Crime And The Media

Question 1

How does the media represent crime?

Answer 1

• over representation of violent and sexual crime
• over represent criminals and victims as older and more m/c
• exaggerate police success
• exaggerate the risk of becoming a victim
• crime is reported as a series of separate events
• extraordinary crimes are overplayed

Question 2

Over representation of violent sexual crimes

Answer 2

Diction and Duffy (1983):
- 46% of media reports were on these crimes - which make up only 3% of crime recorded by the police

Question 3

Overrepresent criminals and victims as older and more middle class

Answer 3

• most crime is actually committed by w/c people ages 15-20 (ONS)
• Felson (1998) calls this the ‘age fallacy’

Question 4

Exaggerate police success

Answer 4

• police are a major source for crime stories. They want themselves to be presented in good light

Question 5

Exaggerate the risk of becoming a victim

Answer 5

• women, white people and higher status people are shown to be most at risk, when actually young BME males are often most at risk of many crimes

Question 6

Crime reported as a series of separate events

Answer 6

• underlying structures and causes of crime are never explained or examined

Question 7

Extraordinary crimes are overplayed

Answer 7

• the media makes crime seem daring and clever
• felson (1998) calls this the ‘dramatic fallacy’

Question 8

News and crime

Answer 8

• Williams and Dickinson (1993) found that British newspaper devote up to 30% of their news space to crime
• the media over represent violent and sexual crime- ditton and Duffy (1983) found that 46% of media reports were about extremely violent crimes such as murder or sexual crimes yet these crimes only make up 3% of crimes recorded by the police.
• soothill and Walby (1991) found that newspaper reporting of rape cases increased from under a quarter of all crime reporting in 1951 to over a third in 1985
• the media portrays criminals and victims as older and more middle class - felson calls the ‘age fallacy’
• crime is reported as a series of separate events without structure and without explaining underlying causes
• the media overplay extraordinary crimes. Felson calls this the ‘dramatic fallacy’. Similarly, media images lead us to believe that to commit crime one needs to be daring and clever
• the risk of victimisation, especially to women and higher status individuals - victim surveys clearly show that young makes, ethnic minorities and poorer people are the main victims of crime

Question 9

News coverage

Answer 9

• there is some evidence in the changes in the type of coverage by the news media
• Schlesinger and timber (1960s), the focus was mainly on crimes such as murder and petty crime. 1990s the rising crime rates meant that a crime had to be ‘special’ to attract coverage.
• reporting has also widened to include drugs, child abuse, terrorism, football hooliganism and sex crimes
• soothill and Walby found that newspaper reporting of rape cases incerease from under a quarter of all cases in 1951 to over a third in 1985. They also not that coverage consistently focuses on identifying a sex fiend of beast. This results in a disorted pictured of rape - commonly the perpetrator is known by the victim

Question 10

News values

Answer 10

• immediacy
• dramatisation
• personalisation
• higher status
• simplification
• novelty and unexpectedness
• risk
• Violence

Question 11

Media as a cause of crime

Answer 11

There has been a concern for some time that the media can have a negative effect on attitudes, values and Behaviour especially of those groups thought to be the most susceptible to infuse be such the young, lower classes and the uneducated. There are numerous ways in which the media might possibly cause crime and deviance:
1. Imitation - by providing deviant role models, resulting in copy cat behaviour e.g, the James bulger case
2. Arousal, e.g through viewing violent or sexual imagery
3. Desensitisation
4. Transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
5. As a target for crime - stealing tvs
6. Stimulating desires for unaffordable goods through advertising
7. By portraying the police as incompetent
8. Glamorising offending

Question 12

Desensitisation - Bandura

Answer 12

Bobo doll experiment
- does seeing violence on TV, in the news and in video games desensitise us to crime?
- ethical issues
- disappearance of childhood
- palmer - toxic childhood
Regretted viewings of violence and murder may result in young people becoming insensitive to other peoples pain, grief and suffering, and therefore likely to commit criminals acts because they do not realise the personal consequences of causing pain or harm

Question 13

Hypodermic syringe model

Answer 13

• this approach is often called the ‘hypodermic syringe’ approach because media content is often compacted to a drug in the way it affects an individual
• some psychologists have also suggest that in addition to imitation, mass media content, especially violent content, may result in other types of negative behaviour such as: arousal learning of criminal skills, desensitisation, glamorisation

Question 14

Arousal

Answer 14

Through the viewing of violent sexual images. This is seen as having the potential to cause sexual offences

Question 15

Learning of criminal skills

Answer 15

Some types of media have been criticised for supposedly transmitting knowledge about criminal techniques

Question 16

Glamorisation of criminality

Answer 16

It is suggested that media reporting of crime as well as real life and fictional accounts of it in films, televisions and literature may glamorise crime and criminals, and consequently attract people into criminal careers

Question 17

Evaluation of crime in the media

Answer 17

• audiences differ too much in terms of age, social class, intelligence, level of education etc and consequently do not react in the same way to media content
• violence is actually caused by a complex range and combination of possible factors, e,g poor socialisation, bad parenting, peer group influences, mental illness, drugs, alcohol etc.
• the meaning that viewers give to media violence differ. Different audiences interpret violence in cartoons, horror films and news quite differently to one a bitter.

Question 18

Other effects of media coverage - fear

Answer 18

• the evidence suggest that media reporting of crime is both distorted and exaggerated. Some sociologists have expressed concern that media reporting of crime may be causing an unrealistic fear of crime especially among the elderly. Research evidence to some extent supports this view
• Greer and Reiner 2012 notes much ‘effects’ research on the media as a cause of crime of fear of crime ignores the meanings that viewers give to media violence. This criticism reflects the interprevists view that we must look at the meanings people give to what they see and read.

