Visualizing Cultural Criminology: See(k)ing Justice in the Films of Atom Egoyan

Abstract

Hayward and Young (2004) have urged criminologists to investigate the cultural nature of crime, the meaning surrounding interaction, and the interplay of transgression, identity, insecurity and emotion within mediated and cultural representations of crime and justice. In this paper, we attempt to visualize justice by analyzing how film expresses and places crime and agencies of control in the context of visual popular culture. We carry out a qualitative content analysis of three films by Canadian director Atom Egoyan that deal with crime and the aftermath of loss and victimization. Drawing on Hayward and Young’s (2004) “five motifs of cultural criminology” framework, we suggest that within three Atom Egoyan films: (1) the cinematic lens of adrenaline is central to orchestrating the atmosphere and narrative on screen; (2) the audience discovers the “strange spaces” existing in the society’s “underlife;” (3) acts of transgression involve struggling, “fragmented” characters; (4) the “attentive gaze” – in terms of seeing, being seen and eavesdropping is essential for both characters and audiences watching these films; and (5) Egoyan’s films produce subjugated, “dangerous knowledge” that shakes up notions of ontology, identity, sexuality and desire. Our research suggests that criminology can be enriched by accounting for the intersections between the cultural and the visual, and that to visualize justice we must consider alternative, cultural constructs of crime found in critical cinematic representations of crime, victimization, and loss.