Author
Nicole Rafter
Other affiliations: University of Oxford
Bio: Nicole Rafter is an academic researcher from Northeastern University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Criminal justice & Cultural criminology. The author has an hindex of 23, co-authored 53 publications receiving 1633 citations. Previous affiliations of Nicole Rafter include University of Oxford.
Topics: Criminal justice, Cultural criminology, Genocide, Eugenics, Phrenology
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
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01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: Roughgarden as discussed by the authors examines the relationship between society and crime films from the perspectives of criminal justice, film history and technique, and sociology, concluding that crime films raise controversial issues about the distribution of social power and the meanings of deviance, and they provide a safe space for fantasies of rebellion, punishment, and the restoration of order.
Abstract: Movies play a central role in shaping our understanding of crime and the world generally, helping us define what is good and bad, desirable and unworthy, lawful and illicit, strong and weak. Crime films raise controversial issues about the distribution of social power and the meanings of deviance, and they provide a safe space for fantasies of rebellion, punishment, and the restoration of order. In the first comprehensive study of its kind, well-known criminologist Nicole Rafter examines the relationship between society and crime films from the perspectives of criminal justice, film history and technique, and sociology. Shots in the Mirror begins with an overview of the history of crime films and the emergence of various genres, surveying important films from the silent era, the early gangster films of the '30s, classic film noir, the work of Hitchcock, and recent innovations by Scorsese, Tarrentino, and the Coen brothers. Keeping pace with the evolution of crime films, Shots in the Mirror has been updated to respond to recent developments, trends, and shifting circumstances in the genre. This new edition expands the scope and increases the depth and variety of the previous edition by including foreign films in addition to American movies. Rafter also integrates an entirely new body of literature into the study, reflecting the rapid expansion of scholarship on law-related films over the past three years. She has added a chapter on psycho movies, a previously unrecognized subcategory of crime films. Another new chapter, "The Alternative Tradition and Films of Moral Ambiguity," focuses on recent sex crime films. This new final chapter grows organically out of the first edition's distinction between traditional crime films, with their easy solutions to social problems, and those more unusual critical films which belong to the bleaker, morally ambiguous, alternative tradition. Rafter examines more than three hundred films in this study, considering what they have to say, socially and ideologically, about the causes of crime, and adding valuable contributions to the on-going debate on whether media representations of violence cause crime. Shots in the Mirror is both a marvelous history of crime films and a trenchant analysis of their complex relationship to larger society.
174 citations
Book•
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30 Jan 1990
TL;DR: Roughgarden et al. as mentioned in this paper trace the evolution of women's prisons from the late eighteenth century to the present day, showing that the character of penal treatment was involved in the very definition of womanhood for incarcerated women, a definition that varied by race and social class.
Abstract: Contemporary Research on crime, prisons, and social control has largely ignored women. Partial Justice, the only full-scale study of the origins and development of women's prisons in the United States, traces their evolution from the late eighteenth century to the present day. It shows that the character of penal treatment was involved in the very definition of womanhood for incarcerated women, a definition that varied by race and social class. Rafter traces the evolution of women's prisons, showing that it followed two markedly different models. Custodial institutions for women literally grew out of men's penitentiaries, starting from a separate room for women. Eventually women were housed in their own separate facilities-a development that ironically inaugurated a continuing history of inmate neglect. Then, later in the nineteenth century, women convicted of milder offenses, such as morals charges, were placed into a new kind of institution. The reformatory was a result of middle-class reform movements, and it attempted to rehabilitate to a degree unknown in men's prisons. Tracing regional and racial variations in these two branches of institutions over time, Rafter finds that the criminal justice system has historically meted out partial justice to female inmates. Women have benefited in neither case. Partial Justice draws in first-hand accounts, legislative documents, reports by investigatory commissions, and most importantly, the records of over 4,600 female prisoners taken from the original registers of five institutions. This second edition includes two new chapters that bring the story into the present day and discusses measures now being used to challenge the partial justice women have historically experienced.
