The electronic and print commercial media have a significant influence on the general portrayal of crime in society; they are the principal generators of crime images that permeate popular consciousness (see Box 2.1). As such, media have a tremendous impact on the conceptualisation of crime in society (see Bloustien & Israel 2003; Clifford & White 2017; Ericson et al. 1991; Grabosky & Wilson 1989; Jewkes 2015; Phillips 2017; Sarre 1994). In both fictional and factual media programs and reportage, crime tends to be construed primarily as ‘street crime’. Such crime is associated with personal terror and fear, with interpersonal violence and threats of violence depicted as central and imminent. The sensationalization of crime, in particular, has important implications for the fear of crime among certain sections of the population. This fear is heightened by the portrayal of crime as random in nature, with anyone and everyone a possible target for victimisation.
Common media images of offending Media portrayals of crime often include:
• graphic emphasis on and portrayal of street crime the implicit notion of a breakdown in ‘law and order’
• the idea that the problem is bad people and immoral acts • the notion that crime and deviance is getting worse and society is experiencing moral decline
• the presentation of extreme acts of violence (e.g. terrorist acts and mass killings) as commonplace and a real threat to safety the depiction of ‘perverts’ and bizarre behaviours as ordinary the use of social stereotypes, especially in regard to youth, the working class and ethnic minorities a key theme that the criminal or deviant is distinctive and identifiable.
Furthermore, crime is often related to morality, and specifically to the decline of that morality. What is ‘wrong’ is plain for all to see, and the ‘criminal’ is distinctive and identifiably different from everyone else in society. Overall, the message conveyed by media is that there is a continuing ‘law- and- order’ problem in society, and that things are constantly getting worse. Against this tide of disorder and lawlessness, the police and other crime fighters are generally portrayed as ‘superheroes’, who are infallible and who use violence legitimately in order to counter the violence of the streets. Media thus frequently convey a sensationalised image of crime, and a protective view of police and policing practices— and they create the impression that atypical criminal events are commonplace. As Grabosky and Wilson (1989: 11) comment: ‘The most common types of crime according to official statistics, crimes against property, receive relatively little media attention. By contrast, crimes of violence, which are numerically uncommon, are accorded much greater coverage.’In particular, there is a skewed focus on ‘street crime’ and bizarre events. Meanwhile, the destruction of the environment, white- collar crimes and occupational health and safety crimes (issues that are covered in subsequent chapters) tend not to receive the same kind of coverage or treatment by commercial media outlets or in social media.
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