crime and the media Flashcards
4 ways the media distort crime
- over -represent violent an sexual crime = 46% of media report are about violent or sexual crime yet they make up 3% of crimes reported by the police
- exaggerates the risk of victimisation = especially to women, whit people and higher class
- exaggerates police success = want to present themselves in a. good light as they are a main source of media stories
- crime is reported as a series of separate events = without structure or examining underlying causes
changes of coverage of crime
1960s media focus was on petty crime and murder but by 1990s its switched to drugs and child abuse
news values
the criteria which news reporters decide whether the story is newsworthy
key values influencing the selection of stories include:
unexpectedness
dramatisation
higher-status
risk
violence
fictional representations of crime
knowledge of crime also comes from TV cinema and books
Mandel - 25% o prime TV were crime shows or films
fictional representations of crime - the law of opposite
Surette - fictional representations are the opposite of the official statistics: for example -
property crime is underrepresented
violence, drugs and sex crimes overrepresented
villains are higher status - usually MC
ways the media encourages crime (6)
imitation
arousal
transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
stimulating desires for unaffordable goods
portraying police as incompetent
glamourising offending
support for: the media causes crime AO2 Bandura
method: children watch either an adult behaving aggressively towards the bobo doll or an adult behaving non-aggressively
findings: when give their own bobo doll to play with children who saw aggression were most aggressive
conclusion: the study suggests that children are likely to imitate acts o violence if they observe it in an adult role model.
the media as a cause of crime AO3 - Livingstone
people are preoccupied with the effects of the media on kids due to our desire as a society to regard childhood as a time of innocence
the media as a cause of crime - increasing the fear of crime
the media exaggerate the amount of violent and unusual crime and the risks of certain groups becoming victims = does the media create un realistic fear of crime?
the media as a cause of crime - relative deprivation
left realists argue the media help increase the sense of relative deprivation.
the media presents everyone with images of a materialistic good life this stimulates the sense of relative deprivation and social exclusion in groups who cannot afford these goods.
Merton - the pressure to conform to the norm can cause deviant behaviour - the media set this norm.
the media as a cause of crime - cultural criminology
the media turn crime itself into the commodity that people desire
we live in a media-saturated society. where there is a blurring between the image and the reality of crime - they’re no longer separable
moral panics
the media labels individuals
Cohen - a moral panic is an exaggerated over reaction by society to a perceived problem and media reaction enlarges the problem out of all proportion to its real seriousness
in a morla panic -
the media identifies a group as a folk devil or a threat
moral panics AO2 - mods and rockers
in Clacton
Initial confrontations were a few scuffles but the media overreacted and exaggerated the numbers involved and distorted the picture through dramatic reporting.
The media amplified the problem and stigmatised the mods and rockers which led to more youths adopting their styles and increasing their numbers.
moral panics AO3
it assumes that the societal reaction is a disproportionate over-reaction but who is to decide what is a proportionate reaction
left realist view - people’s fear of crime is actually rational
moral panics - cybercrime
e.g horror comics accused of corrupting the young
2/3s of the worlds population are no online
the internet creates opportunities to commit both conventional crimes (fraud) and new crimes using new tools (software piracy)
Wall - categories of cyber crime
e.g
cyber-trespass = crossing boundaries into others cyber-property - hacking
cyber-pornography = porn involving minors
