Popular Culture, Forensics and Corpses

Ruth Penfold-Mounce has a new article 'Corpses, popular culture, and forensic science: public obsession with death' that has been released online in Mortality. Mortality is currently her favourite journal and not just because they have published her work but because it provides an interdisciplinary approach to death studies allowing for and and encouraging cultural explorations of this field.

The article considers how forensic science portrayals in popular culture fuel public obsession with death and corpses. It suggests that watching the dead is societally acceptable when seen through forensic science which provides a softening lens. It is this softening lens and popular culture representation that is leading to a normalisation of consuming the dead by the public.