ABSTRACT
Breaking the rules and laws of society has occurred throughout history, so much so that what we know as criminal behaviour can be seen as part and parcel of social life. And throughout history, behaviour that breaks the rules has been described and discussed – in contemporary historical records, including the media of the day, that describe ‘actual’ criminal and rule-breaking behaviour and in fi ctional writings of different historical periods. Given the everyday nature of crime and criminality, it is no surprise that the contemporary media, in all its forms, is saturated with crime news and stories. As we suggested in Chapter 1 (p. 1), a glance at the news headlines in today’s press, on the television or on Internet news programmes, or a review of popular fi lms or literature, will demonstrate the massive media coverage given to crime and criminals.
