Article response
Nicole Hahn Rafter writes the article that will be reviewed and it is entitled Crime, film and criminology: Recent sex-crime movies, published in the journal Theoretical Criminology. This article is fairly recent being published in 2007, and is related to one of Rafter’s most notable accomplishments which is the fact that she started on of the United States first university courses on crime and film at Northeastern University where she is still a faculty member today.
Rafter suggests a term for the conceptual grouping of criminological media that she refers to as ‘popular criminology’. In this article she specifically analyzes crime films, yet attaches the term popular criminology to crime realities being shaped by but not limited to media outlets such as television, the Internet, newspapers, novels, rap music, and myth that shape and determine our cultural understandings. Rafter’s (2007) central thesis of this journal article is that "crime films should be conceptualized as an aspect of popular criminology, and popular criminology as an aspect of criminology itself." For this to be accomplished popular criminology must be recognized as a criminological discourse in its own right, and research must be done to validate crime films’ relationship to academic criminology showing that the creation of culture is not restricted to one category or the other.
Resulting in her increased push for research on the topic of crime films is her awareness of a growing knowledge that film contributes to society’s understandings of crime and the criminological nature including individual theoretical crime subjects such as the police and deviant. Rafter (2007) substantiates the claim of crime films making an influential contribution to cultural crime notions by ‘a steady accumulation of studies analyzing crime films.” Rafter also uses the film L.I.E. stating that it uses recent understandings of sexual victimization, accumulating society’s knowledge on the topic through incorporating dominant theologies on the subject. Therefore Rafter is claiming that popular criminology and criminology itself should be of equal social significance. This claim is empirical in that Rafter observed and analyzed six crime films and came to this conclusion. This claim is also conceptual because she is linking he term of popular criminology to the traditional discourse of academic criminology in that they are parallel in importance. Her evidence of observation of six recent sex crime films is linked to her academic intelligence and expert opinion on the subject of crime films. This claim and evidence does support Rafter’s original thesis statement.
Rafter claims that “movies constitute an aspect of criminology, a popular discourse that needs to be recognized and analyzed if criminology — the study of crime and criminals — itself is to be fully understood." She attributes this claim to the secondary claim that within legal studies law films are now being considered a significant source of insight into the attitudes toward law and of physically being a citizen of the law itself. The evidence given to substantiate this claim is that law films are the foremost way in which society comes to form understandings about the law, and therefore in order for law to be understood, law movies must be analyzed as well. Therefore this evidence and claim are empirical because she has researched that crime films have an impact on forming cultural notions of crime, yet they can also be conceptual in that social sciences would be interested in being able to measure the amount that crime films actually influence or mold society’s notions of the criminological figure. This claim and evidence does support rafter’s original thesis statement.
Rafter states that it was not until the 1980s that a surge of films about crime and sex began to appear, she attributes this change to the media for “publicizing false memories, recovered memories, accusations against religious and scouting leaders, sex offender registries,” and in general the topic of danger and risk being popular among media outlets. An example Rafter uses is the use of the “ordinary guy image of the sex criminal to emphasize children’s vulnerability and the difficulty of perceiving such offences when they occur." This claim and evidence is empirical in that she researched and observed these events which enables the suggestion of popular criminology and criminology to be parallel discourses. The claim that increased media spotlight on the topic of crime and risk resulted in a greater audience for crime films relates to her thesis in that if popular criminology is as prevalent to understanding notions of crime as the academic discourse of criminology, then they should be two halves of one whole.
Rafter’s main thesis statement is the claim that what she defines as popular criminology and academic criminology should be meshed together forming an “egalitarian epistemology in which the two ways of knowing are conceived as partners in the task of defining and explaining crime." She accounts for the difference in discourses, knowing that popular criminology will have a far larger audience that academic criminology cannot reach, yet she substantiates her claim by stating that the lines between these discourses are “already blurring, for the cultural criminology movement has for a decade been eroding their conceptual boundaries, demonstrating that they interpenetrate." This claim directly relates to Rafter’s thesis statement and is substantiated by her empirical analysis of six recent crime films.
Therefore in Nicole Hahn Rafter’s article, "Crime, film and criminology: Recent sex-crime movies", she argues for the merge and equal acceptance of popular criminology and academic criminology framing, molding, and altering society’ cultural notions of topics central to criminology. Analyzing six recent sex-crime films and attaching her expert conclusions to substantiate her claims, she makes a good case as to why popular criminology and academic criminology should be known as co-providers of cultural notions of criminology.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1969). How to Teach a Delinquent. Atlantic Monthly (March): 66-72.
