Crime + The Media Flashcards
Williams and Dickinson found that on average what percentage of British newspaper coverage is devoted to crime?
30%
Harper and Hogue found that sexual offences made up what percentage of news stories?
20%
What types of crimes do the media tend to overrepresent? How do official statistics present these crimes?
The media over represents violent and sexual crime. Ditton and Duffy found that 46% of media reports were about violence/sexual crimes, yet they only make up 3% of actual crimes.
How does the media exaggerate police success?
Police success is exaggerated, especially in terms of clearing cases up. Possibly because the police wants to present themselves in a good light.
What does Felson say regarding how the media portrays the age of criminals?
The media padres criminals as older and more middle class. Felson argues there is an age fallacy – we are led to believe criminals are much older than they really are.
Explain Felson’s claim that there are dramatic fallacies and ingenuity fallacies in the media’s representation of crime
there is a dramatic fallacy - we are allowed to believe crimes are more dramatic than in reality. there is a ingenuity fallacy - we are allowed to believe that you need to be daring and clever to solve crime
The media have increased coverage of what type of crimes?
Sexual / rape crimes
How has the media distorted the picture of rape?
Media coverage is increasingly focused on identifying the ‘sex fiend’ or ‘beast’. The resulting distorted picture of rape is one of serial attacks carried out by psychopathic strangers however these are rare and in most cases the perpetrator is known to the victim.
Why do people argue that the news is simply a social construction?
News is not out there waiting to be reported, is the outcome of a series of social processes where some new stories are selected and others rejected. News is not discovered but manufactured.
Define new values
The criteria that journalists and editors used to decide whether and story is newsworthy enough to make it
Name at least four of the eight news values
• immediacy
• Dramatisation
• personalisation
• higher status
• simplification
• novelty/unexpectedness
• risk
• violence
Does fictional coverage of crime in the media tend to be a true representation of crime?
No
How does sociologist Surette explain fictional media coverage of crime?
Fictional fictional coverage works on a ‘law of opposites’ - portraying the exact opposite to what the official statistics show
Give two examples of how fictional media coverage portrays the exact opposite to what the official statistic show of crime
•property crime is underrepresented. Whereas violent, drug + sexual crimes are overrepresented.
•fictional sexual crimes are committed by psychopathic strangers not acquaintances.
• real life homicide man the result from fights/domestic abuse but fictional ones are the products of greed + calculation.
How can the media be a cause of crime on which groups can it particularly affect?
Crime media can have a negative effect on attitudes values + behaviour, especially amongst groups who are susceptible to influence such as youth + lower classes
What type of media was blamed for corrupt in the youth in the 1920s/30s?
Cinema
Give an example of a film that has often been accused of causing crime
‘Natural born killer’ - 1994 film tells the story of two victims of traumatic childhood who became lovers and mass murderers
What type of copycat crimes are reported to have been committed as a result of the film ‘Natural Born Killer’ ?
• school shootings
• young couples watching the film and then killing people
What recent type of media has been accused of corrupting the youth and their interpretation of crime?
Rap songs, but mainly video games, such as grand theft auto
Name three of the ways that the media is seen to cause crime, other than through imitation and copycat behaviour
• arousal
• desensitisation
• glamorous crime
• stimulating desires for un affordable goods
• transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
• portraying the police as incompetent
What are the two arguments regarding the debate of violent video games?
Summary researchers claim there is zero connection between entertainment and behaviour. Whereas others claim violent video games can make you more aggressive, more numb to others suffering, and make you more fearful of violence from others. However, most studies are inconclusive.
What evidence does Gerbner et al present to support the idea that the media creates a fear of crime?
In the USA heavy users of television (over 4hrs a day) had higher levels of fear of crime
What evidence does Schlesinger & Tumber present to support the idea that the media creates a fear of crime?
Found a correlation between media consumption + fear of crime. Tabloid readers + heavy users of TV expressed greater fear of becoming a victim, especially of physical attack & mugging.
How can Schlesinger & Tumber’s I wouldn’t for the media career in a fear of crime criticised?
Existence of such correlation is doesn’t prove that media viewing causes fear. It may be that those who are already afraid of going out at night watch more TV because they stay in more.
What do Greer & Reiner note regarding the media and fear of crime?
Much research on the media as a cause or fear of crime ignores the meanings that viewers give to media violence. They may give very different meanings to violence in cartoons, horror films + the news. Sue Palmer - children can’t interpret media like adults do.
Left realists argue that the media helps to increase the sense of what for poor, marginalised groups?
Increases the sense of relative deprivation
What types of media might be intensify in feelings of strain/relative deprivation in society today?
Advertising
Social media, particularly influences and celebrities promoting products and mass consumerism
Name the two critical criminologist sociologists (neo-Marxists) which share their view on crime on the media
Hayward and Young
What do critical criminologists Hayward and Young believe regarding the media, relative deprivation and crime?
The media has turned crime into a commodity that people desire. They see late modern society as media saturated - we are immersed in a ‘media scape’, which blurrs the distinction between images of crime + the reality of crime.
Give an example of advertisers using images of crime to sell their products
Dolce and Gabbana promoted the masculine aftershave with images of men surrounding and overpowering a woman alluding to crimes like sexual assault or subordination
What is a moral panic?
Where a negative label is attached to a group of people and it causes the general public widespread concern or fear
What role does the media have in creating a moral panic?
It presents the news to the public and can often sensationalise it. It has the power to negatively label people and therefore conform public opinion and attitudes. Moral panics are caused by the media.
What impact does the moral panic have in terms of levels of deviance?
When a moral panic amongst the public occurs, authorities like the police/government usually respond to the concern with Harsha labelling and persecution of the group. However, this often leads to deviance amplification spirals.
What case study illustrates a huge moral panic?
Mods vs rockers 1964
Can you think of any recent moral panics?
Islamic terrorism, levels of illegal immigration
Give a criticism of the concept of moral panics
•it assumes that the society reaction is an overreaction, but who decides that?
•why do pandas not go on increasing indefinitely?
•do today’s media audiences, who have become used to shock/horror stories really react with panic to media exaggerations?
What new type of media has arguably caused a moral panic?
The Internet
Name three categories of cyber crime
• cyber trespassing
• cyber deception and theft
• cyber pornography
• cyber violence
• global cyber crime
How can we argue that ICT and the new Internet media does have positives for crime?
New ICT also provides the police/state with greater opportunities for surveillance and control of the population. ICT permits routine surveillance through CCTV cameras, digital fingerprinting etc.
