Crime And Media Flashcards
4 aspects of crime and media
Representation of crime- fiction and non fiction
Media as a cause of crime and fear of crime
Moral panics and amplification of deviance
Cybercrime
Media representations of crime
Williams and Dickinson- media have 30% of space for Crime
Distorted image of crime
Over represent violent and sexual
Portray criminals as older and middle class- age fallacy
Exaggerate police success and risk of victimisation
Reported as a series of separate events rather than underlying causes and results
Overplay extraordinary crimes- dramatic fallacy. Felson.
News, values and crime coverage
Social construction of news - cohen and young it’s manufactured NOT discovered.
Potential stories are selected while others are rejected.
News values- criteria to decide whether a story is newsworthy
Immediacy
Dramatisation
Personalisation
High status persons
Simplification
Unexpectedness
Risk
Violence - sepectular acts
Fictional representations of crime and recent trends
Surette - law of opposites- opposite of crime statistics
Property crime is under represented, violence sex and drugs- over
Fictional sex crimes- psychos not people we know
Cops get their man
Recent trends
Non white and underclass fenders
Police shown to be corrupt, brutal and less successful
Victims have become central
Media causing crime- directly
Increased exposure can lead to Negative effects on attitudes etc
Imitation - copycat behaviour
Arousal
Desensitisation
Transmitting knowledge
Stimulating desires
Glamourising crime
Fear of crime
Media exaggerate crime and victimisation, causing people who are shown as victims to fear crime.
Tabloid readers and heavy users of Th have greater fear of crime.
Staying in means exposed to more media and more fear, never ending cycle.
Media, relative deprivation and crime
Media present everyone as having consumer goods, making those who cannot afford it feel socially excluded and must turn to crime in order to achieve it.
Hayward and young- late modern society is media saturated and emphasises consumption. Crime has become a commodity, using it to sell products to the young.
Moral panics
Media causes crime to become a moral panic- steps
Identify a threat
Negatively stereotype and exaggerate
Call for a crackdown
Causes a self-fulfilling prophecy
Tougher action and attempt to control
Amplification spiral
Case study - mods and rockers
Media exaggerated numbers and seriousness.
Predicted further conflict and negatively stereotyped symbols of mods and rockers eg bikes and jackets.
Led to amplification spiral- youth adopted personalities, causing SFP, most people had no personal experience and relied on media representation
Boundary crisis between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour
Perspectives on moral panic
Functionalist- reinforces collective conscience and social; control when threaten. Response to anomie
Neo Marxists -distracts people from crisis of capitalism.
Global cybercrime
Thomas and loader- computer mediated activities that are illegal or illicit.
Conventional crimes and new crimes eg software piracy
4 categories- cyber trespass, cyber deception, cyber pornographers and cyber violence.
Policing cybercrime- difficult due to globalised nature and size of internet
Surveillance, ict provides police with more surveillance and control. Eg cctv
