OPEN LECTURE ON CULTURAL CRIMINOLOGY

Cultural Criminology: An Invitation

Dr. Keith Hayward
Director of Studies for Criminology
Kent University

Abstract: Cultural criminology is a theoretical, methodological and interventionist approach

to the study of crime and deviance that places criminality and its control in the context of late
modern culture. This lecture will provide a user-friendly introduction to the subject, exploring
the essential elements of cultural criminology via a series of theoretical explorations and
imaginative case studies. Drawing on a range of diverse examples, including everything from
high street fashion window displays to the commodification of crime and violence in video
games, from the liminal spectacle of binge drinking, to so-called British chav culture, this
lecture will argue that the fluidity of contemporary culture not only carries along the meaning
of crime; it circles back to amplify, distort, and define the experience of crime and criminality
itself.