Over-represntation of Crime In Media: Distorition Of Crime + Deviance In The News

Question 1

The media creates the wrong impressions about the extent of violent and sexual crime which occurs

Answer 1

46% of news stories were focused on these issues, got only 3% of crimes reported were of this nature

Question 2

The media creates the wrong impression about the characteristics of a typical victim, with middle class + older victims getting more attention

Answer 2

The age fallacy; in reality, young + middle aged adults are more likely to be victims but elderly are considered more news worthy

Question 3

The media exaggerates the successes of the police by focusing on successfully cases

Answer 3

Because they focus on violent crime, which is more likely to be pursued vs burglary which has a less success rate

Question 4

The media exaggerates the risk of being a victim

Answer 4

Making people feel that they are going to be targeted - women as an example with stories of sexual violence

Question 5

The media reports crime as a series of separate + unrelated events

Answer 5

failing to recognise that the patriarchy or wealth inequalities may cause crime

Question 6

The media overdramatises crime by paying more attention to extraordinary crimes + downplaying the extent of mundane, everyday crimes

Answer 6

Dramatic fallacy + ingenuity fallacy - which is where the media implies that criminals are calculated, which isn’t often