Monsters, Law, Crime

Monsters, Law, Crime, an edited collection composed of essays written by prominent U.S. and international experts in Law, Criminology, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication and Film, constitutes a rigorous attempt to explore fertile interdisciplinary inquiries into ΓÇ£monstersΓÇ¥ and ΓÇ£monster-talk,ΓÇ¥ and law and crime. ΓÇ£MonstersΓÇ¥ may refer to allegorical or symbolic fantastic beings (as in literature, film, legends, myths, etc.), or actual or real life monsters, as well as the interplay/ambiguity between the two general types of ΓÇ£monsters.ΓÇ¥ This edited collection thus explores and updates contemporary discussions of the emergent and evolving fronts of monster theory in relation to cutting-edge research on law and crime, and may be seen as extensions of a Gothic Criminology, generally construed. Gothic Criminology refers to a theoretical framework initially developed by Caroline Joan ΓÇ£KayΓÇ¥ S. Picart, a Philosophy and Film professor turned Attorney and Law professor, and Cecil Greek, a Sociologist (Picart and Greek 2008). Succinctly paraphrased, noting the proliferation of Gothic modes of narration and visualization in American popular culture, academia and even public policy, Picart and Greek proposed a framework, which they described as a ΓÇ£Gothic CriminologyΓÇ¥ to attempt to analyze the fertile lacunae connecting the ΓÇ£realΓÇ¥ and the ΓÇ£reelΓÇ¥ in the flow of Gothic metaphors and narratives that abound around criminological phenomena that populate not only popular culture but also academic and public policy discourses.