Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Forensic Detective as Panic Figure

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Moral Panics, Mental Illness Stigma, and the Deinstitutionalization Movement in American Popular Culture

  • 611 Accesses

Abstract

Public identification of the mentally ill revolves around four markers: “labels … (people who are publically known as mentally ill), “bizarre behavior … poor social skills … and physical appearance” (Schumacher et al. 2003, p. 469).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • “A History of Federal Funding for Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs.” Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS). http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewpage&pageid=1340&nodeid=1#_ednrefl. Accessed 29 May 2017.

  • Adolescent Family Life Act. 1981. 20 Sec. 2001 et seq. Public Health Service Act [As Amended Through P.L. 115–255, Enacted Dec. 13, 2016]. Office of the Legislative Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives. https://legcounsel.house.gov/Comps/PHSA-merged.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2017.

  • “Adult New York Times Bestseller List.” Dec. 20, 1981. Hawes Publications. http://www.hawes.com/1981/1981.htm. Accessed 10 Aug 2014.

  • “Ann Rule Bio.” Author Ann Rule. http://www.authorannrule.com/Ann_Rule_Bio.html. Accessed 27 May 2017.

  • Cavender, Gray. 1998. “In ‘The Shadow of Shadows’: Television Reality Crime Programming.” In Entertaining Crime: Television Reality Programs, ed. Gray Cavender and Mark Fishman, 79–94. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cleckley, Hervey. 1941. The Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Reinterpret the So-called Psychopathic Personality. St. Louis: C.V. Mosby Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———.1982. The Mask of Sanity. New York: Mosby Medical Library/Plume.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deal, David. 2007. Television Fright Films of the 1970s. Jefferson: McFarland and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dietz, Jean. 1974. “Psychologist Warns Public to Prepare for Mental Patients.” Boston Globe 29 (April 1974): 5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donovan, Pamela. 1998. “Armed with the Power of Television: Reality Crime Programming and the Reconstruction of Law and Order in the United States.” In Entertaining Crime: Television Reality Programs, ed. Gray Cavender and Mark Fishman, 117–137. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, John E., and Mark Olshaker. 1996. Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit. New York: Pocket Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, John E., and Robert K. Ressler, et al. 1986. “Serial Killers and Their Victims: Identifying Patterns Through Crime Scene Analysis.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 1 (3): 288–308. Accessed 21 Aug 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, Patricia E., and Steven K. Erickson. 2008. Crime, Punishment, and Mental Illness: Law and the Behavioral Sciences in Conflict. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 1990. The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gentry, Cynthia. 1988. “The Social Construction of Abducted Children as a Social Problem.” Sociological Inquiry 58 (4): 413–425. Accessed 5 June 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grob, Gerald N. 2005. “Public Policy and Mental Illnesses: Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Commission on Mental Health.” The Milbank Quarterly 83 (3): 425–456. Accessed 30 Oct 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harris, Thomas. 1981. Red Dragon. 1998. New York: Delta.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1988. The Silence of the Lambs. 1998. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Directed by John McNaughton. 1986. MPI Home Video, DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howe, Alexander N. 2008. It Didn’t Mean Anything: A Psychoanalytic Reading of American Detective Fiction. Jefferson: McFarland and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Insanity Defense Reform Act. 1984. 18 USC 4243, 98 stat 2059. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/98/hjres648/text/enr. Accessed 31 May 2017.

  • Jenkins, Philip. 1994. Using Murder: The Social Construction of Serial Homicide. New Brunswick: Aldine Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, Ronald. 1984. “FBI Sets Up New Program to Identify Rapists.” The Washington Post, Sept 16, p. C1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knox, Sara L. 2001. “The Productive Power of Confessions of Cruelty.” Postmodern Culture, 11(3). Accessed 26 November 2013. http://pmc.iath.virginia.edu/issue.501/11.3knox.html.

  • Lea, R. Brooke, and David N. Rapp, et al. 2008. “Sweet Silent Thought: Alliteration and Resonance in Poetry Comprehension.” Psychological Science 9 (7): 709–716. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02146.x.

  • Littleton, Cynthia. 2012. TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lurie, Rod. 1991/2014. “Dr. Lecter Will See You Now.” Empire Magazine (24), June. http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/classic-feature-silence-lambs/. Accessed 3 June 2017.

