Miss Jana Macfarlane Horn

I commenced my PhD journey with The Open University in October 2021 and am currently in the writing-up stage of my thesis. My primary focus is corporate crime and harm which I investigate in the context of its media portrayals. 

Prior to starting my doctorate degree, I obtained a BSc in Criminology at the University of Surrey and an MRes in Criminology at the University of Glasgow. Throughout my studies, I have focussed on gaining more understanding of corporate, white-collar and financial crimes given the vast impact they have on society and (the lack of) social justice.

Outside of my academic endeavours, I have collaborated on a project titled Joint Enterprise Appeal Project, working with the charity JENGbA (joint enterprise: not guilty by association) that entailed reviewing case documentation and evidence to establish whether there are enough grounds for starting the appeal process. This was limited to cases in which the ‘joint enterprise’ doctrine had been used to convict the co-defendants. As a result, the findings of my project have been used in a House of Commons debate. 

I have also obtained some professional experience as an insurance fraud investigator which allowed me to understand the practicalities of fraud investigation and to support the theoretical understanding I had gathered through academia. 

My thesis investigates the portrayal of corporate crime and harm within the realm of contemporary media, specifically podcasts. Centering on two emblematic corporate crime cases, the Rana Plaza collapse of 2013 and the Deepwater Horizon explosion of 2010, I analyze the discourses present within podcasts covering these two cases and the extent to which these are rooted in hegemonic perspectives, I use thematic analysis which is informed by critical discourse analysis, meaning I focus on how events get contextualised through language and how this language is shaped by ideology and power.

I focus on four contexts in which corporate crime discourses are present. These include corporate crimes perceived as disasters, corporate crimes perceived through the lens of legal definitions of crime, corporate crime as a form of social harm and lastly, corporate crime as an expression of corporate power and capitalism. Throughout the thesis, I draw on concepts from Zemiology, cultural criminology, and media studies for the theoretical underpinnings of my empirical study. 

Publications

Refereed Journal Articles

• Macfarlane Horn, J. (2024) Accident, scandal, disaster: the media framing of corporate crime. Crime Law Soc Change 81, 203–229. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-023-10111-z

Book Chapters

• Macfarlane Horn, J. & Tombs, S. (forthcoming) Corporate Violence, in Regoeczi, W. and Miethe, T. (eds) Handbook on Violent Crime and Society, Edgar Publishing Limited.

Blogs

• Macfarlane Horn, J. (2023) ‘Rana Plaza, 10 Years On: Fast Fashion, Lesson Forgotten?’, The BSC Blog, https://thebscblog.wordpress.com/2023/03/23/rana-plaza-10-years-on-fast-fashion-lesson-forgotten/
• Macfarlane Horn, J. (2022) ‘Amazon: When a Crime is Not a Crime’, The BSC Blog, https://thebscblog.wordpress.com/2022/04/13/amazon-when-a-crime-is-not-a-crime/ 

Book Review

• Macfarlane Horn, J. (2022) ‘Book Review: Corporate Wrongdoing on Film, The 'Public be Damned'’, Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime. https://doi.org/10.1177/2631309X221123226 

Podcast

• Macfarlane Horn, J. (2022) ‘Researching Podcasts in Criminology’, Research @ OU Graduate School. https://podbay.fm/p/research-ou-graduate-school/e/1663764906