ABSTRACT
Media discourse is saturated with crime. Crime consumes an enormous amount of media space as both entertainment and news. Whether it be T V cop shows, crime novels, docudramas, newspaper articles, comics, documentaries or 'real life' reconstructions, crime, criminality and criminal justice appear to have an endless capacity to tap into public fear and fascination. Indeed much of our information about the nature and extent of crime comes to us via the secondary source of the media. We should expect, then, that they play a significant role in our perception and understanding of the boundaries between order and disorder. But despite the powerful 'commonsense' view that news media merely provide the facts of a process in which crime occurs — police apprehend criminals and courts punish them - the relationship between crime and media reportage is far from simple.
