurdly high levels of proof in relation to forensic evidence and how this fetishisation of forensic evidence is having real-world affects in terms of delivering proper verdicts. This chapter critically assesses the public’s level of legal awareness in relation to crime and argue for a robust Public Criminology.

Criminology through the looking-glass

This chapter examines the ways in which it might be wiser to look at criminology in reverse. Not only do the rich get richer and the poor get prison, as Reiman's famous book title suggests, but the law would appear to operate in such a way that the crimes of the rich are the ones causing the greatest social harm yet receiving the weakest social censure, whilst the crimes of the poor and young cause the least social harm yet receive the greatest social censure. This is the stuff of a through-the-looking-glass Jabberwocky criminology whose reverse message can only be read by holding it up to the mirror. This chapter assesses whether this strange criminology can be explained by the analysis of mimesis and the mimetic double bind in the work of Renee Girard, or whether the phenomenon is better seen as an inevitable reflection of the roots of dominant social censures within dominant and contradictory social relations.

Introduction

This chapter briefly summarises the main findings of the book and explains the relationship between the different chapters. It introduces the reader to the structure of the book and identifies the common themes and underlying issues. It argues that from the different chapters three main conclusions can be drawn: namely 1) that Law needs myths for its legitimacy, 2) that Law needs myths for its existence and that 3) there is a growing need to unveil the myth about law making processes and procedures.

Letters to Casey Anthony, a woman accused of murder

This chapter is based on an analysis of letters sent by members of the public to Casey Anthony, while she was awaiting trial for the capital murder of her daughter, Caylee. Caylee Anthony went missing in Orlando, Florida, in 2008, which Casey did not report to the police. After Casey’s mother had reported her granddaughter’s disappearance several weeks later, Casey was charged with her murder. Caylee’s body was not discovered until two months after this. The case was very high profile and received intense media coverage, including via social media. In June 2010, Florida’s state attorney’s office released letters that had been sent to Casey while she was in jail. She was tried and acquitted of Caylee’s murder and manslaughter in 2011. This chapter focuses on the letters sent to Casey by people who did not know her personally. It explores how they negotiated what they already knew of her and her case from media sources in relation to their own experiences and biography, in order to relate to Casey. In doing so, it analyses how correspondents variously drew on, utilised, reshaped and rejected discourses of femininity that circulate in legal and media constructions of high profile cases of women accused of murder. The chapter also examines how correspondents’ identification with, or rejection of, Casey Anthony and elements of her story was part of the process of their own identity construction

A comparative analysis of the criminal and civil justice systems in England and Wales

This Chapter explores the current criminal and civil justice systems in England and Wales and compares their accessibility to the public, their value for money and their overall viability. The international credit crisis resulted in government cuts and streamlining has produced an appetite to reduce criminal and civil litigation. In the criminal justice system, fewer cases are prosecuted whilst in the civil justice system; there is a desire to deter litigation by a number of measures. This Chapter argues that this philosophy is detrimental to both systems resulting in the reduction of genuine litigation thereby rendering the accessibility to both systems difficult and unfair. Whilst their economic viability might appear to be sound, this Chapter maintains that overall they are not economically viable and there needs to be a fundamental change in philosophy and approach.

Forward! Coding, decoding and recoding law in public art for urban regeneration

This chapter explores the coded dimension of large public artworks (sculptures or installations in particular). Public space is dotted with such artworks, many on a monumental scale. The focus of the chapter is on the normative codes that are embedded in both the material structure and the aura of the works. When authorities decide to commission public artworks the brief to artists will often include specifications that pertain not just to the desired visual and expressive effect of the work (the artwork is then supposed to express a particular idea or content) but also to a more normative intention. The artwork is then required to tap into or mobilise an existing set of cultural, social or political codes, or indeed consolidate, propagate or even generate them. An element in the normative coding of public artworks, which this chapter deals with relates to notions of public order that the works are assumed to radiate and project. The chapter shows how the intended codes embedded in the artwork are bound to be subjected to continuous de-coding and re-coding.