Criminology, Deviance, and the Silver Screen : The Fictional Reality and the Criminological Imagination

This text argues for the usefulness of fictional realities for criminological theorizing and analysis. It illustrates that a creative and critical social scientific practice requires craft norms rather than commercial norms that threaten to completely colonize higher education.

Works of fiction offer complex and layered social realities that can be deconstructed and creatively theorized through the analytic languages of criminology and sociology. Frauley argues for the usefulness of fictional realities for criminological theorizing and analysis and argues for a "craft-enterprise" approach to theoretic practice. In developing this argument he outlines the conceptual system, methodology, and social ontology of the "criminological imagination". This provides the basis for investigating some major concepts of prominent and influential theoretical frameworks, resulting in several original interpretations of cinematic narratives. In addition to illustrating theoretic analysis, Frauley provides for the bridging of theory and application and offers an innovative and interesting context in which to engage readers in the exploration of criminological theory and theorizing.