Fictional Representation of Prison in Films and TV’s Series Genre: Public and Academic Perceptions of Prison

Abstract

Imprisonment is a widespread punishment all over the world, but prison is for most of us an unknown experience and anything we know is mostly, through media and cinema representations. Therefore, it is very likely these representations play an important role in formation of our social representation for this matter. Additionally, the audience captivated for issues which are unknown and unreachable and that relate to the criminal behavior and action of institutions of social control of crime, but also to life in prison. In this article we will refer, firstly to the way of representation of prison in fictional films and television series, secondly the research which have been developed about the relationship between the fictional representation of prison and audience’s reception and finally we will see what impact have all these to criminal justice community, since research saw that “skilled public” in criminological knowledge share the same perceptions for prison with others.