In the Frame: Crime and the Limits of Representation

Abstract

Recent research in criminology has taken up the question of the representation of crime. This article seeks to show, by means of a case study, that the question of representation should be addressed less in terms of its correspondence to reality, but rather in terms of its own structures. These structures enable us to see how crime is staged as a problem in and of cultural representation. The case study analysed is that of the James Bulger case in Britain: the murder of a two year old boy by two 10 year old boys, the ensuing trial and sentencing of the boys for murder and abduction. The article analyses three themes which were prominent in the media reports (representations of the nature of childhood; the maternal relation; and the paternal figure). The article also demonstrates, by means of an analysis of the reliance upon a technology of the image in the case, that there are limits to representation: as the desire or demand for representation seeks to see the event of abduction and murder, that event can only be represented as lack or absence.