Rafter, H. Nicole and Christianson, Scott. (1975) New York's Second Felony Law. New York Times.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1978). Crime and Intelligence: A Historical Look at the Low IQ Theory. In James A. Inciardi and Kenneth C. Hass (Eds.), Crime and the Criminal Justice Process. (67-74). Kendall/Hunt.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1980a). Female State Prisoners in Tennessee: 1831-1979. Tennessee Historical Quarterly 39: 485-497.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1980b). Too Dumb to Know Better: Cacogenic Family Studies and the Criminology of Women. Criminology 18: 3-25.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1980c). Matrons and Molls: The Study of Women's Prison History. In James A. Inciardi and Charles E. Faupel, (Eds.), History and Crime: Implications for Criminal Justice Policy (261-270). Beverly Hills: Sage.
Rafter, H. Nicole & Natalizia, Elena. (1981). Marxian Feminism: Implications for Criminal Justice Policy.Crime and Delinquency 27: 81-98.
Rafter, H. Nicole & Baunach J. Phyllis. (1982a). Sex Role Operations: Strategies for Women Working in the Criminal Justice System. In Judge, Lawyer, Victim, Thief: Women , Gender Roles, and Criminal Justice (Ch. 13). Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole & Stanko, A. Elizabeth. (1982b). Judge, Lawyer, Victim, Thief: Women, Gender Roles, and Criminal Justice. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1982c). Hard Times: The Evolution of the Women's Prison System and the Example of the New York State Prison for Women at Auburn, 1893-1933. In Rafter and Stanko, (Eds.), Judge, Lawyer, Victim, Thief: Women, Gender Roles, and Criminal Justice (Ch. 11). Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1983a). Chastising the Unchaste: Social Control Functions of the Women's Reformatory System. In Stan Cohen and Andrew Scull, (Eds.), Social Control and the State (288-311). Oxford: Martin Robertson.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1983b). Prisons for Women, 1790-1980. In Michael H. Tonry and Norval Morris, (Eds.), Crime and Justice: An Annual Review of Research, Vol. 5. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1985a). Cathy Webb: Why She Would Lie in the Dotson Case. The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass) 29.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1985b). Gender, Prisons, and Prison History. Social Science History 9: 233-247.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1985c). Partial Justice: Women in State Prisons, 1800-1935. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1985d). Women: Second-Class Inmates. Chicago Tribune (19).
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1986). Left Out By the Left: Crime and Crime Control. Socialist Review 89: 7-23.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1987). Even in Prison, Women and Second-class Citizens. Human Rights I14: 29-31,51.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1988a). White Trash as Social Ideology. Transaction/ Society 26: 43-49.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1988b). White Trash: The Eugenic Family Studies, 1877-1919. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole, Williamson, G. Susuan, and Cohen-Rose, Amy. (1989a). Everyone Wins: A Collaborative Model for Mainstreaming Women’s Studies. Journal of Academic Librarianship 15:20-23.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1989b). Crime and the Family. Socialist Review 19: 123-129.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1989c). Gender and Justice: The Equal Protection Issue. In Lynne Goodstein and Doris Mackenzie, (Eds.), The American Prison: Issues in Research and Policy (89-109). New York: Plenum Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1989d). Prisons, Women Inmates In. In Helen Tierney, (Ed.), Women’s Studies Encyclopedia, Vol. 1 (288-290). New York: Greenwood Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1990a). Crime and the Family. Women and Criminal Justice 1:73-86.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1990b). Equal Protection Forcing Changes in Women’s Prisons. Correction Law Reporter 2: 49, 51-52.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1990c). Partial Justice: Women, Prisons, and Social Control (2nd Ed). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1990d). The Social Construction of Crime and Crime Control. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 27: 376-389.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1991a). Equal Treatment or Different Treatment? The Origins of Today's Policy Dilemmas in the Care of Incarcerated Women. U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Female Offenders. The June 7, 1991 Forum on Issues in Corrections. Washington, D.C.: Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1991b). Prison Reform Movement, 1870-1930. In Helen Tierney, (Ed.), Women Studies Encyclopedia, Vol. II (361-363). New York: Greenwood Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1992a). Claims-making and Socio-cultural Context in the First U.S. Eugenics campaign. Social Problems 39:17-34.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1992b). Some Consequences of Strict Constructionism. Social Problems 39: 38-39.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1994). Eugenics, Class, and the Professionalization of Social Control. In George Bridges and Martha Myers, (Eds.), Inequality and Social Control (214-227). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1995). International Feminist Perspectives in Criminology: Engendering a Discipline. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole and Cuklanz, Lisa. (1997a). ‘Gender, Representation, and Social Control’: An Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies Course. Women and Criminal Justice. 8(4): 99-109.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1997b). Creating Born Criminals. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1997c). Psychopathy and the Evolution of Criminological Knowledge. Theoretical Criminology I 2: 235-59.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1997d). The More Things Change Women’s Review of Books XIV 10-11: 3-4.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1997e)The Realization of Partial Justice: A Case Study in Social Control. In James Marquart and Jonathan Sorensen, (Eds.), Contemporary and Classical Reading (69-83). Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Company.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (1997f). Transgression Obsession. Review of Ann-Louise Shapiro, Breaking the Codes: Female Criminality in Fin-de-Siècle Paris. In Women’s Review of Books XV 1:23-24.
