Град и злочин: писање колаборационистичке штампе о најтежим криминалним делима у градовима окупиране Србије 1941. године

English title: City and Crime: Collaborationist Press Writing on Criminal Offences in the Cities of Occupied Serbia in 1941

This article analyzes how the collaborationist press represented serious forms of crime in the urban environments of occupied Serbia in 1941. The focus is not only on individual cases, but also on the way reports on crime entered the political, moral and propaganda order of occupied Serbia.

The article starts from the assumption that crime reporting in a controlled press was not neutral. The selection of events, language, headlines, moral judgments and the context in which reports were published all participated in shaping the public image of the city as a dangerous, unstable and morally damaged space. In this way, the city was not presented only as a place where crimes occurred, but as a symbol of a broader social crisis.

Particular attention is given to the ideological opposition between the “healthy” village and the “corrupted” city. In the collaborationist press, the city often carried negative meanings associated with prewar liberalism, modernity, individualism, moral looseness and social chaos. In contrast, the village was represented as a space of national strength, patriarchal order and moral renewal.

The article shows that reports on serious crimes functioned as a means of disciplining the public. They produced fear of disorder, emphasized the danger of the collapse of social norms and supported the need for authoritarian solutions, harsher punishments, stronger police control and obedience to authority. Crime reporting was therefore part of a broader mechanism of legitimizing the occupation and collaborationist order.

In this way, the article contributes to the study of occupied Serbia, urban history, everyday life, political culture, media history and symbolic power. It shows that reports on crime are not only sources on criminality, but also sources on the ways in which authority, press and ideology constructed an image of society under conditions of war, occupation and repression.