Crime - crime & media

Question 1

representation of crime - how are sex over-exaggerated in media

Answer 1

harper & hogue - sex crimes make up 20% of all crime in media but only make up 2% of crime. big stories can trigger crime e.g after jimmy saville there was a 300% of sex crimes reported

Question 2

representation of crime - whats an example of sex crimes taking over the media

Answer 2

metoo movement - many other crimes happened during this but werent covered

Question 3

representation of crime - whats an evaluation of sex crimes in the media

Answer 3

sexual crimes could be argued as one of the worst crimes, so perhaps it deserves focus

Question 4

representation of crime - how are age and class over-exaggerated in media

Answer 4

media over-represents victims as older and m/c, something felson calls ‘age fallacy’, whereas stats show victims of crime more likely to be w/c (16-24)

Question 5

representation of crime - what are examples of over-representation of class and age in media

Answer 5

2008/9 youth knife crimes were heavily covered, led to a moral panic? abt young ppl

Question 6

representation of crime - whats an evaluation for class and age in the media

Answer 6

grenfell tower had heavy coverage and was mainly w/c victims

Question 7

representation of crime - how does media exaggerate risks of being a victim

Answer 7

women, white ppl and higher status ppl shown to be most at risk, when its often young bme males

Question 8

representation of crime - example of media exaggerating victims

Answer 8

metoo movement covered white high-status women

Question 9

representation of crime - whats an eval for media exaggeration

Answer 9

is it the readers fault for making the connection between reporting of crimes and becoming a victims, not the medias

Question 10

representation of crime - whats missing white woman syndrome

Answer 10

missing person cases involving young m/c white women often get more coverage than others

Question 11

representation of crime - how are extraordinary crimes overplayed

Answer 11

felson - called a dramatic fallacy. crime is seen to be clever ‘ingenuity fallacy’. e.g (ao2) catch me if you can, oceans 8

Question 12

representation of crime - whats an evaluation for extraordinary crimes being overplayed

Answer 12

theres a difference between film and news, also even if the news over-represent sexual crimes, they never say its clever

Question 13

representation of crime - how does media over-exaggerate police success

Answer 13

police are major source for crimes stories and want to be painted in a good light e.g (ao2) media over-representing violent crime which is far more likely to be solved than e.g property crime

Question 14

representation of crime -example of media coverage of police failure

Answer 14

sarah everard case, murderer had multiple sexual assault allegations against him but was not taken seriously by police

Question 15

media as a cause of crime - how does this lead to materialism

Answer 15

media presents images of people with a perfect life, leads to experiencing material dep then relative dep, people may turn to illegitimate means to solve this

Question 16

media as a cause of crime - whats an example of china preventing materialsim

Answer 16

china has ban on celebrities showing off their wealth on social media

Question 17

media as a cause of crime - how does this lead to desentisitation

Answer 17

media exposes people to violent crime regularly, could lead to ppl feeling less sensitive abt crime n make them more likely to commit e.g violent video games

Question 18

media as a cause of crime - whats an evaluation of desensitisation

Answer 18

exposure to violent video games doesnt make ppl less violent - data of more than 21000 young ppl across the world found no correlation

Question 19

media as a cause of crime - imitation

Answer 19

viewers of media may attempt to recreate the crimes they see, leads to ‘copycat’ crimes e.g eddie seda killer in the 80s copied zodiac killer

Question 20

media as a cause of crime - example of imitation crime

Answer 20

2008, several teens were arrested after crime spree , said they were inspired by gta v

Question 21

media as a cause of crime - arousal

Answer 21

violent and sexual imagery in media may ‘stimulate’ potential criminals, lead to them committing crimes such as rape.

Question 22

media as a cause of crime - what are sensation seekers (arousal)

Answer 22

those who have more stimulation are more prone to sensation seeking, suggesting ppl may be prone to deviant behaviour

Question 23

media as a cause of crime - knowledge

Answer 23

people can learn criminal techniques through media by watching tv shows or communicating through media e.g breaking bad , drug crimes

Question 24

media as a cause of crime - whats the csi affect (knowledge)

Answer 24

some tv shows such as csi changed the way jurors thought about forensic evidence, jurors may then expect more from forensic evidence in cases & can give them false confidence, influecing their choices (could lead to wrongful convictions)

Question 25

media as a cause of crime - eval of knowedge

Answer 25

crime shows are highly dramaticised. also many criminals dont make it to a courtroom w a jury and they arent solved in a few days

Question 26

whats moral panic

Answer 26

an exaggerated over-reaction by society to a perceived problem

Question 27

stages of moral panic

Answer 27

media identify a group as folk devils or threat to societal values, media portrays them negatively and ‘respectable ppl’ e.g politicians condem this behaviour towards them

Question 28

how does media create moral panic - exaggeration and distortion

Answer 28

exaggerate number of ppl involved and extent of violence / damage been done as it makes for a more interesting story

Question 29

how does media create moral panic - prediction

Answer 29

regularly predicts further violence and conflicts will occur

Question 30

how does media create moral panic - symbolisation

Answer 30

creates symbols for folk devils which are all negatively labelled e.g deviant subcultures as gangs

Question 31

whats deviance amplification spiral

Answer 31

the way levels of deviance or crime can be increased by the societal reaction to deviance itself. cause a spiral of deviance

Question 32

evaluation of media causing moral panic

Answer 32

are audience just passive recipients of what the media portrays or can they change it and how they react to it? why are some things justified as a moral panic but some other crimes r not