Media + Crime

Question 1

Media - Representations of Crime

Answer 1

• We currently live in a media saturated soc that’s obsessed with crime
- we have little contact with people, media shapes our perception
- what we think about crime is heavily influenced by media
• Williams + Dickinson –> 30% of newspaper coverage is devoted to crime - 24 hour coverage

Question 2

Media - Distorted image of crime - Ditton + Duffy, Felson

Answer 2

• Overrepresent violent + sexual crime
- Ditton + Duffy –> 46% of media reports, 3% of recorded crime
• Victims are portrayed as older + mc
- Felson –> Age Fallacy
• Exaggerates police success –> want to present police in good light
• Exaggerates risk of victimisation–> especially to women + mc
• Crime reported as series of seperate events –> doesn’t examine underlying cause
• Overrepresents extraordinary crimes –> Felson - Dramatic Fallacy

Question 3

Media - Is the Media Changing - Tumber

Answer 3

• Media interest in petty crime + murder has declined since 60s
• Reporting in 90s tended to focus on drugs, child abuse, terrorism + mugging

Question 4

Media - Does it cause crime - Fear of Crime - Schlesinger + Tumber

Answer 4

•Exaggerates violent crime + exaggerates risk of certain groups becoming victim
• Schlesinger + Tumbler –> correlation between Media consumption + fear of crime
- Tabloid readers + heavy TV users express greater fear of becoming victim

Question 5

Media - Does it cause crime - Relative Deprivation - Lea + Young

Answer 5

• Mass media increases sense of relative Deprivation
• Create a standardised image of lifestyle so for unemployed + low wages - creates relative Deprivation
- Media presents everyone with images of materialistic ‘good’ lifestyles – marginalised groups feel deprived

Question 6

Media - Does it cause crime - Cultural Criminology- Hayward + Young

Answer 6

• Turn crime into commodity people desire –> don’t see negative impacts/punishment - glamorousises
• Encourages people to consume crime
• Late Modern soc is media saturated - immersed in mediascape (blurs image + reality)

Question 7

Media - Does if cause crime - Commidification - Hayward + Young and Fenwick

Answer 7

• Emphasise consumption
• Crime + its thrills become commodities
- adverts use imaged of crime to sell products (hip hop Wear brands)
• Fenwick + Hayward –> crime is packaged + marketed to young as exciting + cool - car ads feature joyriding

Question 8

Media - Does it cause crime - Arousal, Desensitisation

Answer 8

• Arousal –> Porn creates dysfunctional view of sex + causes indivs to commit sexual offences
• Desensitisation –> Being exposed to violence causes it to be normalised
• Transmotting knowledge of crime techniques –> how to hot wite car YT

Question 9

Media - Does it cause crime- Evaluations

Answer 9

• Reductionist –> Reduces cause if violence as crime due to media
- ignores: poverty, marginalised + MH issues
• Functionalists –> Ignores media can impact positively
• Most research is very unrepresentative

Question 10

Media - Sociological Perspectives - Marxists

Answer 10

• Media reporting reflects hegemony (only given bourg side to believe) + ideology of rc
- Media owned by small minority of elites
- 5 billionaires own 80% of Media
- Miliband –> Allows bourg to control wc
• White collar crime are under reported + Media over-reports wc crime

Question 11

Media - Sociological Perspectives - Functionalism

Answer 11

• Reporting crime maintains social solidarity
• Crimes reported reflect what people want to see in media - meets demand of value consensus
• Different media report different crime

Question 12

Media - Sociological Perspectives - Postmodernism - Baudrillard

Answer 12

• Simulacra + Simulation
• Media creates reality –> have no understanding of crime just what they see in Media

Question 13

Media - Sociological Perspectives - Feminism

Answer 13

• Crime reporting reinforces stereotypes + oppression of women
• Women portrayed as victims
• Under reporting domestic violence against women

Question 14

Media - Moral Panics - Cohen

Answer 14

• = Exaggerares outburst of public concern over beh of a group
- created by moral crusaders
- links to Labelling
• Folk Devil’s (Cohen) = Group who media focus on - targeted for exaggerated reporting
• Deviancy Amplification - Consequence of Moral Panic
- Group becomes more deviant due to media exaggerating their Deviance

Question 15

Media - Cyber Crime - Intro

Answer 15

• Speed, convenience + anonymity of Internet creates new crime with no borders
• Macionis + Plummer –> Creates new world of crime
• Jewkes –> Creates opportunity to commit conventional crimes

Question 16

Media - Cyber Crime - Wall - Types of crime

Answer 16

• Cyber Theft –> hacking, pshing, illegal downloads, file sharing
- 17 mil stream rippers in 2018
• Cyber Pornography –> Increased opportunity for underaged to consume porn
- Psychology today –> Average male first porn use is 13
- Increased revenge porn + Minors
• Cyber Trespass–> Cross boundaries into other Cyber property - Sending viruses + hacking
- NHS Wanna Cry Hack 2017
• Cyber Violence –> Creating psychological harm + cyberharrasment (doxxing, violent threats)

Question 17

Media - Cyber Crime + Social Control - Zuboff + Jewkes

Answer 17

• Gives opportunity to control + monitor population
• Zuboff –> Surfing Web leafs to predictions of beh (Amazon)
• China’s social credit system
• Jewkes –> Permits routine surveillance through CCTV, Finger prints