The Language of Crime and Deviance

This title looks at the study of crime and deviance through written, spoken and visual representation. There is now a long tradition of academic literature analysing the way our societies come to think about and define crime and the important part that the media play in this process. This book for the first time deals specifically with the role of language in representations and constructions of crime, deviance and punishment in the media. Combining theoretical perspectives from linguistics, sociology, criminology and media studies, it provides a toolkit for the analysis of language and images in examples across a range of media. Including critical and multimodal discourse analysis, emphasis is placed on practically demonstrating the tools that can be used for the linguistic analysis of media representations of crime and deviance. It covers both spoken and written discourse and focuses on a number of specific areas of crime and criminal justice, including young people and women, the way the media represent criminal justice agencies, corporate crime, and crime and deviance in popular culture. It is a welcome and valuable resource for students and academics in linguistics, media studies, criminology and sociology.