Topic 7 - Media and Crime Flashcards
How is the media a cause of crime? [6]
- Imitation - the media provides deviant role models, which results in copying their behaviour
- Arousal - viewing violent or sexual imagery
- Desensitisation - repeated viewing of violence
- Transmission of knowledge of criminal techniques
- Stimulating desires for unaffordable goods (eg. through advertising)
- Glamourising offending
The distorted image of crime [4]
Overrepresentation of sexual and violent crime Exaggerates police success Exaggerates the risk of victimisation Overplay extraordinary crimes
Fictional representations of crime (Surette) [5]
Fictional representations of crime follow the ‘law of opposites’, meaning they are opposite to official statistics:
Property crime is underrepresented, while violence, sex and drug crimes are over-represented
Fictional sex crimes are caused by psychopathic strangers, whereas most sex crimes are committed by acquaintances
Fictional villains are higher-status, middle-aged, white males
Fictional police usually catch criminals
Moral Panics (Cohen)
Media’s response to mods and rockers in the 1960s.
- Cohen revealed media amplified and exaggerated the disorder in Brighton, producing a deviancy amplification spiral. This resulted from:
- Exaggeration and distortion - exaggerated the numbers involved, the extent of violence and damage
- Prediction - assumed and predicted further conflict
- Symbolisation - the symbols of the mods and rockers defined them
The media cause moral panics nowadays with issues such as acid attacks and terrorism.
What are news values?
- Criteria by which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough to make it into the news
What are the news values? [7]
Immediacy - ‘breaking news’
Dramatization - action, and excitement
Personalization - human interest stories about individuals
Higher status - celebrities
Simplification - eliminating shades of grey
Risk - victim-centered stories about vulnerability and fear
Violence - visible events
