Crime - Counting Crime

Feb 2 - 6

Who is this quote by “Society creates crimes by creating crimes”

Durkheim

How is crime symbolic?

• Symbolizing the law

  • symbolic interactionism

  • what's w all the " pomp and circumstance"?

  • who's this ritual for?

• the court has lots of symbols

  • robes

  • court of arms

  • swearing on the bible

  • what is all this for?

• symbolic function of the JS

• then the prof went over a book giving the description of the court during a trial,

  • it was very theatrical,

  • all the positions and placement of the jury, judge, people, etc..

  • Who is it for?

    • the offender?

    • it is for the public as a show and symbol of justice being served

Crime as a ritual?

• CJS as ritual (Collins, "social necessity of crime," 1982)

  • pomp and circumstance has little on offender

  • The "punishing" is a "ritual" enacted for the benefit of society

• Hard/soft

• coercion/consent

• legitimacy of the state

 

Way of understanding the CJS - funnel/net

• case attrition/discretions

• only some crime is discovered by police

• dark measure of crime - p.48

  • the crime that never gets caught

• cases are dropped

  • legal technicalities

  • lack of evidence

  • etc...

• Perceptions of crime - wedding cake?

• top is smallest as in the indictable crimes, very less are committed

  • media makes it seem the opposite as in 90% crimes are very violent

Indictable Offence/crime?

• a serious criminal charge in Canada (similar to a felony in other jurisdictions) that carries severe penalties, including long prison sentences (up to life) and, in some cases, minimum punishment

• crime -type distribution

• reality vs media portrayal

• murder

• robbery, or theft over $5000

• involve complex, formal court proceedings, often in superior court,

• do not have limitation periods, meaning charges can be filed at any time.

• summary conviction offences 

• least serious type of criminal offence in Canada

• characterized by faster trials

• lower penalties (generally fine/6 months jail)

• no jury

• These cases are heard in provincial courts

• defendants often do not need to attend court personally

• Fill in the blank

“Most people tend to have strong ideas that are mostly influenced by ________.”

• What are the arguments as to why are ppl so influenced by ….

• media

• most knowledge comes from media

• public is interested in violence and crime

• media consumptions shapes the public views on CJS

• medias view shape their support for various crime policies

bc they think that the majority of crimes are all murder, gore and sooo terrible and therefore think the CJS system needs to prevent those when in reality the majority of crimes are summary convictions.

w ppl saying we need to do better to avoid indicatable offences it strides away from the real problem and prevents from bettering the CJS.

What r the sources of crime knowledge?

• Information / News

  • TV, newspapers, radio, internet, social media

    • "if it bleeds, it leads"

    • focus on dramatic, violence, conflict and death

    • crime stories are easy to produce --> make $

What does media look for when reporting crime?

• Newsworthiness

  • novelty/unique

  • dramatic

  • entertaining/thrilling

• usually indictable crimes are eye catching and the most dramatic.

CJS and entertainment connection?

• Tv, movies, comics, novels, social media

• lot of entertainment involves gore

• entertainment based on real life events is much more nerve racking by connecting this terribleness to that fact it can happen irl

Cultural obsession w violence and crime

• is not new but is ancient in human entertainment / history

• nailing ppl to crosses

• religious texts

• coliseums

  • ppl flocking to watch violence

• fairy tales, folklore and nursery rhymes

• these where all much more gory than how they are portrayed today

  • Hansel and Gretel

  • little red riding hood

• Medieval Period

  • Robin hood

  • knights and dragons

  • King author

• William Shakespeare

• Penny papers [ 19th centaury ]

  • Sensational news, police reports and gossip to interest the working class

  • specialized in crime stories, especially violent murders

• Tabloid Journalism / Jazz journalism

  • early 20th C

  • photographs, graphic images

• Gangsters and G-Men

  • Bonnie and Clyde

  • Gangsters as celebrities

Violence and nature vs nurture?

• our fascination with violence is innate [ genetic ] and/or we learn it from others [socialization]

• Normative Boundaries and social cohesions

• resolutions in crime stories provide a sense or order in an otherwise chaotic world

• morality tales , struggles between good and evil

• ppl would go town to town and preach the bible and also act out scenes [ violence and bringing down bad guys]

• going to sermons

  • listening to stories, order is being restored

  • evil is being eradicated

  • reaffirms our morals and beliefs

What are the 3 media effects?

• direct effects

• Subtle effects

• limited effects

What is the direct media effect?

• aka The Hypodermic Needle

  • needle --> social media is being injected into our brain

• Concern w propaganda

• mass media have a direct and significant effect on the wat people behave and perceive social conditions

• social learning theory

social learning theory

• violent behaviour is learned thru media

• Violence in media and culture leads to increased violence and crime in society

• all argued to cause anti-social behaviour, violence, aggression, suicide and moral decline

• people are now getting desensitized

• Copy cat crimes

  • in extreme cases can shape criminal behaviours in some individuals

  • ex

    • child's play 2 and the 1993 murder of 2 year old James Bulger

      • had pre-existing psychological issues

    • natural born killers (1994) and the 2006 medicine hat murders

examples of media effects on people

• radio

  • ppl where knew to them and took a fiction story of aliens seriously, and where rushing to stores, getting guns ready, ppl where panicking and some even committed suicide

• comics

  • ppl thought they where influencing gangster stuff

• school shooting --> blame video games

is their correlation of media + crime?

