Crime and the Media Flashcards
What are the 6 differences between official statistics and media representations of crime?
=> The media over represent violent and sexual crime
=> The media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle class (e.g., Prison Break, The Godfather)
=> Media coverage exaggerates police success (e.g., Line of Duty, Traffic Cops, Criminal Minds)
=> The media exaggerates the risk of victimisation
=> Crime is reported as a series of separate events
=> The media overplay extraordinary crimes (e.g. Jamie Bulger, Madeline McCann)
What did Schlesinger and Tumber (1960) find?
In the 1960s, the focus had been murders and petty crime, by the 1990s however, they were of less interest to the media due to the abolition of the death penalty and because of rising crime rates - meaning that crime had to be ‘special’ to attract coverage. By the 1990s, media scope had widened to include drugs, child abuse, terrorism, football hooliganism and mugging.
What did Soothill and Walby find?
=> The number of rape cases reported in newspapers increased from <25% of all cases in 1951, to >33% in 1985.
=> Coverage consistently focused on identifying a ‘sex fiend’ or ‘beast’ by use of labels
=> Distorted picture of rape to become one of serial attacks carried out by psychotic strangers - contrasting completely with reality where the perpetrator is usually known to the victim.
What does the distorted picture of crime reflect? How do Cohen and Young explain this?
It reflects the fact that crime is socially constructed.
Cohen and Young explain this with the argument that news is manufactured rather than ‘discovered’. Stories must be deemed news worthy enough by meeting certain criteria, prior to being chosen to appear in newspapers or news bulletins.
What criteria are news stories checked against before they can be deemed as ‘news worthy’?
=> Immediacy (is the story new?)
=> Dramatisation (is the story exciting; does it have action?)
=> Personalisation (is the story an interesting story about an individual - i.e. is it relatable?)
=> Higher status (do any higher status individuals/celebrities appear within the story?)
=> Simplification (are all aspects of the story easy to understand - can shades of grey be eliminated?)
=> Novelty or unexpectedness (can the story be approached from a unique angle/POV?)
=> Risk (is the story thrilling - i.e. are their aspects of victim centred fear and vulnerability?)
=> Violence (particularly visible/spectacular acts)
What are fictional representations of crime?
Come from TV, cinema and novels and are important sources of our knowledge of crime, because so much of their output is crime related.
What did Ernest Mandel (1984) find?
Estimates that from 1945 to 1984, over 10 billion crime thrillers were sold worldwide, while about 25% of prime time tv and 20% of films are crime shows or movies.
What do fictional representations of crime, criminals and victims follow according to Surette?
The ‘law of opposites’ since they are the opposite of the official statistics.
=> Property crime is under represented; violence, drugs and sex crimes are over represented.
=> Real-life homicides mainly result from brawls and domestic disputes, while fictional disputes are the product of greed and calculation.
=> Fictional sex crimes are committed by psychopathic strangers, not by acquaintances like in many real-life circumstances. Fictional villains tend to be higher status, middle aged white males.
What are the three modern trends that are emerging?
=> Tends to be young, non-white ‘underclass’ offenders.
=> Increased tendency to show police as corrupt and brutal.
=> Victims have become more central with law enforcers portrayed as their avengers and audiences invited to identify with their suffering.
How might the media possibly cause crime and deviance?
=> Imitation (Copycatting)
=> Arousal (Peaks interest towards criminal behaviour)
=> Desensitization (Society is now becoming numb to/unaffected by scenes that would have been considered shocking in the past)
=> Transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques (Providing individuals with knowledge to carry out criminal behaviour)
=> As a target for crime
=> By stimulating desires for unaffordable goods (Leads to people having a sense of relative deprivation, leading to crime)
=> By portraying police as incompetent (If people view police as incompetent, they’re more likely to believe that they can get away
with crime, making them more likely to commit it)
=> By glamourizing offending (Makes crime look appealing to viewers, e.g. shows such as money heist)
How does the media affect societies fear of crime?
They exaggerate the mount of violent and unusual crime, while also exaggerating risks of certain groups becoming victims, suh as young women and the elderly.
What correlation did Schlesinger and Tumber find between media consumption and fear of crime?
Tabloid readers and heavy users of TV expressed greater fear of becoming a victim, particularly of physical attacks/muggings.
How can Schlesinger and Tumber’s findings be criticized?
The correlations that they revealed may not necessarily be caused by media viewing. Instead, it might simply be that those who already fear going out at night just watch more TV and stay in more.
What do Greer and Reiner note about research on the media as a cause of fear of crime and what does this reflect?
It ignores meanings that viewers give to media violence e.g. different meanings may be given to violence in cartoons, horror films and news bulletins.
This criticism reflects the interpretivist view that if we want to understand the effects of the media, we must look at meanings people give to what they see and read.
How does relative deprivation explain how the media produce or cause crime?
People are constantly shown lifestyles they desire but cannot afford through social media, leading to a sense of relative deprivation that causes them to resort to crime to get the commodities they are unable to attain through legitimate means.
