About this item
In today's society, the public perception of crime has been skewed by how the media depicts it. People use the media for enjoyment, companionship, surveillance, and interpretation. The problem is that it becomes hard to separate fact from entertainment. This raises several questions. How are we consuming media? Are we consuming reality within the news? And are we consuming harmless pleasure from entertainment media? In Crime, Media, and Reality: Examining Mixed Messages about Crime and Justice in Popular Media, Venessa Garcia and Samantha Garcia Arkerson focus predominantly on the social constructions of crime and justice and how we absorb them. They look at the influence of crime news and true crime television series that prevent the public from understanding pure entertainment from the realities of crime and justice.
About the Author
Venessa Garcia is a Feminist Criminologist/Victimologist and resident of New Jersey. She is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at New Jersey City University (NJCU) . In addition to teaching graduate and undergraduate courses, she serves as the Criminal Justice Coordinator of NJCU@Wall in Central NJ. She holds a B.A. in sociology from the State University of New York (SUNY) Buffalo College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from SUNY University at Buffalo. Dr. Garcia's research focuses on oppressed groups but mainly on women as officials, criminals, and offenders. In her research, she uses an intersectionality approach. She conducts research on women in policing, violence against women, and crime and media. She has published her research in journals such as Police Practice and Research: An International Journal and the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice. She also has several book chapters and encyclopedia articles. Her research can be found in books such as Change and Reform in Law Enforcement: Old and New Efforts from Across the Globe (Taylor & Francis) , The Harms of Crime Media: Essays on the Perpetuation of Racism, Sexism and Class Stereotypes (McFarland Press) , Strategic Responses to Crime: Thinking Locally, Acting Globally (CRC Press) , Contemporary Issues in Law Enforcement and Policing (Greenwood Press) , and Handbook of Police Administration (Taylor & Francis) . Dr. Garcia's books include Crime, Media, and Reality: Examining Mixed Messages about Crime and Justice in Popular Media (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018) , Gendered Justice: Intimate Partner Violence and the Criminal Justice System (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011) , Female Victims of Crime: Reality Reconsidered (Prentice Hall,2010) , and Domestic Violence and Child Custody Disputes: A Resource Handbook for Judges and Court Managers (VA: National Center for State Courts, 1997) . She served as President for the New Jersey Association of Criminal Justice Educators, Chair of the Division of Women and Crime, and is a long time Deputy Editor of Feminist Criminology (a Sage journal) . For her work, Dr. Garcia was awarded the Dr. Robert J. McCormack Leadership Award from the New Jersey Association of Criminal Justice Educators and the esteemed New Scholar of the Year from Division of Women and Crime of the American Society of Criminology. In the mid-1990s, Dr. Garcia worked as a Research Associate with the National Center for State Courts in beautiful Williamsburg, Virginia. Her work involved examining best practices of state courts. She served as Staff Liaison for the Americans with Disabilities Act Committee of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) under Hawaiian Chief Justice Ronald T. Y. Moon. From there she taught at Elmira College and was Criminal Justice Head within the Department of Sociology/Criminal Justice. While at Elmira College, Dr. Garcia also worked with the lifer's group in the Elmira Correctional Facility (a maximum security pris
