Media and crime

What are the 5 main ways the media distorts crime

Over representing violent and sexual crime

Portrays victims and criminals as older and m/c

Exaggerates police success

Exaggerates risk of victimisation

Overplays ‘extraordinary crimes’

How does the media over-representing violent and sexual crime and what is Ao2 that shows this

Ditton and Duffy (1983) – 46% of media reports were about violent or sexual crimes - only 3% of all crimes recorded by the police

The #MeToo movement covered many cases of sexual assault over a long period of time, over which many other types of crimes happened more frequently but didn’t make the news

How does the media exaggerate police success

The police are a major source of crime stories and want to paint themselves in a good light.

The media over-represent violent crime, these have a higher clear up rate than property crime.

How does the media exaggerate risk of victimisation

Presents criminals who are risks to the m/c, women or white woman when young BME males are most likely to be victims of crimes

As shown during the MeToo movement where white, m.c women were the centre of media coverage

How does the media overplay extraordinary crimes, what is an example

Felson (1998) – ‘dramatic fallacy’ (the underplaying of normal crime)

‘Ingenuity fallacy’ -media images make us think that we have to be daring and clever to commit or solve a crime.

AO2: Brinks-Mats robbery at Heathrow airport of £26 mil in gold and diamonds

What are news values, what are examples of them

News values – a criteria by which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough to make it into the newspaper or news bulletin.

Key values= Immediacy, dramatisation, personalisation, risk and violence

How much media between 1945-84 did Mandell believe was produced that was linked to crime

10 billion crime thrillers

What is Surette’s fictional representations of crime, what is an example

‘the law of opposites’: they are the opposite of the official statistics, similar to news coverage.

Fictional sex crimes are committed by psychopathic strangers, not acquaintances.

What are 5 ways media may cause crime

Imitation

Arousal

Desensitisation

Transmitting knowledge

Stimulating desires for unaffordable goods

What is an example of media causing people to imitate crime

Clockwork orange was banned in the UK for the series of copycat home invasions that occurred after it aired

What is an example of media causing people arousal to commit crimes

Arousal is the viewing of violent/sexual imagery, can be linked to desensitisation and imitation

50 shades of grey style ‘BDSM’ sex lead to the death of one Australian women, as her sexual partner insisted they were ‘just playing a sexual game’

What is an example of media causing people desensitisation to violence

BDSM and generally derogatory porn that is now readily available has desensitised individuals to what can be seen as violence against women.

In America, games like ‘Doom’ have been linked to school shootings such as the Columbine High School, where both perpetrators were known to be avid video game players + Jung Yoo-jung who killed out of curiosity after watching many crime videos in South Korea

What is an example of media transmitting knowledge of crime

Can be linked closely with imitation

One of the murderers of Brianna Ghey would regularly us TOR to find videos of torture, which may have influenced how she stabbed her to death

How does media create fear of crime and what evidence supports it

It exaggerates the amount of violent and unusual crime + heightens to risk certain groups believe they face

Gerbner et al - heavy television users (more than 4 hours a day) had higher levels of fear of crime.

Schlesinger and Tumber – found a correlation between media consumption and fear of crime, with tabloid readers and heavy users of TV expressing greater fear of becoming a victim, especially of physical attack and mugging.

How did Lea and Young link media, relative deprivation and crime

Media leads to increases in the ‘feeling’ of relative deprivation. The media creates an image of a materialistic life being a good life through shows/films and advertising (you won’t be complete without the product). This emphasies the social exclusion of those from poorer backgrounds.

How can Mertons strain theory be linked with Lea and Yongs connection of media, relative deprivation and crime

The poorest people in society will feel a strain between the cultural goals of materialism and the institutional structure of society that is preventing them from accumulating wealth. As all legitimate opportunities to increase economic capital are blocked, people are pushed towards deviant or illegitimate careers

What does cultural criminology argue

Media turns crime into a commodity that people desire, with the media encouraging people to consume crime

What AO2 supports the concept of cultural criminology

The existence of true crime youtube and fight video accounts on youtube

What do Hayward and Young argue about media-saturation and crime and what is an example

Late modern society is media saturated, and we are all immersed in a mediascape. This has led to a blurring between an image of the crime and the actual crime, they are no longer clearly distinct.

