Media and Crime

Question 1

media as a cause of crime

Answer 1

• imitation: the media provides deviant role models, which results in copying their behaviour
• arousal: viewing violent or imagery
• desensitisation: repeated viewing of violence
• transmission of knowledge of criminal techniques
• stimulating desires for unaffordable goods (e.g: though advertising)
• glamorising offending

Question 1

distorted image of crime

Answer 1

• overrepresentation of sexual and violent crime
• exaggerates police success
• exaggerates the risk of victimisation
• overplay extraordinary crimes

Question 2

Surette - functional representations of crime

Answer 2

fictional representations of crime follow the ‘law of opposites’, meaning they are opposite to official statistics:
- property crime is underrepresented, which violence, sex and drug crimes are over-represented
- fictional sex crimes are caused by psychopathic strangers, whereas most sex crimes are committed by acquaintances
- fictional villains are higher status, middle aged, white males
- fictional police usually catch criminals

Question 3

Cohen - moral panics

Answer 3

chosen examined media’s response to disturbances between working-class teenagers (mods and rockers) in the 1960s. Cohen revealed that although this disorder was relatively minor, the media amplified and exaggerated this, producing a deviance amplification spiral. this resulted from:
- exaggeration and distortion: exaggerated the numbers involved, the extent of violence and damage
- prediction: assumed and predicted further conflict
- symbolisation: the symbols of the mods and rockers defined them

Question 4

Cohen and Young - news values

Answer 4

news is not discovered, but manufactured. a central feature manufactured news is the concept of ‘news values’, these are criteria in which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough to make it into the news. key news values include:
- immediacy: ‘breaking news’
- dramatisation: action and excitement
- personalisation: human interest stories about individuals
- higher status: celebrities
- simplification: eliminating shades of grey
- risk: victim-centred stories about vulnerability and fear
- violence

Question 5

Lea and Young - the media, relative deprivation and crime

Answer 5

the media present everyone with the image of a materialistic ‘good life’, which is the norm in which everyone should conform however, this stimulates the sense of relative deprivation and marginalisation felt by groups who cannot afford these goods