Media and Crime

Question 1

How is the media act as a cause of crime ?

Answer 1

-Imitation
-Arousal
-Desensitisation
-Transmission of knowledge of criminal techniques
-Stimulating desires fro unaffordable goods [ advertising ]
-Glamourising offending

Question 2

What does the distorted image of crime show?

Answer 2

• Over-representation of sexual and violent crime
• Exaggerates police success
• Exaggerates the risk of victimisation
• Overplay extraordinary crimes

Question 3

What do Lea And Young talk about ?

Answer 3

Relative deprivation

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.

Question 4

What do Cohen and Young say about news values ?

Answer 4

News is not discovered, but it is 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

Question 5

What are the key news values ?

Answer 5

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 6

What did Cohen examine about moral panics ?

Answer 6

The mods and rockers

Cohen 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.

Question 7

What the deviance amplification spiral result in for the mods and rockers >

Answer 7

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
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The media cause moral panics nowadays with issues such as acid attacks and terrorism.

Question 8

What does Surette say about fictional representations of crime ?

Answer 8

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