Crime and the Media Flashcards
How do sociologists define today’s society regarding media?
We live in a media-saturated society, heavily influenced by media’s representation of crime and deviance.
What three aspects do sociologists examine concerning crime and media?
1) Media representations of crime. 2) The media as a cause of crime. 3) Moral panics and media amplification.
According to Richard Ericson et al (1991), how much news coverage is crime-related?
Between 45% and 71% of quality press and radio news coverage.
What percentage of British newspaper space was devoted to crime according to Williams and Dickinson (1993)?
Up to 30%.
What kind of crime do the media over-represent?
Violent and sexual crime.
According to Ditton and Duffy (1983), what percentage of media reports was about violent or sexual crimes compared to police statistics?
46% in media reports compared to just 3% in police records.
How does Marsh (1991) illustrate the disproportionate representation of crime in America?
Violent crime was 36 times more likely reported than property crime.
How does the media portray criminals and victims compared to official crime statistics?
Media depict criminals and victims as older and more middle-class than official stats indicate (“age fallacy”).
According to Felson (1998), how does the media distort crime?
It exaggerates police success, and portrays crime as planned and clever (“dramatic fallacy” and “ingenuity fallacy”).
According to Schlesinger and Tumber (1994), how has crime coverage shifted from the 1960s to the 1990s?
Shift from murders and petty crime to drug abuse, child abuse, terrorism, and hooliganism.
What did Soothill and Walby (1991) observe about media reports of sex crimes?
Increased reporting from under a quarter in 1951 to over a third in 1985, creating distorted views of sex crime as serial attacks by psychopathic strangers.
How is news on crime often misleadingly presented, according to Cohen and Young (1973)?
News is not discovered but manufactured—distorted, not realistic.
Name three key news values influencing crime reporting.
1) Immediacy (“breaking news”). 2) Dramatisation (action, excitement). 3) Personalisation (human interest).
Why are higher-status persons more likely to appear in crime news?
They’re viewed as more newsworthy.
How does Surette (1998) describe fictional representations of crime?
As “law of opposites”—fictional media portray crime opposite to reality, focusing on violence, sex crimes, and psychopathic offenders.
Name four ways the media might cause crime and deviance.
1) Imitation. 2) Arousal. 3) Desensitisation. 4) Providing knowledge of criminal techniques.
How did the media allegedly contribute to crime historically?
Cinema blamed in the 1920s/30s, horror comics in the 1950s, video nasties in the 1980s, and video games like GTA today.
What did Schramm et al (1961) suggest about TV’s effect on children?
TV generally neither significantly harmful nor beneficial for most children.
How does Sonia Livingstone (1996) view concerns about media’s effects on children?
Concerns reflect society’s anxieties about childhood innocence and vulnerability.
How might media glamorise offending?
By portraying offenders positively or police negatively, making crime appealing.
Why might the media stimulate desires leading to crime?
Through advertising unaffordable goods, creating desire and frustration.
What is the relationship between media portrayal and the fear of crime?
Media exaggerate risk, creating unrealistic fear, especially in vulnerable groups like women and elderly.
According to Gerbner et al, what correlation exists between TV viewing and fear of crime?
Heavy TV users have higher levels of fear of crime.
What do Greer and Reiner (2012) argue about media effects and fear of crime?
They argue much research ignores individual meanings viewers attribute to violence, reducing validity of findings.
What is “relative deprivation” concerning media and crime?
Media portrayals of lifestyles may cause people to feel deprived compared to others, leading to crime.
How do Lea and Young (1996) describe media-induced relative deprivation?
Media disseminate standardised images of lifestyle, intensifying feelings of deprivation among unemployed and youth.
Define “Cultural Criminology” regarding media.
Explains how media turns crime itself into a desired consumer commodity.
According to cultural criminologists like Hayward and Young (2012), how is modern society characterised?
As a media-saturated society immersed in digital media, blurring crime reality and image.
Give an example of how crime becomes commodified according to Fenwick and Hayward (2000).
“Crime is packaged and marketed”—fashionable gangster rap and stylish imagery commodify crime.
What is the media criticised for in its representation of crime?
For giving a distorted image by over-reporting certain crimes (especially violent or sensational), misrepresenting criminals and victims, and exaggerating police effectiveness.
What two types of crimes does the media exaggerate according to the textbook?
Extraordinary and dramatic crimes, creating the perception of ingenious criminals (“dramatic fallacy” and “ingenuity fallacy”).
