Media Representations of Crime

What is media representations of crime?

• In terms of entertainment, crime dominates dramatic and true-story programming in the media

• Public fascination with crime influences their perceptions of the level of crime and victimisation

What is fictional representations of crime?

• Mandel (1984)- Recorded over 10 billion crime thrillers sold worldwide

• Reiner (2007) Fictional views of crime over-represent murder and violent crime

What is commodification of crime?

• Fenwick and Hyward (2000) suggest that the media uses crime as a way of selling goods to young people

• Hayward and Young (2012) see the commodification of crime as romanticising crime as romanticising crime and making it culturally acceptable - through association with products

What is the law of opposites?

• Crime is often misrepresented through the media according to Surette (1998)

• ‘Psychopathic strangers’ are rare in murder and sexual assault cases

• Criminal convictions are seen far lower than seen on screen

What are the impacts of media representations?

• Correlation between media usage and the fear of crime - high users are more likely to be afraid of being victims of crime

• Felson (1998) media portray victims of crime as older and more middle-class — the age and class fallacy

What is media and ideology?

• Media is a form of ideological state apparatus according to Althusser- sets agendas for criminalising behaviours of working class

• Promotes the ideology of media owners - predominantly right-wing - which centres on crimes of the working-class and non-white ethnic groups

• The invisibility of state crime, corporate crimes and green crimes in traditional media reporting

What are interpretations of media?

• Greer and Reiner (2012) suggest that not all individuals interpret the media in the same way

• Jeweks (2015) large number of factors influencing people’s perceptions of crime, including personal experience

• Changing attitudes within fictional media- more realistic interpretations of crime, corrupt police and criminals getting away with crimes