Punishment in Popular Culture examines the cultural images that undergird and critique America’s distinctive approach to punishment. It recognizes that the semiotics of punishment is all around us, not just in the architecture of the prison or the speech made by a judge as she sends someone to a penal colony, but in both “high” and “popular” culture iconography—in novels, television, and film. This book explores the presence of punishment as a subject in American popular culture. Like David Garland, we see punishment and culture connected in two ways: culture give punishment meaning and legiti ... More

Punishment in Popular Culture examines the cultural images that undergird and critique America’s distinctive approach to punishment. It recognizes that the semiotics of punishment is all around us, not just in the architecture of the prison or the speech made by a judge as she sends someone to a penal colony, but in both “high” and “popular” culture iconography—in novels, television, and film. This book explores the presence of punishment as a subject in American popular culture. Like David Garland, we see punishment and culture connected in two ways: culture give punishment meaning and legitimacy, and shapes its practice through cultural “sensibilities and mentalities.” Punishment is a social institution “composed of the interlinked processes of lawmaking, conviction, sentencing, and the administration of penalties.” This book explores these two interrelated concepts by bringing together distinguished scholars of punishment and experts in media studies in an unusual juxtaposition of disciplines and perspectives.