Media And Crime

Question 1

Name the 6 ways the media distorts the true image of crime

Answer 1

Over-representation of violent and sexual crime

Age fallacy

Dramatic fallacy

Exaggerate police success rate

Exaggerate risk of victimisation

Present crime as separate events

Question 2

Who came up with the dramatic fallacy and age fallacy just mentioned?

Answer 2

Relain

Question 3

What percentage of crime is violent and sexual and what percentage of crime in media is violent and sexual?

Answer 3

Reality - 3%

Media - 46%

Question 4

Who described the changes in the media’s crime focus between the 60s and 90s?

Answer 4

Schlesinger and Tumber - in the 60s the focus was murders and petty crime whereas in the 90s the focus was child abuse, terrorism and football hooliganism.

Question 5

According to Soothill and Walby was has the media become increasingly preoccupied with?

Answer 5

Sex crimes - newspaper reporting of rape rose - using hyperbole like “sex fiend” and “beast” creates the myth of psychopathic strangers when in reality the victim is more likely to know the the offender.

Question 6

What are news values?

Answer 6

A set of criteria used by journalists to choose which stories make the use - the more criteria it hits the more likely it is to be featured

Question 7

Who named the 8 news values?

Answer 7

Jewkes

Question 8

What are the 8 news values with an example of each

Answer 8

Dramatisation - serial killer over single murder
Proximity - in the area or country
Simplification - not corporate crime
Risk - danger to public like terrorism
Spectacle - photos or videos - George Floyd
Status - famous people - Caroline Flack
Sex and violence
Children - offenders or victims - James Bulger

Question 9

What did Surrette say fictional representations of crime follow?

Answer 9

The Law of opposites

Question 10

Outline 5 laws of opposites (they’re very similar to the distortions of crime)

Answer 10

Shows violent/sexual crime not common property crime

Homocides are for greed or sexual pleasure not a brawl or domestic dispute

Sex crimes are psychopathic strangers not acquaintances

Villains are high status middle aged white men not working class young men

Fictional cops always get their man

Question 11

What is the hypodermic syringe model?

Answer 11

The idea that the media injects it’s influence which causes the crime - there are 5 ways

Question 12

Name 5 ways the media causes crime through injecting influence

Answer 12

Imitation - creates role models to copy e.g don’t fuck with cats
Desensitisation
Knowledge transmission - learning techniques
Desire for unaffordable goods - advertising makes us want material goods
Glamorising offending - luxurious lifestyles e.g peaky blinders

Question 13

Give 2 pieces of positive evaluation for the hypodermic syringe model

Answer 13

James bulger case shows knowledge transmission, imitation and desensitisation

Bandorra’s Bobo doll experiment showed children will imitate what they see on tv

Question 14

Who raises the media and relative deprivation as a cause of crime - and what sociological perspective are they from?

Answer 14

Lea and Young - Left Realism - media presents an image of a perfect lifestyle which most can’t achieve so they commit crime to get it - eg kardashians

Question 15

Give a piece of positive and negative evaluation for relative deprivation and media as a cause of crime

Answer 15

Ad - Merton’s strain theory supports this idea of societal goals and institutional means

Disad - it’s deterministic

Question 16

What is cultural criminology, who came up with it and what perspective are they from?

Answer 16

Cultural criminology - Haywood and Young - Postmodernist - because society is so media saturated the boundary between images and reality of crime is becoming blurred.

Question 17

Give an example of cultural criminology

Answer 17

Gang assaults are no longer just caught on camera but actually staged for the cameras and used as underground fight videos

Question 18

What is the commodification of crime by the media?

Answer 18

Fenwick and Haywood - crime is packaged as a fashionable cultural symbol to young people through advertising.

Question 19

What examples did Haywood and Young use to show the commodification of crime in media?

Answer 19

Brandalism - cars speed in adverts, FCUK is a popular brand with a deviant name and graffiti has been used by things like McDonalds

Question 20

Give a piece of negative evaluation for the commodification of crime as a cause

Answer 20

It is deterministic to assume that just because someone sees a fake crime in an advert they will then go out and commit a crime themselves

Question 21

Define moral panic

Answer 21

An exaggerated overreaction to a perceived problem

Question 22

What are the 4 steps of a moral panic?

Answer 22

Media identify a group that are the FOLK DEVILS

Media negatively stereotypes this group and exaggerate the scale of the problem

MORAL ENTREPRENEURS condemn the folk devils publically

This forces a crackdown from police or government that leads to a DEVIANCY AMPLIFICATION SPIRAL

Question 23

Define folk devils

Answer 23

A group that’s a threat to society’s values

Question 24

Define moral entrepreneurs

Answer 24

A group which seeks to influence others to adopt certain norms

Question 25

What is a deviancy amplification spiral?

Answer 25

When a crackdown leads to a self fulfilling prophecy as the group is polarised and gain publicity so get more members and choose to commit secondary deviance

Question 26

Who is the main sociologist on moral panics and what is his study?

Answer 26

Cohen - Mods and Rockers - in the 60s there was a fight between the two groups at Brighton Beach which the media exaggerated and distorted the truth of. Then this led to teenagers in those groups being negatively labelled.

Question 27

Give an example of moral panics in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s

Answer 27

50s - Teddy Boys 
60s - Mods and Rockers - Cohen 
70s - IRA and Black muggers - Hall Et Al
80s - AIDS and Brixton riots 
90s - Child sexual abuse 
00s - Bogus refugees 
10s - Islamophobia and knife crime

Question 28

What is the functionalists view of moral panics?

Answer 28

That moral panics are a response to anomie in society because by dramatising a threat this maintains collective conscience as values are reasserted

Question 29

What is the neo Marxist view of moral panics?

Answer 29

Hall et al - moral panics distract people from the problems of capitalism. For example when there was high unemployment in the 70s they divided the W.C on racial grounds through the preoccupation with black muggers.

Question 30

Give 2 negative pieces of evaluation for moral panics as a cause of crime

Answer 30

Realists - believe fear of crime isn’t dramatised but a rational fear

Postmodernists - Beck - in a risk society moral panics have become less effective as people are used to dangers

Question 31

How is the media now used as a way of committing crime

Answer 31

Cyber crime

Question 32

Who outlined the 4 types of cyber crime and what are they?

Answer 32

Wall -
Cyber trespassing - hacking or sabotaging cyber property - eg viruses

Cyber pornography - uploading or watching child pornography - also revenge porn

Cyber violence - inciting harm through hate messages or stalking

Cyber deception - identity theft, stealing bank details or illegal downloading

Question 33

Name 3 difficulties when policing cyber crime

Answer 33

It’s so vast - therefore expensive to monitor

Jurisdiction isn’t enforceable internationally - different laws in different countries

It’s easy to encrypt and out privacy protectors on

Question 34

How do you negatively evaluate technology as a method of crime?

Answer 34

Jewkes - technology can also help stop crime through CCTV surveillance, electronic databases and listening devices