‘Society’s perception of crime is exaggerated.’ Flashcards
MEDIA
P - The role of the media is highly influential in the exaggeration of crime, with news consumed both through traditional media and social media being very present in the public’s everyday lives.
E - exaggeration fear mongering . more attention dramatic extreme violent crimes to capture readers attention
example?
explain - Emotive language is used to provoke extreme reactions and horror from readers with words like “monster” being used in headlines. Richard Felson media fallacies, dramatic fallacy dramatic crimes like murder and rape are overeported, as well as portrayed in TV shows and movies to such an extent that the public believe that they are much more common than they actually are.
example?
e - insteaxd of the majority of crimes which are not so exciting such as crimes of dishonesty, such as fraud, which is the largest category of recorded crime at 32%.
It was found that 46% of reports in the media were made up of violent or sexual crimes by Jason Ditty and James Duffy, however they only make up 3% of crimes recorded. in Canada Crocker found that half of media reports were about violent crimes despite only making up just 7% of all crimes.
MEDIA
R - However, more high quality news sources illustrate a more accurate picture of crime
example?
L - Therefore the media is overall not a reliable or accurate source for reporting crime in society, with their motivations clearly rooted behind drawing in the highest readership rather than communicating an accurate portrayal of crime. The impact of this is an exaggerated perception of crime in society as well as a misunderstanding of the reality of the types of crime committed. Furthermore, this media exaggeration leads to general feelings of fear and anger towards crime.
e - Tabloid newspapers such as The Sun or The Daily Mail are a lot more likely to use this exaggerating language and attention grabbing headlines, whereas more respected news sources such as the BBC and The Telegraph will depict more reliable stories with less exaggeration or falsehoods as they have reputations as high quality journalists.
CRIME STATISTICS
P - The media certainly exaggerates the levels of crime however crime statistics recorded by the police in fact do the opposite.
e - Official statistics should be the most accurate source of information on crime with no ulterior motives such as attracting a large number of views like the media has. no exaggeration government is one of the most reliable sources available and the statistics cannot be manipulated and no language can be used to portray the facts a certain way. These statistics are obtained every year and clearly show patterns in the levels of crime and types of crime, which means they should detail exactly the facts about crime in the UK.
e?
e - For example, they show that between 2019/20 and 2020/21 the levels of crime in Scotland remain almost unchanged from 246,516 crimes to 246,511 crimes. Furthermore they show that the crime rate per 10,000 population has decreased significantly over time from 2002/03 - 2019/20.
CRIME STATISTICS
R - However it is very difficult for official statistics to gather a true reflection of crime levels when according to the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2019/20 only an estimated 40% of all crime was reported to the police.
e - There are a variety of reasons for people not reporting crimes to the police, such as the fear of not being believed, fear police wouldn’t be able to help, or worry they may get into trouble. Some crimes go staggeringly underreported, such as rape.
e ?
a - This shows that police face this difficulty worldwide and that measuring the extent of crime through police reports is a challenging task. This highlights that crime statistics do not show the full picture of crime.
L - As a result, society’s perception of crime is not exaggerated as the UK’s official statistics in fact only show the tip of the iceberg of the true levels of crime. However, most people do not look up crime statistics but almost everyone consumes news from the media, therefore the public will be much more influenced by the media and will consequently hold exaggerated perceptions of crime.
e - Although recorded sexual crimes have increased by 96% in the last 10 years according to official statistics, 1 in 6 sexual assaults are not reported in the UK. Crimes not being reported to police can be seen in other countries also, for example, in France, according to a study conducted by the National Observatory for Crime and Punishment and the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies, only 13% of sexual violence victims filed a police report.
CRIME SURVEYS
P - Crime surveys can be a better method of collecting data on crime and show a more accurate overview of levels and trends
e - Surveys such as the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey reliable because they can capture information on crime that is not reported to the police and will gather more accurate data on sensitive crimes such as domestic violence or sexual assault that victims may have been too scared to go to the police about. In addition to this the SCJS provides information on multiple and repeat victimisation.
example?
a?
e?
e - Crime surveys have long been trusted to be more valid than police statistics and this is clear when the 2019/20 police recorded statistics report that there were 246,516 crimes in Scotland whereas the 2019/20 SCJS reports that 563,000 crimes were experienced in Scotland.
e - The SCJS also provides data on attitudes and perceptions towards crime, something official statistics do not do. In 2019/20 it was found that just under half (45%) of survey respondents thought that national crime had increased despite crime slightly decreasing in actuality. It was also found that a much larger proportion of people thought they were likely to experience crime over the next year who hadn’t experienced a crime before, than people who were actually victims in 2019/20. This fear of crime in the UK is very similar in other countries too with 45% of the population in Sweden having great concern about crime in society according to their crime survey.
CRIME SURVEYS
R - However, crime surveys have limitations in their accuracy.
e - Firstly, as they only focus on victimisation they do not cover all crimes, for example homicide or crimes which have no direct victim such as speeding.
e?
L - Therefore, although crime surveys have a great deal more accuracy they are not completely reliable. The findings depicted by crime surveys are pretty close to spot on of actual levels of crime with clear statistics and facts leaving no room for exaggeration, however the attitudinal results of these surveys demonstrate that society does have an exaggerated perception of crime and believe it to be more of a threat than it actually is. This could again be linked back to the horror stories of crime spun by the media.
Secondly, although the SCJS has a large sample of around 5,500 people they still cannot get an entirely representative group as they cannot interview people such as children or homeless people. Moreover, crimes are more likely to occur in more deprived areas and as they can only interview a limited number of people in these poorer areas they will not be able to collect all the true data. Another weakness is that there will be some people who will not be fully truthful and may not say if they have been a victim of crime, for similar reasons as not wanting to report to the police such as embarrassment.
MORAL PANICS
P - There is an exaggerated perception of crime from certain groups in society, this is known as moral panic theory.
e - People have stereotyped ideas about various groups in terms of crime, and believe they are more likely to commit crime or certain types of crime. This comes about firstly because the media reports on the group in a negative and exaggerated way, which then causes the group to be demonised and for the public to adopt these negative beliefs. People can be discriminated against in this way because of things such as their race or dress sense.
e?
e - For example this pattern can be seen when in 2018 police recorded an increase in offences using a knife or sharp instrument which led to the media raising alarm in relation to youth violence specifically towards black people. As a result there became symbolisation between things such as drill music and knife crime.
MORAL PANICS
R - . Despite these stereotypical beliefs, there is little evidence these groups are more likely to commit crimes, and this is at large a fantasy problem created by the media to profit off of
example?
a - This highlights that the media unfairly associates particular groups with crime and makes it out to be a much larger problem than it is, if it was even a problem at all. However, these groups often resist control or act up to the media in a self fulfilling prophecy and start to commit the crimes that were expected of them
e?
L - Therefore although there is some evidence of these groups acting in the way they are reported and the claims are not totally unfounded, they are certainly exaggerated and generalising all of them as criminals is unfair. These media reports aim to cause unnecessary fear and judgement within society.
e - A recent study by the British Journal of Criminology, found no statistically significant relationship between ethnicity and carrying a knife.
e - This can be seen in teenage crime, as youth delinquency constantly faces harsh reporting and 14-25 is the peak age for criminal activity.
