Media and crime

How do the media represent crime?

The media overrepresent violent and sexual crimes - Ditton and Duffy found that 46% of police reports were about violent or sexual crimes, yet they make up only 3% of police reports

Media exaggerates police success

Media portrays offenders and victims as older, in what Felson calls the ‘age fallacy’

Give an example of changing media coverage on crime

Schlesinger and Tumber found that in the 60s, the focus was on murder and petty crimes, but in the 90s this shifted as the death penalty was abolished and the crime rate rose

How do Cohen and Young view news

Cohen and Young argue that news isnt discovered, but manufactured. There are ‘news values’ that journalists use to assess whether a story is worth it:

immediacy

risk

violence

unexpectedness

How do fictional representations of crime differ to real crimes

Surette callls fictional represnetations of crimes ‘the law of opposites’ as they are opposite to official statistics:

fictional cops usually get their man

property crime is under represented

real life homicides arent planned but spontaneous, usually as a result of brawls

In what ways can the media cause crime

arousal

desensitisation

portraying the police as incapable

How do the media amplify the fear of crime

The media exaggerates the amount of violent crime. Shlesinger and Tumber found a correkation between media consumtpion and fear of crime. heavy tv users and tabloid readers are likely to have a greater fear of being a victim of crime

How do the media affect relative deprivation

Lea and Young say that in todays media saturated society, the media present exaggerated views of a ‘normal life’. As a result, people who may be average feel disadvanteaged and more deprived, so more people commit crime.

What is cultural criminology

Cultural criminology argues that teh media turn crime into a commidity that people desire. Cultural criminologists such as Hayward and Young see late modern society as media saturated, causing the lines between the image and reality of crime to become blurred

How do teh media commodify crime

Fenwick and Haywardsay that crime is marketed towards young people, such as hip hop artists combining street criminality with images of cnsumerism and wealth

What is a moral panic

An exaggerated overreaction by society to a percieved problem

How is a moral panic created

Moral entrepreneurs who disapprove of something may use the media to put pressure on governments in order for them to act. If successfuil, their campaign results in labellig of a particular group and it becomes illegal

What was the origin of the Mods and Rockers

Mods wore smart dress and wore scooters. rokcers wore leather jeckets and rode motorbikes. In 1964 there were a few small fights and some beach huts wrecked in Clacton

According to Cohen, what 3 elements did the media exaggerated stories of the Mods and Rockers include

Exaggeration and distortion, where the numbers involved and extent of violence was distorted through dramatic narratives such as ‘day of terror by scooter gangs’

Prediction where the media regularly assumed further violence would take place

Symbolism where the symbols of the Mods and Rockers were all negatively labelled

What is a deviance amplification spiral by Cohen

Cohen says that a deviance amplification spiral occurs when a small act of deviance occurs. there is then an overexaggeration to the event, so they offenders then rebel and commit further and more severe deviace, resulting in a further crackdown

How does Cohen decsribe the wider context of moral panics

Cohen says that they occur at time of social change, such as post war Britain. He argues that here there is a boundary crisis, where the boundaey between acceptable and unacceptable acts is blurred.

Criticisms of moral panics

It assumes that the societal reaction is a disproportionate nover reaction, but who is to decide what is proportionate, and what is exaggerated