Rafter, H. Nicole and Stantley, Debra. (1999). Prisons in America: A Reference Handbook. Contemporary World Issues Series.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2000a). Encyclopedia of Women and Crime. Phoenix AZ: Oryx Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2000b). Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2001a). American Criminal Trial Films: An Overview of their Development, 1930-2000. Journal of Law and Society 28 (1): 9-25.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2001b). Feminism: Criminological Aspects. In Joshua Dressler (Ed.), MacMillan Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice. New York: MacMillan Reference Books.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2001c). National Prison Association. The Oxford Companion to United States History. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2001d). Seeing and Believing: Images of Heredity in Biological Theories of Crime. Brooklyn Law Review 67(1): 71-99.
Rafter, H. Nicole & Gibson, Mary. (2004a). Criminal Women by Cesare Lombroso Introduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2004b). Earnest A. Hooton and the Biological Tradition in American Criminology. Criminology 42 (3): 735-771.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2004c). The Criminalization of Mental Retardation. In Steven Noll and James Trend, Jr. (Eds.), Perpetual Children 232-257.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2004d). The Unrepentant Horse-slasher: Moral Insanity and the Origins of Criminological Thought. Criminology 42 (4): 977-1006.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2005). Badfellas: Movie Psychos, Popular Culture, and Law. In Michael Freeman, (Ed.), Law and Popular Culture (339-357). Oxford, England: University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2005). Criminal Anthropology: Its Reception in the United States and the Nature of its Appeal. In Peter Becker and Richard Wetzell, (Eds.), Criminals and Their Scientists: Essays on the History of Criminology. Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2005). Cesare Lombroso and the Origins of Criminology: Rethinking Criminological Tradition. In Stuart Henry and Mark Lanier, The Essential Criminology Reader 33-42. Boulder, CO: Westview/Basic Books.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2005). The Murderious Dutch Fiddler: Criminology, History, and the Problem of Phrenology. Theoretical Criminology 9 (1): 65-96.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2006a). Apes, Men and Teeth: Earnest A. Hooton and Eugenic Decay. In Sue Currell and Christina Cogdell, (Eds.), Popular Eugenics: National Efficiency and Mass Culture in the 1930. Columbus Ohio: Ohio University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2006b). Gender, Genes and Crimes: An Evolving feminist Agenda. In Frances Heidensohn, (Ed.), Gender and Justice: New Concepts and Approaches (222-242). Cullompton: William Publishing.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2006c). H.J. Eysenck in Fagin’s Kitchen: The Return to Biological theory in 20th-Century Criminology. History of the Human Sciences. 19(4): 37-56.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2006d). Shots in the Mirror: Crime Films and Society (2nd Ed). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2007a). Crime, Film, and Criminology: Recent Sex Crime Movies. Theoretical Criminology 11(3): 403-420.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2007b). Somatotyping, Antimodernism, and the Production of Criminological Knowledge. Criminology 45(4):805-834.
Rafter, H. Nicole (2008a). Criminology’s Darkest Hour: Biocriminology in Nazi Germany. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology 41(2): 287-306.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2008b). The Criminal Brain: Understanding Biological Theories of Crime. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Rafter, H. Nicole. (2009). The Origins of Criminology: A Reader. Abington, Oxfordshire: Routledge.