Van Horne to Present at Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting

By Purnell T. Cropper | February 11, 2013

Dr. Sheryl Van Horne, Assistant Professor and Director of Criminal Justice, Director of Global Security and Emergency Management, will present “Justice Betrayed: Framing the Outcome of Justice on Oxygen Network’s Snapped” on March 23 at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas.

This research examines the portrayal of justice in forty randomly selected episodes of Snapped, a documentary series on Oxygen that started in 2004 which focuses on women who kill, their trials, and the outcome of the cases incorporating interviews of key criminal justice personnel (law enforcement officers, and prosecutors), the victim’s family, reporters, and, occasionally, the offenders themselves and their family members. Each episode of the show airs for one hour and there have been over 180 episodes as of this writing. A narrator voice-over provides the framework for the viewer and the footage of the victims’ families predominate that framing. The overall tone of the episodes is largely pro-crime control and justice is portrayed as unobtainable despite the accused usually receiving long prison terms.