Stephen Muzzatti

My primary research lies at the intersection of cultural and ultra-realist criminologies with particular attention to the issues of crime, social harms, consumerism and human interaction with animals. I’m particularly interested in the intertwining social dynamics of neoliberalism, brutality and victimisation. I’ve published on a wide array of topics including terrorism, violence against animals, state and corporate crime, narcissism, working-class spaces and identities, paranormal phenomenon, motorcycle culture and street racing, the Italian-Canadian community, advertising and the monetisation of violence

Recent publications:

Muzzatti, S. L., & Grieve, K. L. (2025). A Time to Kill: Cruelty and Compassion with Companion Animals and Urban Wildlife. In G. Hunnicutt, R. Twine, & K. Mentor (Eds.), Violence and Harm in the Animal Industrial Complex: Human-Animal Entanglements (pp. 263-275). London: Routledge.

Grieve, K., & Muzzatti, S. L. (2023). ‘Trap, Snip, Repeat’: Cat Overpopulation and Gendered Labour in a Feral Sterilisation Programme. Zoophilologica, 11(2), 1–23. ISSN: 2451-3849. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31261/ZOOPHILOLOGICA.2023.S.07 (external link) 

Muzzatti, S. L., Colaguori, C., & Smith, E. (2023). Cultural Criminology and Popular Media Representations of Crime. In C. Colaguori (Ed.), Crime, Deviance, and Social Control in the 21st Century: A Justice and Rights Perspective (pp. 107–128). Toronto: Canadian Scholars.

Colaguori, C., & Muzzatti, S. L. (2023). Teaching and doing anti-criminology: An autoethnography of transgressive pedagogies. Contemporary Justice Review, 25(3-4), 256–270. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10282580.2023.2181285 (external link) 

Muzzatti, S.L. and K. Grieve. 2022. Covid cats and pandemic puppies: The altered realm of veterinary care for companion animals during a global pandemic., Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 25(2): 153-166.

Muzzatti, S.L. and D. Rothe. 2022. “Confronting Neoliberalism’s Campus Culture and the Era of ‘Poor Me’”, in Troubled Persons Industries: The Expansion of Psychiatric Categories beyond Psychiatry (pp. 107-128), edited by M. Harbusch. Cham, Switzerland Palgrave Macmillan.

Muzzatti, S.L. and K. Grieve. 2020. “Animal Cruelty” in Violence in American Society: An Encyclopedia of Trends, Problems, and Perspectives, (pp. 1-34), edited by C. Richardson. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.

Muzzatti, S.L. and B. Rigato. 2020. "Mass Media and Socialization", in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Muzzatti, S.L. and M. Reid. 2019. “Crime and Economics: Consumer Culture, Criminology, and the Politics of Exclusion” in Critical Issues of Crime and Justice: Thought, Policy and Practice, (pp. 141-155), edited by D. Okada, M. Maguire & A. Sardina. Los Angeles: Sage.

Muzzatti, S.L. and E.M. Smith. 2018. “‘The Spirits Tell Me That You’re Seeking Help’: Fortune-Telling in Late Capitalism” in The Supernatural in History, Society, and Culture, (pp. 116-135), edited by D. Waskul and M. Eaton. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Rothe, D.L. and S. Muzzatti. 2018. Mortuuspolitics: Politicization of the dead, capitalism, and inequality. Contemporary Justice Review 21(3): 327-337.

Sample of supervised ComCult projects:

2025 - Anastasia D’Amario; Thesis: Every Boy’s Dream?: How Media Framing Minimizes Female-Perpetrated Sexual Abuse and Denies Male Victimhood

2024 - Gabriel Saavedra; Paper-Project: “Battling the Algorithm: A Reflexive Inquiry of the Podcasting Industry”

2023 - Simin Rouzgard; Major Research Paper: “Amazon's Re-Construction of Entrepreneurship?”

2022 - Alanna Cunningham Rogers; Major Research Paper: “Racialization on Incels.is: Racial Status and Status Threat

ComCult Teaching Activities

• CC 8836 Selected Topics in Media and Culture - Animals in Society and Culture