Question 19

The media, relative deprivation and crime

Answer 19

• laboratory research has focused on whether media portrayals of crime leads viewers to commit come themselves. An alternative approach is to consider how far media portrayals of normal lifestyles might encourage people to commit crime
• left realist suggest that the media is responsible for crime by stimulating desire for money or unaffordable consumer goods through advertising which encourages the feeling of relative deprivation
• functionalists - Reiner and others argue the mass media help to bring out anomie or moral confusion, and consequently the motivation to commit crime. Merton argues this pressure to conform can encourage people to achieve these goals
• Reiner and young argue that the mass media raises peoples expectations too high with regard to monetary success and access to consumer goods. They argue that the media present all social groups with images of a materialistic good life of leisure, fun and consumer good.

Question 20

Cultural criminology and crime

Answer 20

• cultural criminology argues that the media turn crime itself into the commodity that people desire. Rather than simply producing crime in their audiences, the media encourage them to consume
• Hayward and young 2012 see late modern sockeye as media saturated, where we are immersed in the media scale. There is a blurring between the image and reality of crime
  -n a further feature of late modernity is the emphasis on consumption, excitement and immediacy, advertisers use images of crime to sell products, especially in the youth market.
• graffiti is the marker of deviant urban cool and compaines now use it as part of their branding. The designer labels valued by young people re badges of identity and are now symbols of deviance.

Question 21

What is a moral panic?

Answer 21

A moral panic is an exaggerated over reaction by society to perceived problem, which is usually driven and/or inspired by the media. The reaction to this enlarged the problem out of all proportion to its real seriousness

Question 22

Stages in a moral panic

Answer 22

1. The media identity a group as a folk devil or a threat to societal values
2. The media present the group in a negative, stereotypical fashion and exaggerate the scale of the problem
3. Moral entrepreneurs, editors, politicians, police chiefs and other ‘respectable’ people condemn the group and its behaviour

Question 23

How does the media report a moral panic

Answer 23

Exaggeration and distortion - the media exaggerate the numbers involved and the extent of the violence and damage. This is usually done through dramatic headlines
Prediction - the media regularly assumes and predicts further violence and conflict would occur
Symbolisation - the media create symbols for the ‘folk devils’ which are all negatively labelled e.g, by associating them with certain clothing, hair styles, music etc

Question 24

Deviancy application spiral

Answer 24

• this causes increased marginalisation and stigmatisation of the ‘folk devils’
• the media definitions of situations are crucial in creating a moral panic. This is because people rely on the media for information about ‘folk devils’ because they rarely have experienced them themselves
• cohen argued that the media’s portrayal of events produced a deviancy amplification spiral - this made the problem seem like it was spreading and getting out of hand

Question 25

Wider context of moral panics

Answer 25

• cohen argued moral panics often occur at times of social change - reflecting anxieties people feel when accepted values seem to be undermined
• boundary crisis
• functionalist - moral panics can be seen as a response to the sense of anomie created by change. By creating a folk devil the media raises the collective consciousness and reasserts social controls where central values are threatened
• Neo Marxist - hall et al (1979) the moral panics distracts attention from the crisis of capitalism, divide the working class on radical grounds and legitimates a more authoritarian style of rule

Question 26

Cyber crime

Answer 26

• the arrival of the internet has lead to fears regarding cyber crime. Thomas and loader (2000) define cyber crime as computer mediated activities that are either illegal or considered illicit, and are conducted through global electronic networks
• Jewkes (2003) - internet creates opportunities to commit both ‘conventional crimes’ and ‘new crimes using new tools’ such as software privacy

Question 27

Wall (2001) - cyber crime

Answer 27

Wall identifies four categories of cyber crime:
1. Cyber trespass - crossing boundaries into other ‘cyber property’ it includes hacking and sabotage such as spreading viruses
2. Cyber deception and theft - including identity theft, ‘phishing’ and violation of intellectual property rights
3. Cyber pornography - including porn involving minors, and opportunities for children to access porn on the internet
4. Cyber violence - doing psychological harm or inciting physical harm. Includes cyber stalking, hate crimes
5. Global cyber crime - policing cyber crime is difficult because of the sheer scale of the internet, the limited resources of the police, and the globalised nature of cyber crime which causes problems or jurisdiction

Question 28

Evaluation of cyber crime

Answer 28

However, the new ICT also provides the police with greater opportunities of surveillance and control. Jewkes (2003) argues IICT permits routine surveillance through the use of CCTV cameras, smart cards and listening devices

Question 29

Positive effects of the media on crime

Answer 29

• media coverage of crime could help to solve crimes or locate suspects, through programmes such as crime watch, or through encouraging awareness of risks from serious crimes such as terrorism
• it can alert the public to dangers of different types of crime
• media campaigners and public awareness of crime deceived from the campaigns could also put pressure on the government or police to take action
• in durkhiems terms, the media can help to define moral boundaries and identify what is acceptable and unacceptable in society
• in general sense, the media can deter crime by highlighting the punishment of criminals. Most crime fictions ends with offenders being punished for their crimes

Question 30

Negative effect of the media on crime

Answer 30

• most sociologists emphasise the negative
• the research evidence Is contradictory about the direct effects of the media on causing crime. The contents of the media are diverse and are nor interpreted the same way by all audience members
• the media are just one factor amongst many that have an effect on crime