Crime and The Media Flashcards
Crime and deviance make up a large proportion of news coverage.
Ericson et al (1991) found that in his study of Toronto, 45-71% of press and radio news was about various forms of crime and deviance.
Dickinson (1993) found that British Newspapers devoted up to 30% of their news space for crime.
News Values
Greer and Rainer (2012) point out that the media are always seeking out newsworthy stories of crime and deviance and create a ‘good story’ by dramatising, exaggerating, over-reporting and sensationalising some crimes out of all proportion to their actual extent in society
This is to generate audience interest and encourage them to buy their media products.
They use a set of news values - criteria by which editors, reporters and journalists decide if a story is newsworthy i.e. worth reporting, which elements of a story to leave out, to play up and how the story is presented
Jewkes (2011) Examples of News Values
Risk
Children
Violence
Graphic images
Celebs
The backwards law: public perceptions and the distortion & exaggeration of crime
Surveys such as the CSEW show that the majority of people base their knowledge of crime on the media, including crime fiction, rather than their own experiences
However, Surette (2010) suggests that there is a ‘backwards law’ in which the media constructs images of crime which are the opposite or ‘backwards reality’ of what really happens (according to the Official Crime Statistics, anyway)
Applying theory to this idea:
Left realists suggest that the media disguises the reality that both offenders and victims are mainly from the working class and the poor
Marxists suggest that white collar and corporate crimes are largely concealed by the media
The media over-represent violent and sexual crime.
Marsh (1991) found that in America, a violent crime was 36x more likely to be reported about than a property crime (the biggest crime category).
This gives the impression to the general public that violent and sex crimes happen more often than they actually do.
. The media overplay extraordinary crimes.
And also underplay ordinary crimes. Felsons calls this this ‘dramatic fallacy’ – similarly, media images lead us to believe that to commit crime, one needs to be daring and clever.
The media exaggerate police success.
In every fictional crime show, the police always catch the bad guy. In non-fictional shows, the police are presented in a very good light.This is partly because the police are a major source of crime stories, and want to present themselves in a good light, and partly because the media over exaggerates violent crime, which has a higher clear up rate than other types of crime.
Why is any of this a problem?
Agenda setting, news values and the backwards law means that the media:
Socially construct a distorted view of crime and the CJS
Stereotypes certain types of people are criminals and victims - this can affect the treatment of different groups by the police and wider society
Exaggerate the risks of becoming a victim of crime
Unnecessarily increase the public’s fear of crime
Flatley (2010) - The effect of this is that, although crime in England and Wales had been falling between 1995 and 2010, between three quarters and two thirds of the population wrongly thought that it was rising
Greer and Reiner (2012): There are numerous ways in which the media might possibly cause crime and deviance.
Labelling, moral entrepreneurship and deviancy amplification - media reporting can create/make crime and deviance worse
Imitation – by providing role models resulting in copycat behaviour. This also desensitises people as they’re repeatedly viewing violence E.g. the film Child’s Play 3 is alleged to have inspired and desensitised the killers of Jamie Bulger, Grand Theft Auto - play the part of a criminal
Transmission of knowledge of criminal techniques - teaching people criminal skills
As a target for crime – media hardware and software provide new targets for property crime e.g stealing smartphones, tablets, TV’s
Motives for crime - by promoting a consumerist culture through images of affluent lifestyles creates desire for unaffordable goods e.g advertising, and relative deprivation (left realism) or strain (Merton)
Reducting social controls over crime. The media undermines social controls that prevent people committing crime. E.g. by portraying the police as incompetent, corrupt ineffective, people the police less so make a rational choice to offend
Glamorizing offending and making it seem exciting - this desensitises people to the use and effects of violence .
As a result of fears about the possible negative effects of the media on their audiences, there have been literally thousands of studies conducted on this topic. Overall though, studies have tended to find that exposure to media violence has at most a small, and limited effect on audiences.
However, Livingstone (1996) notes that despite such conclusions, people continue to be preoccupied with the effects of the media on children because of our desire as a society to regard childhood as a time of uncontaminated innocence.
THE MEDIA CAUSES RELATIVE DEPRIVATION
LEFT REALISM!
Left Realists argue that the mass media help to increase the sense of relative deprivation.
