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Pantomime justice: A cultural criminological analysis of 'life stage dissolution'

Hayward, Keith J. (2012) Pantomime justice: A cultural criminological analysis of 'life stage dissolution'. Crime, Media, Culture, 8 (2). pp. 213-229. ISSN 1741-6590. (doi:10.1177/1741659012444443) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:38492)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1741659012444443

Abstract

Adopting the perspective of cultural criminology, this paper asserts that the century-old opposition between the adolescent/youth stage and adulthood is now being challenged by a late-modern capitalist culture functioning artificially to extend the former. Using examples from across the cultural script, the paper introduces the concept of 'life stage dissolution' (and its attendant bi-directional processes of 'adultification' and 'infantilisation') to suggest it is becoming more difficult for young people to differentiate and disassociate themselves from the generation immediately ahead of them, and indeed vice versa. The result is a sort of generational mulch where shared and interchangeable cultural experiences are now the norm. The second half of the paper provides some preliminary and deliberately provocative remarks about the implications of life stage dissolution for criminology and criminal justice. This will include an analysis of emerging processes that I have termed 'pantomime justice', a useful way of understanding how crime stories today often seem to unfold as a conjoined adult-child experience in contemporary society. © 2012 The Author(s).

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/1741659012444443
Uncontrolled keywords: adultification, cultural criminology, infantilisation, life stage dissolution, lifestyle consumerism
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Mita Mondal
Date Deposited: 27 Feb 2014 09:34 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:14 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/38492 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Hayward, Keith J..

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