Table Of ContentCelebrity Culture and Crime
Cultural Criminology
Series editor: Mike Presdee, Sometime Senior Lecturer in Criminology,
University of Kent, UK
Titles include:
Ruth Penfold-Mounce
CELEBRITY CULTURE AND CRIME
The Joy of Transgression
Willem Schinkel
ASPECTS OF VIOLENCE
A Critical Theory
Cultural Criminology
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Celebrity Culture and
Crime
The Joy of Transgression
Ruth Penfold-Mounce
University of York, UK
© Ruth Penfold-Mounce 2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-22468-1
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First published 2009 by
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For Mum, my staunchest supporter, and Daniel,
my best friend and husband, with love
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: Cultural Criminology and the Joy of Transgression 1
1 Celebrity, Fame and Culture 12
2 The Culture Industry and Foucauldian Governmentality 38
3 Resonance and Celebrated Criminality 63
4 Celebrated Criminality and Governance 94
5 The Undermining of Celebrated Criminality 114
6 The Evolution of Celebrated Criminality 140
Conclusion: Celebrating Crime in a Celebrity Culture 178
Bibliography 184
Index 193
vii
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to my University of York Sociology Department colleagues
who have supported me through this project, especially Simon Winlow,
Nick Gane and Dave Beer for their comments on various draft chapters of
this book. However, particular recognition should go to Emma Uprichard
for not only her support and enthusiasm but the useful comments on the
entire manuscript. I must also acknowledge my debt to Mike Presdee,
whose feedback on the final manuscript was invaluable. Thanks also to
the editorial team at Palgrave who have patiently answered all of my
numerous questions: Philippa Grand, Hazel Woodbridge and Olivia
Middleton.
viii
Introduction: Cultural
Criminology and the Joy of
Transgression
Celebrity dominates contemporary society. It pervades across the modern
media and encourages us to think of it as a new development, rather than
the extension of a long-standing condition (Turner, 2004: 4). The visibil-
ity of celebrity is unprecedented and there is a continuing debate sur-
rounding how to describe and understand this phenomenon. Attempts
have been made by looking at celebrity as a commercial commodity relat-
ing to intellectual property, an object of consumption and desire as part
of a celebrity industry, a cultural text which can be read to understand
ideological conditions and a cultural phenomenon constituting a new
way of perceiving the self and society. Celebrity is a multifaceted con-
cept, which can and has been approached from a variety of angles each
shedding more light upon this cultural phenomenon.
A key component in this focus on celebrity has been the largely over-
looked relationship it shares with transgression, whereby criminals and
deviants can enter into a celebrated status, while celebrities can also trans-
gress norms and laws by going wild and misbehaving. In this book the
evidence of a relationship between celebrity and criminality is examined
in order to establish the circumstances and reasons for this connection
existing as a united phenomenon referred to as ‘celebrated criminality’.
Additionally, the consequences and contributions of this relationship for
British and United States societies are considered through a range of case
studies, which are by no means definitive, but provide instances from the
past and present, Britain and the USA and from celebrated figures who
have minor national or major international status. In order to engage
with the debate over the relationship between celebrity and transgressive
behaviour this chapter explores the importance of cultural criminology
as a critical stance, the role of joy in transgressive acts and finally the
relationship shared by celebrity and crime.
1
