Topic 7 - Crime and the Media

Question 1

How do the Media distort crime?

Answer 1

• The media over represent violent and sexual crimes, portraying the criminals as older, middle class the police as more effective than they actually are

Question 2

How is the news a social construction?

Answer 2

• Because Journalists select crime stories based on news values, which is the criteria by which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough to make it into the paper.
• Key news values include violence, higher status, dramatisation and personalisation

Question 3

How else do we get our images of crime apart from the news?

Answer 3

• Through fictional representations such as from TV, cinema and novels
• fictional representations of crime follow what sociologists call the law of opposite , meaning they are the opposite of official statistics
• because property crime is under represented while violence and sex crimes are over represented
• they also show that criminals are psychopathic strangers and that victims are white and middle class, and also show that fictional police always catch their man

Question 4

How might the media possibly contribute to crime?

Answer 4

• Imitation, by providing deviant role models may lead to copy cat behavior
• By transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
• By portraying the police as incompetent
• By stimulating desires for unaffordable goods for example through advertising
• Desensitisation, by repeatedly showing violence

Question 5

How does the media lead to public fear ?

Answer 5

• The media exaggerate the amount of violent and sexual crime, and they also the exaggerate the risks of certain groups of people becoming victims such as young women and the elderly, although the official statistics say it is young working class women more at risk
• due to this it leads to an increased public fear
• study supported this as Gerbner et al found that heavy users of television had higher levels of fear of crime

Question 6

How does the media effect relative deprivation?

Answer 6

• Left Realists such as Lea and Young argue that the media increases awareness of relative deprivation
• In todays society even when the poor have access to the media, where it portrays everyone with images of a materialistic good life of leisure, fun and consumer goods , however this is unattainable for some , which leads to relative deprivation and a sense of social exclusion felt by marginalised groups who cannot afford these goods this thus leads to crime

Question 7

According to Cultural Criminologists how does the media cause crime?

Answer 7

• Argue that the media turn crime itself into a commodity ( which is something that can be bought or sold ) that people desire and markets crime like a business
• Cultural criminologists such as Hayward and Young see late modern society as a media saturated society ( media shapes how we think and is involved deeply in our lives ) and this causes the distinction between reality and crime to become blurred
• The media turns crime to something that is consumed as a form of entertainment it does this by dramatising it
• And individuals may act out crimes for thrill and attention because they know the media could capture it and they could go viral
• For example gang fights are usually just performed to be posted online and are just staged
• The media also advertise crime for example by showing vandalism in hip hop music videos
• Fenwick and Hayward note that the media romanticise crime and make it exciting and cool to youths

Question 8

What is evaluation of cultural criminologists?

Answer 8

• ignore resistance within subcultures, as not all members would be attracted to the advertisement of crime
• Can overemphasise consumer culture and downplay factors such as economic deprivation

Question 9

How does the media cause crime by labelling?

Answer 9

• Moral entrepreneur ( individuals who are able to label certain groups ) who disapprove of some particular behavior such as drug taking, may use the media to put pressure on the authorities to do something about the problem
• if they are successful, this will lead to negative labelling of the behavior and perhaps a change in law
• For example the introduction of the marijuana tax act in the US, the media was able to label marijuana smoking as criminal when it was previously legal

Question 10

What is an important element in the process of the media labelling an act as criminal?

Answer 10

• Moral panic, which is an exaggerated over reaction by society to a perceived problem
• In a moral panic, the media identify a group as a folk devil or threat to societal values
• the media present the group in a negative fashion, and exaggerate their offence
• and this may lead to SFP

Question 11

Describe Cohen’s study of moral panic

Answer 11

• Cohen studied moral panic and the role of the media
• He examines the media’s response to disturbances between two groups of largely working class teenagers, the mods and rockers
• Mods wore smart dress and rode scooters whilst rockers wore leather jackets and rode motor bikes
• Cohen analysed how the media portrayed minor scuffles between these groups as large scale violence
• The media contributed to public fear and police crackdown

Question 12

According to Cohen what are the three key ways in how the media contribute to moral panic?

Answer 12

• Exaggeration and distortion, the media exaggerate the numbers involved and the extent of violence and the danger posed
• Prediction , the media regularly assume and predict further conflict and violence would occur, often turning predictions into SFP
• Symbolisation, certain aspects like clothes, scooters and hairstyles were all negatively labelled

Question 13

According to Cohen how does the media create a deviance amplification spiral?

Answer 13

• Cohen argues that the media’s portrayal of events produced a deviance amplification spiral by making it seem as if the problem was spreading and getting out of hand
• This led to calls for an increased control response from the police and courts and thus leading to further marginalisation of the mods and rockers as deviants
• The media further amplified deviance by defining the two groups and their subcultures , and this led to more youths adopting this style and drew in more participants for future clashes