The Criminal Humanities

This groundbreaking anthology examines the phenomenon of crime and our historical understanding - and misunderstanding - of the criminal mind through the lens of the humanities, unpacking foundational concepts in criminology and criminal investigative analysis through disciplines such as the visual arts, cultural studies, religious studies, and comparative literature. Edited by two key figures in this burgeoning field who are also pre-eminent experts in both forensic semiotics and literary criminology, this book breathes new life into the humanities disciplines by using them as a collective locus for the study of everything from serial homicide, sexual disorders, and police recruiting and corruption to the epistemology of criminal insanity. Using a multidisciplinary framework that traverses myriad pedagogies and invokes a number of methodologies, this anthology boasts chapters written by some of the world's key scholars working at the crossroads of crime, media, and culture as broadly defined.

This groundbreaking anthology examines the phenomenon of crime and our historical understanding – and misunderstanding – of the criminal mind through the lens of the humanities, unpacking foundational concepts in criminology and criminal investigative analysis through disciplines such as the visual arts, cultural studies, religious studies, and comparative literature.

Contents: Michael Arntfield/Marcel Danesi: Introduction: Rise of the Criminal Humanist - James Johnston: A "notable newe Italionisme": Providence, Plague, and the Final Words of the Criminally Condemned in The Unfortunate Traveller - Lee Mellor: Original Gangsta: Self-Conceptualization and Criminogenic Authenticity in Hip Hop Music - Yair Neuman/Yochai Cohen/James Knoll: Metonymy and Mass Murder: Diagnosing "Splitting" Through Automatic Text Analysis - Joan Swart: Psychopaths in Film: Are Portrayals Realistic and Does It Matter? - Trevor Grant: The Hammer and the Hummingbird: Spectating Crime Inside the Documentary Film - DJ Williams/John Edgar Browning: Looking Inside the Coffin: An Overview of Contemporary Human Vampirism and Its Relevance for Forensics Professionals - Sonia Halpern: A Yiddishe Cop: Jewish Identity, Police, and Prisoners in Contemporary Law Enforcement - Lee Mellor/Vivek Venkatesh/Jason Wallin/Tieja Thomas: Killing for Slender Man: The Emergence of an Electronic Gospel - Victoria Bigliardi: Crime as Curation: Understanding Crime Through the Lens of the Museum - Bethany K. Walters/Eric W. Hickey: Crime and the Canvas: Depicting Criminals and Their Punishments in the Visual Arts, from Antiquity to Present.

This groundbreaking anthology examines the phenomenon of crime and our historical understanding - and misunderstanding - of the criminal mind through the lens of the humanities, unpacking foundational concepts in criminology and criminal investigative analysis through disciplines such as the visual arts, cultural studies, religious studies, and comparative literature.