Relative deprivation is the experience of being deprived of something to which one believes to be entitled. It refers to the discontent people feel when they compare their positions to others and realize that they have less of what they believe themselves to be entitled than those around them.
In today’s society, even the poorest groups have access to the media which presents everyone with images of a materialistic ‘good life’ – of leisure, fun and consumer goods as the norms to which they should conform. As Merton argues, pressure to conform to achieve by legitimate means may be blocked, so may turn to crime to get it. So, the media are instrumental in setting the ‘norm’ and thus, promote crime.
CULTURAL CRIMINOLOGY
Some sociologists argue that the media glamourises offending. This comes under ‘Cultural Criminology’ who argue that the media turn crime into a ‘product’ that people desire – the media encourages them to consume crime in the form of images of crime.
Hayward & Young (2012) see late modern society as a media saturated society – were we are constantly bombarded with digital images of crime resulting in desensitisation.
Crime and deviance has become a style to be consumed!
Fenwick and Hayward (2000): “Crime is packaged and marketed to young people as romantic, exciting, cool, and a fashionable cultural symbol”
Crime has become ‘cool’ in the media. Such as in car adverts that show street riots, graffiti and pyromania, and fashion adverts that display sadomasochism and violence against women.
The development of a Moral Panic
1) the initial act is carried out
2) the media picks up on an interesting story and sensationalises
3) social control agencies intervene
4) the public react by viewing the group as folk devils
5) deviancy amplification
6) moral panic devloped
7) more social control
8) folk devils internalise the labell, self fuffilling prophesy, subculture
9) the confirms the media panic and moral panic
Hall et al (1978) – Black Mugging 70’s
As we saw within neo-marxism, during the 70’s the British media managed to generate a moral panic over the supposed increase of black muggers on the streets. In reality, this crime was NOT on the increase, but the media was generating more interest in it so people were more aware of it. This led to the exclusion of black people from society, who some say were scapegoats to Britain’s economic crisis.
Young – Hippies Study ‘70s
We looked at this study within the Labelling theory, as an example of a group of hippie marijuana smokers in the 70’s who were the victim of labelling by the media. A moral panic was generated over young hippies and marijuana use, leading to the exclusion and isolation of these individuals, which led to a deviancy amplification spiral.
Stan Cohen: ‘Folk Devils & Moral Panics’…
Stan Cohen was interested in the way the press labelled young people as criminal, and how this led to escalation of deviancy.
Cohen was interested in the truth behind the ‘Mods vs. Rockers’ media hype in the late 1960s.
He use a mix of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and content analysis of the media reports to research the process of deviancy amplification.
Cohen reached very different conclusions compared to what the media was reporting…….
The ‘Violence’ that the media reported was actually minimal.
The majority of young people at the seaside during these so called ‘riots’ were not Mods or Rockers.
The media seemed to have painted a skewed picture of events & sensationalised the clashes between these two groups.
EXPLANATIONS OF MORAL PANICS
Functionalism - Cohen
Cohen argues that moral panics tend to occur during periods of social change.
Moral panics can be a reaction to anomie – normlessness.
By dramatising the threat of the folk devil, the media raises societies collective consciousness and reasserts social control when society’s values are being threatened.
EXPLANATIONS OF MORAL PANICS
Neo-Marxism (Hall 1978)
This perspective locates the role of moral panics within capitalism.
They argue that moral panics often act as a ‘distraction’ away from the crisis of capitalism.
This was demonstrated in Hall’s black muggers study.
strengths of moral panics:
Thornton (1995) found that the media sometimes fails to generate a moral panic when the ‘problem’ has become mainstream. E.g. rave culture in the 1990s- youth culture had become mainstream by that point, as had the taking of drugs such as ecstasy
There are various reasons why ‘panics’ may not occur even if the media exaggerate the deviance of some groups – the media also exaggerate the police’s ability to deal with deviance and exaggerated reporting of deviance is so common these days that people are just desensitized to its effects.
Finally, some concerns which some may call moral panics may be legitimate problems that need addressing
weaknesses of moral panic
The theory has lots of applications e.g. moral panic over
homosexual men spreading HIV and AIDS in the 1980s
Cohen’s formulation of moral panic theory assumes that the audience are passive, but audiences today are much more active and able to critically evaluate media content, which means moral panics are less likely. With the rise of social media, 24 news updates and the multitude of media options available to us, the media are less able to successfully sensationalise headlines
