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In this article, I use the tenets of media studies scholarship to reformulate David Garland's account of the shifts in sanctioning policy that began in the 1970s. I address the media's prominent role in shaping public mentalities and sensibilities that were incompatible with penal welfarism and supportive of more punitive policies. In particular, I analyze media coverage of the policy debate and also dramatic depictions of crime. I argue that the media were more influential in shaping public attitudes toward sanctioning policy than Garland suggests.

AbstractThe justice model has emerged as an alternative to the discredited rehabilitative ideal as a basis for sanctioning policy. Retributivism or just deserts is offered as the primary justification for the criminal sanction in this model, although sometimes in combination with incapacitation and deterrence as companion rationales for sanctioning. Desert is, additionally, an integral component of a sense of justice that is presented as an attribute of the justice model. Desert, both as a rationale for sanctions and as the basis for justice, is drawn from the philosophical models of Immanuel Kant and John Rawls. However, these models have some rather disturbing implications that have not been addressed by proponents of the justice model. A critical examination of them and their implications for criminology is therefore in order.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- I. INTRODUCTION -- 1 Television Reality Crime Programs: Context and History -- II. THE AUDIENCE FOR REALITY CRIME PROGRAMS -- 2. The Color of Crime: Perceptions of Caucasians' and African-Americans' Involvement in Crime -- 3. "Crimewatch UK": Women's Interpretations of Televised Violence -- 4. Ratings and Reality: The Persistence of the Reality Crime Genre -- III. IDEOLOGY AND SOCIAL CONTROL -- 5. In "The Shadow Of Shadows": Television Reality Crime Programming -- 6. "Cops": Television Policing as Policing Reality -- 7. Armed With the Power of Television: Reality Crime Programming and the Reconstruction of Law and Order in the United States -- IV. CRIME, CRIMINALS, AND VICTIMS -- 8. The World of Crime According to "Cops -- 9 Mixed Messages: Images of Domestic Violence on "Reality" Television -- 10 Crime Fighting by Television in the Netherlands -- 11 "Témoin N°. 1": Crime Shows on French Television -- Biographical Sketches of the Contributors -- Index

From early newspapers to contemporary television drama, the media demonstrate a continuing fascination with crime. Two recent television programs, "America's Most Wanted" and "Unsolved Mysteries," claim to offer a different treatment of crime in that these programs dramatize "real" crimes and encourage the television audience to assist in locating fugitives. Content analysis of the programs reveals that depictions of crime are consistent with television crime drama, and that these dramatizations resemble urban legends in which crime symbolizes the uncertainties of modern life. The programs convey an unpredictable world filled with unsafe people and places. This sense of modern danger justifies the programs' solicitation of audience participation through surveillance.