Cultural criminology is a recently developed field of research which combines aspects of cultural studies, sociology and criminology. Specifically, it addresses the effects of popular culture, media and subcultures on criminal behavior. Jeff Ferrell, a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University, wrote a very detailed and informative article for the Annual Review of Sociology explaining this emergent field.
Ferrell stated that “cultural criminology heeds Becker’s (1963:183, 199) classic injunction – that we ‘look at all the people involved in any episode of alleged deviance…all the parties to a situation, and their relationships’ – and includes in this collective examination those cultural relationships, those webs of meaning and perception in which all parties are entangled.” Cultural criminology examines the relationships between members of street gangs and organized crime networks, as well as criminal behavior among unorganized groups of people in all areas of society. It also studies the way in which criminals and their subcultures are portrayed by pop culture and the media, whether the criminals conform to pop culture and vice versa.
In regards to popular culture and media, cultural criminology focuses on the representation of these forms among different groups of people in society. It has been compared to general labeling theory. For example, music and movies paint a picture of inner city neighborhoods being hotbeds of crime. Rap videos and “gangsta” movies such as “Boyz in the Hood,” portray the tough life led by individuals in these areas. But what happens is that people coming out of these neighborhoods are automatically labeled as “thugs.” They are expected to be members of a violent street gang and carry handguns. It’s not always true, but that this the image given especially to young men who grow up in the inner city. Some, knowing that is what is expected of them, find no way out. They pick up that handgun and enter the violent life of inner city street crime. It is their culture, and the way that it is represented, that brought them into that life. This is the perspective of criminal causation which is the foundation of cultural criminology.
Television shows such as “The Sopranos,” and movies like “Goodfellas” and “Casino” cast an image of the glamorous life of members of organized crime families. Tony Soprano and Henry Hill live the good life – they have nice houses and fancy things, and they party all the time. Cultural criminology examines the representation of the mafia in the popular media, and then on another level, it looks at the relationships between each of the members and their designations within the criminal network. How do the real images and the media images compare with one another? Are they influenced by one another?
More often, various scientific fields are coming together to discover the causes of criminal behavior and find solutions. Biology and criminology have merged to search for genetic predispositions to illicit behavior. Cultural criminology is another field in which various disciplines have joined forces to explain why certain individuals succumb to a life of crime.
