Overview

Inhabitants of Medellín, Colombia, suffered from the war-like violence perpetrated by drug cartels and other actors in the 1980s and 1990s. Thousands died, including innocent civilians, judges, and journalists, many more were injured and suffered psychological trauma. Three decades later, however, transnational media companies such as Netflix have transformed the traumatic memories into entertainment while the main perpetrator, Pablo Escobar, became a recognizable brand name. Even as global audiences are captivated by Escobar's life and myth, his victims' stories fade into oblivion. Victimhood, Memory, and Consumerism: Profiting from Pablo documents the story of violence inflicted on Medellín, and critically examines the status of its victims. Drawing on unique empirical material, the book addresses the impact of commercial exploitation of the city's violent past on the victims of mass drug violence and on the present nature of the city. To demonstrate the magnitude of the profits made from the legacy of Pablo Escobar, the authors cover a range of topics. First, they discuss the appropriation by commercial forces of the city's traumatic past for the purposes of entertainment; second, they describe Escobar tours, souvenirs, and other collectibles offered by Medellín's tourism industry; and, lastly, they expose the less visible gains reaped by political and social actors who participate in the global mythmaking surrounding Escobar. Through interviews with those directly affected by drug violence, the authors show that these cultural forces have immediate symbolic and material consequences. Victimhood, Memory, and Consumerism offers a poignant critique of the role of the global market economy in the unequal distribution of narrative power among those engaged in processes of collective memory construction. The book aims, more broadly, at addressing an issue that has so far been neglected in the disciplines of criminology, international criminal justice, and victimology, namely the status of victims of large-scale drug violence. A thoroughly compelling read, this volume will appeal internationally to academics in criminology and victimology, as well as those interested in critical perspectives on Netflix, commercialism, and Colombian history.

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9780192874115

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Reviews

How to make sense of a Pablo Escobar t-shirt? Victimhood, Memory, and Consumerism is a fascinating and incisive analysis of the paradoxes of how mass drug violence in Medellín, Colombia has been commodified by the global culture industry of Netflix's Narcos and the mass-produced kitsch of dark tourism. The authors effectively show how this framing of violence as entertainment affects the lives and haunts the memories of the actual victims of violence in Medellín. * Marita Sturken, New York University, author of Tourists of History *

How to make sense of a Pablo Escobar t-shirt? Victimhood, Memory, and Consumerism is a fascinating and incisive analysis of the paradoxes of how mass drug violence in Medellin, Colombia has been commodified by the global culture industry of Netflix's Narcos and the mass-produced kitsch of dark tourism. The authors effectively show how this framing of violence as entertainment affects the lives and haunts the memories of the actual victims of violence in Medellin. * Marita Sturken, New York University, author of Tourists of History *

Author Information

Katja Franko is Professor of Criminology at the University of Oslo, Norway. She has published extensively on globalisation, migration and border control, international police co-operation and the use of advanced information and communication technologies in crime control strategies. Her recent publications include Globalization and Crime (3rd edition, 2020, Sage) and The Crimmigrant Other: Migration and Penal Power (2020, Routledge). Her book Sentencing in the Age of Information: From Faust to Macintosh was a 2006 joint winner of the Socio-Legal Studies Association Hart Book Prize. David R. Goyes is a researcher at the University of Oslo. Goyes holds a PhD in criminology from the same university. He has contributed extensively to the study of North-South global relations, environmental conflicts, and Indigenous issues. Goyes is editor-in-chief of the International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, and member of several editorial boards. Goyes has a long publication record, with titles in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. His first sole-authored book, Southern Green Criminology (Emerald), was published in 2019. He has also published numerous edited books, scientific journal special editions, academic articles and book chapters.

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