How does the media cause crime Flashcards
How might the media increase crime
Desensitisation - becoming less shocked by things due to repeat exposure
Imitation - deviant role models and copycat behaviour, young people and children
Glamorising offending
Moral Panic - deviance amplification spiral
What are two evaluation points of how the media might increase crime
Most studies show exposure to media violence has minimal effect on people going to commit crime
Livingstone - media does not cause children to commit crime, it is a part of moral panic
What is one positive point for the explanations of how the media has increased crime (brief explanation)
Media must have some form of effect on behaviour - how else do we explain restricted viewing
What are three sociological explanations for crime
Left Realism - Relative Deprivation
Cultural Criminology - commodification of crime
Labelling - Moral Panic
What do Lea and Young say for Relative Deprivation as a cause of crime
Media makes expensive lifestyles visible and make us feel like we need to conform and buy the latest products - cultural inclusion through apps like TikTok but many people are living in poverty = economic exclusion
Which other functionalist theory links to the LR Relative Deprivation
Merton - Strain Theory and innovators
What is an example of how the LR theory on Relative Deprivation is causing crime
Reports from save the children and family action show more families are living in poverty, meanwhile the media continue to create a desire for unaffordable lifestyles
1 in 6 parents cannot afford xmas presents (2024) for their children - rise from 1 in 7 last year
What is the idea of Cultural Criminology - The commodification of crime
The media encourages people to consume crime - everyone wants to ‘buy into it’
(exaggerated in post-modern where we cannot tell difference between reality and simulacra)
Media shows criminals as having material wealth - ‘Gangster rap’ show media imagery of crime and consumerist success - crime glorified
What do Fenwick and Hayward say
Crime has become a package
What is Brandalism
Companies use crime (words associated with it) in their marketing to sell to youth market - ‘Black Opium’ perfume
What is an example of crime being a package deal in Drill music
Junior Simpson did lyrics about knife attacks before he and others stabbed a 15-year-old to death - father described drill music as a ‘demonic mindset’
What is an evaluation for the Drill music example of causing crime
Could be argued as a modern-day moral panic
What is the third way media causes crime
Labelling Theory: Moral Panic
What is a moral panic
An exaggerated over-reaction by society to a received problem, usually driven or inspired by the media
What is a folk devil and how are the media related to them
Person/group who is threatening societies values
The media identify the folk devil, media distorts the event out of proportion and predict further problems will happen
What does cohen argue the media uses to make it easier to identify the folk devil
Symbolism such as hair styles, items of clothing, modes of transport
What are moral entrepreneurs and what do they cause
They lead a moral crusade where they call for a crackdown or make potential change in law - police look for and discover more crime causing society to stigmatise these groups - master status - SFP
What is the Deviancy Amplification Spiral
When attempts to control deviance cause further crime
What are the three moral panics we have studied in sociology and crime
Mods and Rockers
Young and Hippies of Nottinghill
Hall et al and Black Muggers
What are three modern day moral panics
Dangerous dogs
Music/ games and crime
Immigration
How do functionalists evaluate the idea of media causing crime
Media actually reinforced boundary maintenance so reduced crime
How do McRobbie and Thornton criticise the idea that media causes crime
Late modern society = used to shock and horror moral panic is now routine and have less impact on society
Less VC of right and wrong in society = harder to create moral panic
What is a general criticism of the idea that the media causes crime
Increase in technology means that it allows police force to work together to solve crime : INTERPOL
What is an interpretivist evaluation for the idea that media causes more crime
Not everyone responds to media the same - causes fear to some and not to others