What does the term “age fallacy” mean concerning media representations of crime?
The media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle-class than those typically found in official crime statistics.
Which specific category of individuals does the media disproportionately portray as victims?
Women, white people, and higher-status individuals.
What is a “dramatic fallacy” according to Felson (1998)?
The media’s tendency to exaggerate the level of drama and excitement in crime.
According to Schlesinger and Tumber, how did crime reporting shift due to the abolition of the death penalty?
Murders and petty crimes became less attractive, prompting the media to report more on drug abuse, child abuse, terrorism, football hooliganism, and mugging.
What impact does exaggerated media coverage have on public perceptions of sexual crime, according to Soothill and Walby (1991)?
It falsely creates an impression of sex crimes primarily committed by psychopathic serial attackers, despite most being committed by acquaintances.
What does Cohen and Young’s notion of “manufactured” news imply?
That news stories are actively created and shaped by media organisations rather than being objective or naturally discovered.
Name three additional key news values not previously listed.
1) Simplification, 2) Novelty/unexpectedness, 3) Risk—particularly victim-centred stories.
How does the media tend to represent fictional violence compared to real-world statistics?
Fictional media significantly over-represent property crime as more violent and dramatic compared to real statistics.
Give two ways the media allegedly causes crime through imitation.
By providing deviant role models and by showing detailed criminal techniques.
How might media desensitisation lead to increased crime?
Frequent viewing of violence reduces sensitivity, potentially normalising aggressive or criminal behaviour.
How could advertising by the media indirectly lead to crime?
By stimulating desires for consumer goods beyond people’s means, leading them potentially into theft or fraud to obtain these goods.
According to Schramm et al. (1961), why is television “particularly harmful” only in certain conditions?
For certain vulnerable children already predisposed, TV viewing can exacerbate negative behaviour or reinforce harmful tendencies.
How does the fear of crime created by media disproportionately affect certain social groups?
Women, the elderly, and certain ethnic minorities disproportionately experience heightened fear due to media portrayal of victimhood.
Why might fear of crime not always reflect reality according to the textbook?
Because media distortion leads to an exaggerated perception of victimisation risks compared to actual crime statistics.
How does cultural criminology interpret people’s relationship with crime media differently from traditional approaches?
Cultural criminology sees the media as not just representing crime but actively commodifying it, making it desirable as a cultural product.
What does cultural criminology suggest about the distinction between crime image and reality today?
The distinction has become blurred due to immersive digital media environments, making it difficult to separate real crime from media portrayals.
How have modern surveillance and reality TV impacted cultural criminology’s concept of crime commodification?
They have increased commodification, as crime-related content is marketed as entertainment through shows like Cops, making the public consumption of crime commonplace.
According to cultural criminologists, how is crime packaged in modern culture?
As a consumer product, fashionable and desirable, exemplified through media that glamorises and markets crime (e.g., gangster rap, luxury car ads featuring criminal imagery).
What forms of crime do the media commonly exaggerate and distort?
The media commonly exaggerate and distort street riots, joyriding, suicide bombing, graffiti, and pyromania, presenting them as more common and severe than they actually are.
How does the fashion and advertising industry commodify deviant imagery?
Brands like Opium, Poison, and Obsession, and styles such as ‘heroin chic’ and sadomasochism are commodified, turning deviant images into marketing strategies. Designer clothing brand FCUK transgresses taboos explicitly through its name.
Why might companies deliberately use deviance to market products?
Companies deliberately use deviance in guerrilla marketing to appear edgy, attract attention, and market products ranging from cars to video games by linking their brands to counter-culture values and controversial identities.
Define ‘moral panic’.
A moral panic is an exaggerated overreaction by society to a perceived problem—usually driven or inspired by media—that enlarges the issue disproportionately.
According to the textbook, what three features characterize a moral panic?
- Media identify a group as a folk devil or threat. 2. Media present the group negatively and stereotypically. 3. Moral entrepreneurs (editors, politicians, police chiefs, bishops, and other ‘respectable’ people) condemn the group and its behavior.
How does society usually respond to moral panics?
Society often responds by calling for a ‘crackdown’, increasing social control measures that create a self-fulfilling prophecy by amplifying the original problem.
Which sociologist conducted a seminal study of moral panics?
Stanley Cohen in his 1972 study “Folk Devils and Moral Panics”.
What groups did Cohen’s study focus on?
