Doing criminology on media and crime in Asia

Abstract

This article draws from recent critiques on media criminology in the North. In doing so, we are interested in whether and how these critiques figure in relation to those doing criminology in the South, in particular in Asia. We first describe why media criminology has yet to develop as an area of study in its own right and what lessons we might draw from the development of media criminology in the Northern context. We then examine the contours of crime and media research in the East and Southeast Asian context, looking particularly at how existing studies on media and deviance reinforce or challenge traditional notions about problems and problem populations, and how media and deviance are intertwined in a variety of culturally inflected ways that reflect broader political institutions and political contestations. Third, we begin to sketch out the contributions from other disciplines to inform the study of crime and media in Asia. Here we suggest that some disciplines, particularly the rich tradition of sociology of media studies and cultural studies, may be better placed to analyze media and crime in ways that administrative criminology in the Asian context cannot. Significantly, as our preliminary mapping of media representations of specific crime issues in Asia indicates, studies on reporting crime and fictionalizing crime in Asia have produced critical insights into the construction of the crime landscape (its fears and concerns, its potential victims, and the role of the citizen and government) in the region.

Crime, Justice and Media: Debating (Mis)representations and Renewed Challenges

“…Atendendo aos esforços de descolonização no meio académico e à proeminente característica global dos média, esta edição temática reúne investigação sobre múltiplos países, contextos e realidades. Como defendido por Laidler et al (2017), a inves-tigação sobre o nexo crime-média terá de incluir as especificidades do norte e do sul global, considerando não só as situações políticas e sociais mas também os aspetos geopolíticos e económicos.…”

Algorithmic tyranny:Psycho-Pass, science fiction and the criminological imagination

“…This focus on the global North is not peculiar to popular criminology alone, but is symptomatic of cultural criminology more generally. In their editorial for Crime, Media, Culture ’s recent Asia-style Special Issue, Fraser et al (2017), for example, note that the administrative flavour of criminology in Asia has resulted in a dearth of cultural and critical criminological scholarship in the region (see Laidler et al, 2017). Echoing Fraser et al’s (2017) call for greater criminological engagement with Asian media and culture, I suggest that Japanese animation – referred to in the West as ‘anime’ – represents an important, yet under-researched site of popular criminology that should be taken seriously by cultural and media criminology.…”

Decolonising Criminology: Syed Hussein Alatas on Crimes of the Powerful

“…This may be based on an inferiority complex which results in the reproduction of Western paradigms, theories and concepts, and stifles original theorising that might otherwise occur in the non-West. Thirdly, non-Western criminologists who may produce relevant scholarship may be curtailed by socio-political contexts that include deprivation, censorship and a culmination of a lack of resources, opportunities and academic freedom, all of which lead to the production of a limited criminology (Fasihuddin 2013;Laidler et al 2017;Lee and Laidler 2013: 147;Liu et al 2013: 2). These sociological factors can curtail the criminological scholarship that is produced in the non-West and reinforce the marginalisation of non-Western scholarship.…”

“…Those who doubt Alatas' relevance for criminology may exhibit a Westerncentric prejudice against scholarship from the non-West which results in having higher demands of non-Western scholarship. Furthermore, if we are to decolonise criminology then we may need to explore literature which is not obviously criminological due to a possible dearth of non-Western criminology (Brown 2018: 93;Laidler et al 2017). There are numerous reasons why criminologists ought to pay attention to Alatas though and the first is perhaps the most obvious, which is that criminological themes were central to his scholarship, which typically focused on political elites' contraventions of justice.…”