• how do we explain the fact that vast majority of ppl who consume violence do not act in such behaviour

  • correlation is not causation

• desensitizing the public on violence

  • in t vid shown in class it said the violence and kill counts in movie series went up drastically in each movie, in order to ensure that they keep viewers attention and now for entertainment as time goes by the violence in each entertainment is increasing simply to keep viewers captivated.

• What other factors contribute to weather or nor an indi is likely to behave violently or criminally?

• parents / family

• substance abuse

• peers

• education

• internet access and what age

• childhood/ activities / hunting

• weather in live urban / rural areas

• culture and religion

• upbringing / foster care

• SES

• mental health

• media literacy

• in 1993, health and Welfare CA, in their effect of media violence on children concluded:

  • “For some children, under some circumstances, some television is harmful. For some children under the same conditions or the same children under other conditions, it may be beneficial. For most children under most conditions, most television is probably neither particularly harmful nor particularly beneficial.

  • lots of some and most children's, it really depends

 

limited effects [ Two - Step flow ]

• Downplays the impact of the media

• indi assess the media info in terms if what they already learned from others

• opinion leaders as interpreters and filters

  • politicians

  • leaders

  • teachers

  • informed peers

  • influencers

• recognizes that ppl are not passive recipients of media but are influences by social interactions

• media opinion leader --> general public

  • info can pass thru multiple stages, circles, and feedback loops

  • ppl may access media directly w out mediation 

Subtle or Minimal Effects Model

•  

  • media has very lil power to directly persuade, change minds, or convert ppl

  • instead, media lrgly reinforces existing beliefs

  • ppl engage in

    • selective exposure --> choosing media that fits ur views

    • selective perception --> interpreting media to fit existing views

• selective exposure

• selective exposure --> choosing media that fits ur views

• selective perception

• selective perception --> interpreting media to fit existing views

• The Mean World Syndrome (Gerbner)

• violence and crime in the media "cultivate" or fosters fear in indi

• MWS is characterized:

  • perceptions of higher than avg levels of threat and crime in society

  • communities r unsafe, crime is increasing, victimization in likely, etc.

  • general mistrust, cynicism , and alienations

  • desensitisation and acceleration

• Media creates a "culture of fear" (Barry Glassner, 1999)

• media distorts the reality of crime

• culture of crime = culture of fear

• emphasis on violent crime and visible minorities as typical offenders; contributes to stereotypes

• white victim, especially women and children, given more attention than visible minorities

  • missing white girl syndrome --> ex Nancy Guthrie

• demonstrates intersectionality

Crime panics

• may take one sole event and make it the reality of the whole country

• some muggings happen in some part of a country and media makes it seem like its happing in all corners

• Satanic Panic --> freaking ppl out abt satanists, brought in bands, D&D, all experts throwing their weight in, FBI came in w a satanist unit

• serial killers

• ruined ppls lives

• influence how we think about crime (discourse)

framing

• how a certain media outlet frames a story, will change a story, words and images matter

ex

• Kyle Rittenhouse (2020)

  • shot African Americans at a protest

  • conservative --> said he was hero who reckless sed self defence

  • liberal

• Alex Pretti (2026)

• media showed both cases differently

  • conservative --> hero

• the content and formatting of the media coverage (framing) may result in citizen adopting particular discourses

  • patterned was of thinking, speaking, and writing that contrast social reality, knowledge and meaning

  • it encompasses systems of ideas, symbols and practices that define what can be said, shape identities and exercises power within social structures

• Public Impressions (depends on frame)

• crime is the result of an inefficient, lenient CJS and an increasingly liberalizing society

• Canadians are not satisfied with the way that justice is administered (survey evidence)

• they feel under siege or under attack

• think PoC are more likely to be criminals

• increase in private security measures (CPTED)

• have unrealistic expectations of scientific evidence (CSI effect)

• Political consequences : Ideology

• a fearful public in complacent public

• fear takes focus off the structural (criminogenic) condition that facilitate crime in society

• leads to public support of unnecessary, ineffective and costly crime control measures

• contribute to the hegemony (dominance) of the state

• more police

• increased surveillance

• more law

• Conservative position on misleading info abt the CJS leading to fear

• media sensationalizes corruption within the CJS (bad cops, inefficient lawyers, biased judges, etc.)

• leads to

  • lack of respect

  • public distrusts

  • a sys that cares more abt rights of criminals ( due process) rather than the rights of victims (crime control

  • soft on crime law that allow ppl to "get away w their crimes"