Cohen’s study focused on mods and rockers—two groups of working-class teenagers involved in disturbances between 1964–1966.
What forms of media exaggeration did Cohen observe regarding mods and rockers?
Cohen found the media exaggerated numbers involved, violence scale, distorted events, predicted further conflict, and negatively labelled their symbols of identity (clothes, bikes, scooters, hairstyles).
Explain ‘symbolisation’ in the context of moral panics.
Symbolisation refers to the media negatively labelling and associating the folk devils’ clothing, hairstyles, music, and other symbols with deviance, amplifying negative perceptions.
Define ‘deviance amplification spiral’.
It’s a process described by Cohen where media exaggeration creates greater social reaction (police crackdowns, moral entrepreneurs’ condemnations), increasing deviance, and thus spiralling upwards in intensity.
How did media portrayal affect the mods and rockers directly according to Cohen?
Media exaggerated their actions, provoking more police action, harsher judicial responses, public condemnation, and increased resentment between the groups, thus amplifying their original minor disorder into significant confrontations.
According to Cohen, what broader societal concerns contributed to the moral panic about mods and rockers?
Societal anxiety about post-war British society, loss of control over the young, changing affluence, consumerism, hedonism, and undermined values of older generations heightened moral panic fears.
What wider societal roles does Cohen attribute to moral panics?
Cohen argues moral panics reaffirm collective consciousness, reassert social controls, and reinforce values when they feel threatened by social change or uncertainty.
How do Neo-Marxists interpret moral panics?
Neo-Marxists like Stuart Hall (1979) see moral panics as deliberately engineered distractions from capitalism’s crisis, dividing the working class and legitimizing state authoritarianism.
Besides mods and rockers, name other groups portrayed as folk devils.
Dangerous dogs, New Age travellers, bogus asylum seekers, child sexual abuse perpetrators, AIDS carriers, and ‘mad cow’ disease cases.
What criticisms are directed at the moral panic concept?
Criticisms include it assuming audience disproportionality without clear rational criteria, failing to explain why some issues become panics, and why modern audiences no longer react strongly to media sensationalism.
According to late modernity theorists, why might moral panics now have less impact?
According to late modernity theorists, audiences now are accustomed to ‘shock, horror’ stories and diverse media choices, meaning traditional moral panics no longer resonate as strongly.
Which sociologist argues moral panics have shifted focus in late modernity?
McRobbie and Thornton (1995) argue media now create panics over issues that previously wouldn’t have caused outrage, shifting towards new targets.
Identify new types of media associated with moral panic about cyber-crime.
New media associated with cyber-crime moral panics include horror comics, cinema, television, videos, computer games, and the Internet itself.
Define ‘cyber-trespass’ as classified by Wall (2001).
Cyber-trespass involves crossing into others’ cyber-property through hacking, sabotage, or viruses.
Explain ‘cyber-deception and theft’.
Cyber-deception and theft involve identity theft, phishing (obtaining identity or bank details deceptively), and intellectual property rights violations like software piracy and file-sharing.
Define ‘cyber-pornography’.
Cyber-pornography includes porn involving minors and facilitating children’s access to adult content online.
Define ‘cyber-violence’.
Cyber-violence involves causing psychological harm or inciting physical violence through stalking, sending offensive emails, hate crimes, or bullying via text.
What challenges exist in policing global cyber-crime?
Policing global cyber-crime is difficult due to the internet’s scale, limited police resources, globalized nature, jurisdictional problems, and because police culture prioritizes conventional policing.
What did Yvonne Jewkes (2003) observe about the Internet and crime?
Jewkes noted the Internet creates new crime opportunities (fraud, identity theft) and gives police new surveillance tools (CCTV, databases, digital fingerprinting, smart cards, email monitoring).
How might information technology increase state surveillance?
Information technology allows widespread monitoring through CCTV, digital databases, fingerprinting, smart identity cards, and email surveillance, increasing the state’s control over citizens.
What distorted image of crime does the media often portray?
The media exaggerates violent crime frequency and victimisation risks through social construction, dramatization, and commodification, not accurately reflecting real crime levels.
How do Left Realists interpret the media’s impact on crime?
Left Realists argue media heighten relative deprivation among disadvantaged groups by promoting unobtainable lifestyles, possibly leading them towards crime to achieve similar lifestyles.
How do Cultural Criminologists view the media’s role in late modern society?