147 citations
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01 Jan 1997
TL;DR: The first social history of biological theories of crime in sixty years as discussed by the authors examines those theories' origins and content, showing their undue influence on crime control in the United States and shows how history can guide us in our response to the reemergence of eugenics.
Abstract: Genetic screening, new reproductive technologies, gene therapies, and the reality of cloning all make biological solutions to human social problems seem possible. Creating Born Criminals shows how history can guide us in our response to the reemergence of eugenics. The first social history of biological theories of crime in sixty years, it examines those theories' origins and content, showing their undue influence on crime control in the United States.
109 citations
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01 Oct 2008
TL;DR: A Criminology for the 21st Century: Biocriminology in Nazi Germany and the Origins of Criminologist's Darkest Hour is published.
Abstract: List of Illustrations Preface 1 Introduction: Crime, History, Science Part I Biological Theories in the 19th Century 2 Moral Insanity and the Origins of Criminology 3 Phrenology: The Abnormal Brain 4 Criminal Anthropology: The Atavistic Brain 5 Evolutionary Theories: The Degenerate Brain Part II Biological Theories in the 20th Century 6 Stupidity Theories: The Backward Brain 7 Constitutional Theory: Bodytypes and Criminality 8 Criminology's Darkest Hour: Biocriminology in Nazi Germany 9 Contemporary Biocriminology Part III Biological Theories in the 21st Century 10 A Criminology for the 21st Century Notes References Index About the Author
83 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors use social movement theory to analyze environmental justice rhetoric and argue that the environmental justice frame is a master frame that uses discourses about injustice as an effective mobilizing tool.
Abstract: This article uses social movement theory to analyze environmental justice rhetoric. It argues that the environmental justice frame is a master frame that uses discourses about injustice as an effective mobilizing tool. The article identifies an environmental justice paradigm and compares it with the new environmental paradigm. In addition, the article discusses why the environmental justice movement grew so fast and why its adherents find the environmental justice frame so appealing.
692 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the core elements of feminist thought and demonstrate their relevance for criminology are sketched and discussed in three areas: building theories of gender and crime, controlling men's violence toward women, and gender equality in the criminal justice system.
Abstract: In this essay we sketch core elements of feminist thought and demonstrate their relevance for criminology. After reviewing the early feminist critiques of the discipline and the empirical emphases of the 1970s and early 1980s, we appraise current issues and debates in three areas: building theories of gender and crime, controlling men's violence toward women, and gender equality in the criminal justice system. We invite our colleagues to reflect on the androcentrism of the discipline and to appreciate the promise of feminist inquiry for rethinking problems of crime and justice.
681 citations
Book•
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01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: Gramsci, theoricien italien de la pensee marxiste, mort en prison en 1937 and who proposa une reflexion sur l'education dans les regimes totalitaires, and plus generalement sur les systemes des gouvernements modernes, ou la priorite donnee a l'organisation economique and a lefficacite de la production industrielle etouffe les valeurs humaines et historiques as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Selection d'extraits des Cahiers de Prison d'Antonio Gramsci, theoricien italien de la pensee marxiste, mort en prison en 1937 et qui proposa une reflexion sur l'education dans les regimes totalitaires, et plus generalement sur les systemes des gouvernements modernes, ou la priorite donnee a l'organisation economique et a l'efficacite de la production industrielle etouffe les valeurs humaines et historiques.
672 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss three of the most common ways the gendering perspective has been applied and argue that all of these definitions pose potential problems for the project of meaningful social and organizational change.
Abstract: Considerable attention has been paid recently to the gendering of organizations and occupations. Unfortunately, the gendered-organizations approach remains theoretically and empirically underdeveloped, as there have as yet been few clear answers to the question central to the perspective: What does it really mean to say that an organization itself, or a policy, practice, or slot in the hierarchy, is “gendered”? Reviewing literature in the gendered-organizations tradition, the author discusses three of the most common ways the perspective has been applied and argues that all of these definitions pose potential problems for the project of meaningful social and organizational change. The article concludes with some suggestions about how a more useful conception of the gendered organization might be built.
608 citations