James Sheptycki (ed.), Transnational crime (4 Vols.)

Published date01 June 2016
AuthorJude McCulloch
DOI10.1177/0004865815616532
Date01 June 2016
Subject MatterBook Reviews
SG-ANJ-49-02-TOC 1..2 Book Reviews
305
1971) are conspicuously absent from the bibliography. The discussion of the emergent
modern prison is correspondingly underdeveloped. This, however, is not an insurmount-
able defect in a book about representations of the prison in television and f‌ilm.
Potentially more problematic, however, are absent references to relevant works about
prison f‌ilm and television. Although Cecil’s bibliography is impressive, it is not compre-
hensive. It does not include, for example, prison movie texts such as Captured on Film
(Crowther, 1989) or Prison Pictures from Hollywood (Parish, 2001).
Cecil’s book does not examine all forms of prison culture, and excludes even feature
f‌ilms and television programmes that might be germane to the study of prison in popular
culture. Nevertheless, in the tradition of the work of Ray Surette (2015), Prison Life in
Popular Culture will be exceptionally useful to anyone interested in the relationship
between punitive societies and media representations of the prison. Cecil’s chronologies
are valuable tools for understanding the evolving nature of the imagined prison, and her
f‌ilm taxonomies have the potential to organise seemingly heterogeneous works of media.
Cecil’s chapter on MSNBC’s Lockup franchise and its successors is frankly the best
I have read on the topic, and her discussion of Orange Is the New Black is thoughtful,
insightful, and timely. Prison Life in Popular Culture synthesizes the best existing schol-
arship on prison media and extends it into new directions. It is a f‌ine addition to the
cultural criminologist’s shelf and will be especially valuable for students and lay readers
seeking an introduction to the prison in media.
References
Bennett, J. (2006). The good, the bad and the ugly: The media in prison films. Howard Journal of
Criminal Justice, 45(2), 97–115.
Crowther, B. (1989). Captured on film: The prison movie. London, UK: BT Batsford.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York,...

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