media and crime Flashcards
How does the media cause crime? overview
The media give an overly distorted image of crime, e.g. over-representing violent crimes. This is because the news is a social construction based on news values that explain the media’s interest in crime. Some sociologists see media as a cause of crime through imitation and the deviance amplification of moral panics.
What are the reasons for media causing crime?
imitation, arousal, desensitisation, glamorising offending, transmission of knowledge of criminal techniques
What is imitation, arousal and desensitisation?
Imitation - the media provides deviant role models, which results in copying their behaviour
Arousal - viewing violent or sexual imagery
Desensitisation - repeated viewing of violence
What is the distorted image of crime?
Overrepresentation of sexual and violent crime
Exaggerates police success
Exaggerates the risk of victimisation
Overplay extraordinary crimes
What is the fictional representation of crime?
Surette- follow the ‘law of opposites’, opposite to official statistics:-
Property crime is underrepresented, while 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
What is a moral panic?
The media exaggerates a situation which sends society into a ‘moral panic’
What did Cohen research?
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.
What is exaggeration and distortion?
Cohens study- exaggerated the numbers involved, the extent of violence and damage
What did Cohen predict?
Cohens study- assumed and predicted further conflict
What was the symbolisation in Cohens research?
The symbols of the mods and rockers defined them
How does the media cause moral panics nowadays?
Through issues such as terrorism and acid attacks.
What did Cohen and Young research?
News values
What did Cohen and Young find?
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.
What are some examples of news values?
Immediacy - ‘breaking news’
Dramatisation - action and excitement
Personalisation - human interest stories about individuals
What did Lea and Young research?
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.
