Media And Crime Flashcards
Name the 6 ways the media distorts the true image of crime
Over-representation of violent and sexual crime
Age fallacy
Dramatic fallacy
Exaggerate police success rate
Exaggerate risk of victimisation
Present crime as separate events
Who came up with the dramatic fallacy and age fallacy just mentioned?
Relain
What percentage of crime is violent and sexual and what percentage of crime in media is violent and sexual?
Reality - 3%
Media - 46%
Who described the changes in the media’s crime focus between the 60s and 90s?
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.
According to Soothill and Walby was has the media become increasingly preoccupied with?
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.
What are news values?
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
Who named the 8 news values?
Jewkes
What are the 8 news values with an example of each
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
What did Surrette say fictional representations of crime follow?
The Law of opposites
Outline 5 laws of opposites (they’re very similar to the distortions of crime)
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
What is the hypodermic syringe model?
The idea that the media injects it’s influence which causes the crime - there are 5 ways
Name 5 ways the media causes crime through injecting influence
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
Give 2 pieces of positive evaluation for the hypodermic syringe model
James bulger case shows knowledge transmission, imitation and desensitisation
Bandorra’s Bobo doll experiment showed children will imitate what they see on tv
Who raises the media and relative deprivation as a cause of crime - and what sociological perspective are they from?
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
Give a piece of positive and negative evaluation for relative deprivation and media as a cause of crime
Ad - Merton’s strain theory supports this idea of societal goals and institutional means
Disad - it’s deterministic
What is cultural criminology, who came up with it and what perspective are they from?
Cultural criminology - Haywood and Young - Postmodernist - because society is so media saturated the boundary between images and reality of crime is becoming blurred.
Give an example of cultural criminology
Gang assaults are no longer just caught on camera but actually staged for the cameras and used as underground fight videos
What is the commodification of crime by the media?
Fenwick and Haywood - crime is packaged as a fashionable cultural symbol to young people through advertising.
What examples did Haywood and Young use to show the commodification of crime in media?
Brandalism - cars speed in adverts, FCUK is a popular brand with a deviant name and graffiti has been used by things like McDonalds
Give a piece of negative evaluation for the commodification of crime as a cause
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
Define moral panic
An exaggerated overreaction to a perceived problem
What are the 4 steps of a moral panic?
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
Define folk devils
A group that’s a threat to society’s values
Define moral entrepreneurs
A group which seeks to influence others to adopt certain norms
What is a deviancy amplification spiral?
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
Who is the main sociologist on moral panics and what is his study?
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.
Give an example of moral panics in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s
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
What is the functionalists view of moral panics?
That moral panics are a response to anomie in society because by dramatising a threat this maintains collective conscience as values are reasserted
What is the neo Marxist view of moral panics?
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.
Give 2 negative pieces of evaluation for moral panics as a cause of crime
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
How is the media now used as a way of committing crime
Cyber crime
Who outlined the 4 types of cyber crime and what are they?
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
Name 3 difficulties when policing cyber crime
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
How do you negatively evaluate technology as a method of crime?
Jewkes - technology can also help stop crime through CCTV surveillance, electronic databases and listening devices