  • Manhunter. Directed by Michael Mann. 1986. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 2004. DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann, Michael (Scriptwriter). 1984. Manhunter (aka Red Dragon). Shooting Script, 2nd Draft. Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDB). http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Manhunter.html. Accessed 29 Aug 2017.

  • Mattox, Jim. 1986. The Lucas Report. Texas: Office of the Attorney General, Legislative Library of Texas. Accessed 11 Dec 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michaud, Stephen G. 1986. “The FBI’s New Psyche Squad.” The New York Times, Oct 26, p. 40.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Crime Information Center (NCIC). Federal Bureau of Investigation. https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ncic. Accessed 15 Aug 2014.

  • Oeler, Karla. 2009. A Grammar of Murder: Violent Scenes and Film Form. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ouellette, Laurie. 2011. “Real Justice: Law and Order on Reality Television.” In Imagining Legality: Where Law Meets Popular Culture, ed. Austin Sarat, Desmond Manderson, et al. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pardes, Herbert. 1998. “NIMH During the Tenure of Director Herbert Pardes, M.D. (1978–1984): The President’s Commission on Mental Health and the Reemergence of NIMH’s Scientific Mission.” American Journal of Psychiatry 155 (9): 14–19. Accessed 1 June 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pemment, Jack. 2013. “Psychopathy Versus Sociopathy: Why the Distinction has Become Crucial.” Aggression and Violent Behavior 18 (5): 458–461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2013.07.001.

  • Pence, Jeffrey S. 1994. “Terror Incognito: Representation, Repetition, Experience in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.” Public Culture 6 (3): 525–545. Accessed 9 Dec 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ressler, Robert, Ann Burgess, et al. 1988. Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives. Lexington: D. C. Heath and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rule, Ann. 1983. Possession. New York: Signet.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russo, Charles. 2007. “Zodiac: The Killer Who Will Not Die.” San Francisco Magazine, March 2007. https://archive.li/SU0mV. Accessed 12 Nov 2013.

  • “Sam Told Me To Do it … Sam is the Devil.” 1977. Time Magazine 110 (8) (22 August). Accessed 28 June 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, David. 2005. Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schumacher, Matthew, et al. 2003. “Examining Cues That Signal Mental Illness Stigma.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 22 (5): 467–476. Accessed 30 June 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Silence of the Lambs. Directed by Jonathan Demme. 1991. Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 2004. DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Dave. 1969. “Zodiac Killer—Chilling Portrait of Madness.” Los Angeles Times, Oct 15, 1, 26–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tally, Ted (Scriptwriter). 1989. The Silence of the Lambs. Shooting Script. http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Silence-of-the-Lambs.html. Internet Movie Script Database. Accessed 31 Aug 2014.

  • Thomas, Alexandar. 1998. “Ronald Reagan and the Commitment of the Mentally Ill: Capital, Interest Groups, and the Eclipse of Social Policy.” Electronic Journal of Sociology 3 (4): n.p. https://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thomas.html. Accessed 3 Sept 2013.

  • United States. Cong. House. Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations. The Federal Role in Investigation of Serial Violent Crime. 99th Cong., 2nd sess. Hrg. 401–461. Washington: GPO, 1986. HeinOnline. Accessed 15 February 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • United States. Cong. Senate. Committee of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice. 1984. Serial Murders. 98th Cong., 1st sess. S. Hrg. 98–513. July 12, 1983. Washington: GPO. Accessed 3 Feb 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • United States. Cong. Senate. Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary. 1982. Missing and Exploited Children. 97th Cong., 2nd sess. April 1, 1982. Accessed 5 June 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wahl, Otto F. 1995. Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wahl, Otto F., and Rachel Roth. 1982. “Television Images of Mental Illness: Results of a Metropolitan Media Watch.” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 26 (2): 599–605. Accessed 1 July 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wicklund, Joel. 2015. “Killer Roles and Good Fortune: An Interview with Scott Glenn.” The Chicagoist, March 27. http://chicagoist.com/2015/03/27/killer_roles_and_good_fortune_an_in.php. Accessed 3 June 2017.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Writing and Linguistics, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA

    Anthony Carlton Cooke

Authors
  1. Anthony Carlton Cooke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anthony Carlton Cooke .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Cooke, A.C. (2017). The Forensic Detective as Panic Figure. In: Moral Panics, Mental Illness Stigma, and the Deinstitutionalization Movement in American Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47979-8_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation