Read the first chapter of Mark Seltzers Serial Killers - it promises to be a useful source of information and analysis on the broader culture surrounding serial killing. He cites many films, novels, and journalistic reports, but does not necessarily attempt (so far) a thor0ugh formal analysis of the visual construction of serial murder/violent events. One of the concepts he develops is the idea of 'stranger-intimacy' - I'm not exactly sure what he means by it yet. The killer's anonymity, apparent selflessness, and desire to merge with the mass is something he discusses in the introduction and is pretty fascinating. Also, he mentions the circuit between criminological processes of profiling and crime fiction, recounting the writing of Thomas Harris's books and his research at the FBI, as well as FBI profiler John Douglas's book Mindhunter in which he admits: "Our antecedents actually go back to crime fiction more than crime fact" going on to cite Poe's detective stories as an inspiration! Amazing.

Paired with Mary Ann Lep's research in Apprehending the Criminal I can definitely make a case for criminology being largely a bogus science... Or, more seriously, a science which masquerades as a science, being in fact a product of a collective literary imagination (?)

February 18, 2009

-Watched most of The Detective (Gordon Douglas, 1968) -- Frank Sinatra plays a proto-Serpico liberal cop doing battle with corruption and bigotry in NYPD. There is also shades of Fort Apache, The Bronx, and Assault on Precinct 13 with the police station becoming somewhat like the Alamo within a larger urban fabric of social breakdown, crisis. Sinatra makes a speech to the district commissioner about the ghetto re: doing something to curb the crisis instead of just managing it. An early case deals with a homosexual murder and Sinatra's tolerance is pitted against the other officer's disdain

-Read a little of Mark Seltzer's article in Urban Culture vol 4. on the relationship btw. the urban pathology of the serial killer and the domestic space in which his crimes are committed.