Cultural Criminologists argue media commodify crime, turning it into a cultural product for entertainment and consumption.
What new opportunities has new media created according to the textbook?
New media has created opportunities for cyber-crime and expanded the possibilities for surveillance and social control by the state and police agencies.
How can moral entrepreneurs financially benefit from moral panics?
Moral entrepreneurs, such as media owners, may financially benefit from moral panics by selling more newspapers or attracting larger audiences through sensationalised coverage of deviance.
What irony does the textbook identify regarding designer labels worn by young people?
Ironically, designer labels like Bluewater shopping centre brands worn by young people as symbols of identity now function as symbols of deviance in the eyes of authorities.
What impact does branding like Bluewater shopping centre have regarding surveillance?
Branding and designer labels help authorities classify and profile individuals as potential criminals, thus influencing police surveillance and profiling practices.
Why were mods portrayed as naive and less dangerous compared to rockers in media narratives?
Mods were portrayed as naive, wearing smart dress and scooters, whereas rockers wore leather jackets and motorbikes, making rockers easier targets for negative stereotyping as more clearly rebellious or dangerous.
What were the specific consequences of the media’s exaggeration of mods and rockers conflicts?
Media exaggeration led to increased policing, court punishments, and social reactions, worsening conflicts through further resentment and intensified confrontations between mods, rockers, and authority.
How did Cohen’s moral panic model crystallize two distinct identities?
Cohen argued media reporting solidified two identities—mods and rockers—into distinct, antagonistic groups with tight-knit loyalties, increasing hostility and division.
According to the textbook, what specific societal anxieties in the 1960s underlay the moral panic about mods and rockers?
The moral panic reflected anxieties about the affluent post-war youth, consumerism, hedonism, and a perceived decline in traditional British moral and social values since the 1930s–1940s.
What specific point did Cohen make about moral panics occurring during times of social change?
Cohen highlighted that moral panics frequently occur during times of rapid social change when accepted values seem uncertain, serving to reassert threatened social controls and restore collective consciousness.
What did Functionalists argue about the wider social purpose of moral panics?
Functionalists see moral panics as positive events, reaffirming society’s boundaries by uniting people against perceived threats, thereby restoring social cohesion.
Which sociologist specifically noted that moral panics often arise during capitalism’s crises?
Stuart Hall (1979), a Neo-Marxist, argued moral panics are deliberately engineered to distract from capitalism’s crises, legitimising authoritarian controls and dividing the working class.
What modern examples of moral panics have sociologists identified beyond mods and rockers?
Modern moral panics identified include muggings, dangerous dogs, New Age travellers, bogus asylum seekers, child sexual abuse, AIDS, and ‘mad cow’ disease.
Why is disproportionality a criticism of moral panic theory?
Critics argue moral panic theory assumes audiences react disproportionately without defining what would constitute a proportionate reaction, leaving it vague and subjective.
Why does moral panic theory struggle to explain the selectivity of panics?
Moral panic theory does not adequately explain why certain issues become moral panics and others do not, nor why media coverage sometimes escalates quickly then fades abruptly.
According to McRobbie and Thornton (1995), why is it harder to create moral panics today?
Audiences today are more sophisticated and accustomed to sensationalism (“shock, horror” stories), and the fragmented media landscape makes traditional moral panics harder to sustain or escalate.
Give an example of moral panic specifically linked to cyber-crime from the textbook.
Moral panics around cyber-crime include fears about horror comics, violent video games, and films corrupting youth, and fears of the Internet enabling widespread new crimes.
Which sociologists defined cyber-crime and highlighted the illicit nature of computer-mediated activities?
Douglas Thomas and Brian Loader (2000) defined cyber-crime as computer-mediated illegal or illicit activities carried out through global electronic networks.
What specific surveillance practices does Jewkes (2003) associate with ICT and crime control?
Jewkes identifies surveillance practices including CCTV cameras, electronic databases, digital fingerprinting, ‘smart’ identity cards, and installing monitoring devices (‘carnivores’) at internet providers.
How do cultural criminologists see crime commodification through the media?
Cultural criminologists argue crime has become a commodified cultural product, with media packaging and selling crime as entertainment to attract viewers and consumers.
How do police traditionally view cyber-crime, according to Wall (2001)?
Wall notes police traditionally view cyber-crime as a lower priority due to its complexity, jurisdictional challenges, and perception that it lacks excitement compared to conventional street-level policing.
