From Multi-Institutional Masking to Status Annihilation: The Cultural Afterlife of the Savile Scandal

Chris Greer is Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research and Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex. His research interests currently focus on two main areas, connected by an abiding curiosity about the dynamics of institutional power. The first area is concerned with developing the concepts of trial by media and institutional scandal to understand the shifting relations between news media, public institutions, civil society and the state. The second area concentrates on the multi-agency response to serious youth violence and involves an ongoing partnership with local government aimed at co-producing better outcomes for young people.

Eugene McLaughlin is Professor of Criminology. His current research focuses on institutional scandals, systemic criminality and 'trial by media'. He also has a long-standing research focus on the politics of policing and critical criminology's history and development. His work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. Recent books are The Sage Dictionary of Criminology (with John Muncie, 4th Edition, 2019) and Understanding Deviance (with David Downes and Paul Rock, 7th Edition, 2016). He was, with Lynn Chancer, co-editor of Theoretical Criminology and has served on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Criminology, Crime, Media and Culture, Critical Social Policy and the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice. He is currently on the International Editorial Boards of Crime, Media and Culture, the Journal of Criminology and Theoretical Criminology.

This paper explores multi-institutional processes of status sedimentation and annihilation by examining the ongoing Savile scandal. For decades, Sir Jimmy Savile was celebrated as one of the UK’s best-loved celebrity icons. One year after his death, he was exposed as a serial sexual predator. Having mapped out the multi-institutional masking processes that co-produced Savile’s ‘untouchable’ celebrity icon status in Greer and McLaughlin (2021), this paper turns to the multi-institutional processes of status annihilation that have sought, and so far failed, to eradicate Savile from the UK’s memory museum.

This seminar is part of an online open seminar series, hosted by the Centre for Criminology.