| Abstract [eng] |
Crime knowledge in this dissertation is analysed by applying P. L. Berger’s and T. Luckmann’s elaborated interpretation of the sociology of knowledge – social constructionism perspective. According to the chosen theoretical perspective, crime knowledge is perceived as people’s everyday “knowledge” about “crime reality”. The perception of crime reality is created and maintained by individual thoughts and actions, which are influenced by various social institutions. In the contemporary world one of the most influential of these institutions is the mass media, which is also one of the main forms of public discourse. As the main source of information about crime and criminal justice, mass media significantly influences public knowledge about the reality of crime. Through the disposition of this “synoptic” power, mass media contributes to the shaping and framing of its content, which is influenced by the normative contours of the society, and the commercial factors of media industry operating under the logic of the free market economy. The objective of the dissertation is to reveal the nature of the construction of knowledge as it relates to the “social reality of crime” in the public discourse. In order to achieve this objective, the dissertation discusses and analyses social processes which form the fundamental basis of the discursive practices of criminal knowledge, and reveals the core structural characteristics of this type of knowledge. |
