media and crime

Question 1

how is the media a cause of crime

Answer 1

1. imitation - the media provides deviant role models, resulting in copying their behaviour
2. arousal - viewing violent or sexual imagery
3. desensitisation - repeated viewing of violence
4. transmission of knowledge of criminal techniques
   stimulating desires for unaffordable goods (eg in adverts)
5. glamourising offending

Question 2

what is the distorted image of crime

Answer 2

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

Question 3

what are SURETTE’S fictional representations of crime

Answer 3

1. fictional representations of crime follow the ‘law of opposites’, meaning they are opposite to official stats
2. property crime is underrepresented, while violence, sex and drug crimes are over represented
3. fictional sex crimes are caused by psychopathic strangers, whereas most sex crimes are committed by people victim has met
4. fictional villains are higher status, middle ages, white males
5. fictional police usually catch criminals

Question 4

what is COHEN’S study about for moral panics

Answer 4

the mods and rockers

Question 5

what did COHEN study about the mods and rockers

Answer 5

cohen examined the media’s response to disturbances between working class teenagers in the 1960s, and revealed this disorder was quite minor, the media amplified and exaggerated this which created a deviance amplification spiral resulted from
1. exaggeration and distortion - exaggerated the numbers involved, the extent of violence and damage
2. prediction - assumed and predicted further conflict
3. symbolisation - the symbols of the mods defined them

Question 6

how does the media cause moral panics now

Answer 6

with issues such as acid attacks and terrorism

Question 7

what are COHEN and YOUNG’S news values

Answer 7

1. immediacy - ‘breaking news’
2. dramatisation - action and excitement
3. personalisation - human interest stories about individuals
4. higher status - celebrities
5. simplification - eliminating shades of grey
6. risk - victim centred stories about vulnerability and fear
7. violence

Question 8

what does LEA and YOUNG believe about the media, relative deprivation and crime

Answer 8

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