Collecting the criminal: Murder and mayhem in cultural institutions

Abstract

Abstract Cultural institutions, across Australia, collect works of crime fiction and true crime that tell narratives about a range of unlawful activities. These institutions also collect legal texts, papers and records as well as numerous pieces of realia and of art that record and unpack some of the most horrific incidents in our national history. Crime has long held a prominent position in the popular imagination; a position supported by galleries, libraries, archives and museums. From small, incidental collections that form only one element of a wide-ranging repository to large, significant collections that focus on the criminal in deed and in impact. This article explores how these collections assist in informing shared attitudes towards crime through presenting stories of an extraordinary array of wrongdoers: from largely forgotten convicts, to well-known bushrangers, to notorious murderers, to those who committed many different types of crimes. In the Australian context, which features a widely acknowledged tradition of sympathizing with the criminal, some malefactors have disturbed our ideas of right and wrong. Moreover, crime-focused collections can serve to elevate our fear of crime and influence how we feel about different forms of punishment. In this way, cultural institutions demonstrate they play an important role in a field often considered to be the exclusive domain of law makers and law enforcers.