Gang fights being staged for ‘underground fight videos’

How has crime become commodified

The glamorisation of crime encourages to consume products that are related to it eg Hip-hop rap music that talks about shooting out enemies (murder on my mind- YNW Melly)

How does Fennick and Haywood describe the commercialisation of crime

What is a moral panic

The process of arousing social concern over an issue—usually the work of MORAL ENTREPENUERS. This inevitably involves the creation of a FOLK DEVIL. Its an over reaction that enlarges the problem out of all proportion to its real seriousness.

Who are moral entreprenuers

A Moral Entrepreneur is a person, group or organisation with the power to create or enforce rules & impose their morals, views & attitudes on to others e.g. politicians, police, priests

What are examples of folk devils

Mods and Rockers

Young Muslims

Lone-parents families

Describe the process of a moral oani

• Media identify a group as a folk devil or threat to societal values

• Media presents the group in a negative, stereotypical fashion and exaggerates the scale of the problem

• Moral entrepreneurs and repsectable people condemn the group and its behaviour

  • This calls for a crackdown on the group

Describe Cohens study of mods and rockers

Cohen found that while there were some minor scuffles when the different subcultures (Mods and Rockers) met on a bank holiday, the media created a story out of these turning it into a much more significant phenomenon. The reaction meant that the police responded to future conflict more forcefully and thus created further conflicts.

What are the 3 elements used to describe the medias portrayal of the subcultures

Exaggeration and distortion: They exaggerated the numbers involved and the extent of the violence and damage. They used dramatic reporting and sensational headlines.

Prediction: the media regularly assumed and predicted further conflict and violence would result.

Symbolisation: The symbols of the mods and rockers were all negatively labelled and associated with deviance. So other bikers in the country were labelled as a part of the underlying problem.

Describe the deviance amplification spiral

The media amplified deviance by defining the two groups and their sub cultural styles. This led to more youths adopting the style and drew in more participation for future clashes.

By emphasising the supposed differences, the media transformed them from two-loose-knit groupings into two tightly-knit groupings.This encouraged polarisation and helped to create a self-fulfilling prophesy of escalating conflict

How does Youngs study of Weed users in Notting Hill support the deviance amplification spiral

Police arrest drug marijuana smokers for minor offences

The media sensationalise these stories and thus have their Folk Devil ‘The Drug Taker’ and begin to generate a Moral Panic about ‘Drug Takers’.

In response to these stories, the police crack down even harder on these folk devils.

This pushes the ‘Drug Takers’ ‘underground’ – this raises police suspicion & pushes the price of drugs up – the police crack down even more harshly (More Media Coverage).

The ‘Drug Taker’s’ start resisting arresting arrest, turn to new types of drugs and have to organise themselves better (MORE DEVIANCE)

Why does Cohen believe the problem of Mods and Rockers happened in the first place

In Post-War Britain – young people appeared to be challenging the values of the older generation. Cohen argues that this moral panic was created as a result of a boundary crisis, it was unclear at this time what was acceptable and what was unacceptable behaviour.

What is a current moral panic

Terrorism and Islamic extremism, lead to increase of muslim hate crimes

How do late modernists view moral panics

They are overexaggerrated, and now are more routine and have less impact

What are Wall’s 5 categories of cyber crime

Porn

Deception and theft

Violence

Global cyber crime

Trespass

Describe Cyber pornography

Includes pornography involving minors and opportunities for children to access

Describe Cyber deception and theft

Identity theft, ‘phishing’ and violation of intellectual property rights

Describe Cyber violence

Doing psychological harm or inciting physical harm.

Describe Global cyber crime

This type of crime poses problems over jurisdiction.

How does technology help police today

Provides the police and state with greater opportunities for surveillance

Electronic data bases

Fingerprinting and smart identity cards