Crime and Deviance: The Media and Globalisation Flashcards
(35 cards)
media representations of crime: the media over-represent violence and sexual crime
Difton and Duffy: 46% of reports are about violence/sexual crimes. only 3% of these crimes are reported to the police.
Marsh: studied news reports in USA and found that violent crimes were 32x more likely to be reported than property crime.
media representations of crime: the media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle-class than those found in the CJS
media coverage exaggerates police success in clearing up cases: police = a major source of information for crime stories and they want to portray themselves in a good light. media reports violent crime more and this is a high clean-up rate.
media overplay extraordinary crimes: Ferson: dramatic fallacy
people enjoy reading about drama that is unusual.
what are news values?
the criteria by which journalists and editors decide whether the news story is worthy enough to make the papers or a news bulletin.
list 8 key news values
immediacy: is it breaking news? if you can break the news, = more money
dramatisation: is it exciting? dramatic?
personalisation: does it impact peoples lives? would people follow the story?
higher-status: is there a celebrity/higher profile involved?
simplification: how clear is the story?
novelty or unexpectedness: a unique story/telling a story from a new perspective
risk: victim-centered reporting; hear personal experiences
violence: visible and spectacular acts
fictional representations of crime
criminals and victims follow what Surette calls the ‘law of opposites’: they are opposite of the official statistics - and strikingly similar to news coverage.
- property crime is under-represented, while violence, drugs, and sex crimes are over-represented.
- while real-life homicides mainly result from brawls and domestic disputes, fictional ones are the product of greed and calculation
- fictional police usually serve time
the media as a cause of crime: the influence of media on children
Schramm: “for most children, under most conditions, most televisiom is probably neither particularly harmful nor particularly beneficial”. however, as Livingstone says, people continue to be preoccupied with the effects of media on children.
the media as a cause of crime: 3 ways the media causes crime and deviance
imitation: by providing deviant role models, resulting in ‘copycat’ behaviour
arousal: e.g. through viewing violent or sexual images
desensitization: e.g. through repeatedly viewing images of violence
the media as a cause of crime: fear of crime
due to the over representation in the media, the public have an unrealistic impression of crime and so an exaggerated fear of crime.
the media as a cause of crime: media, relative deprivation and crime
Lab-based research has focused on whether media portrayals of crime and deviant lifestyles lead viewers to commit crime themselves. an alternative view is to consider how far media portrayal of ‘normal’ rather than criminal lifestyles might help to encourage people to commit a crime. e.g. left realists: argue mass media help to increase the sense of relative deprivation.
the result is to stimulate the sense of relative deprivation and social exclusion felt by marginalised groups who cannot afford consumer goods.
Merton: pressure to conform to the norm can cause deviant behaviour when the opportunity to achieve legitimate means is blocked.
moral panics: define moral panic
an instance of public anxiety or alarm in response to a problem regarded as threatening the moral standards of society.
moral panic: what happens in a moral panic?
- the media identify a ‘folk devil’
- the media presents a group in a stereotypical, negative way and exaggerates the scale of the problem
- moral entrepreneurs, editors, politicians, and the police condemn the group and its behaviour
- this then leads to a crack-down on the group
moral panic: AO3
moral panics assume that society’s reaction is an over-reaction - who decides this?
it is argued that moral panics are now routine and have less impact. as in modern society, there is less consensus over what is deviant.
cybercrime: Thomas and Loader
The internet has meant that the chance of victimisation/perceived victimisation is higher as computer-enabled crime is increasingly engaging in illegal activities
cybercrime: Wall’s 4 types of cybercrime
cyber-trespass: crossing the boundary into someone’s space e.g. hacking, spreading viruses
cyber-deception and theft: taking someone’s identity or bank details
cyber-pornography: using the internet to spread illegal images of individuals which can include minors.
cyber-violence: likely to be psychological harm to an individual, and can also threaten physical violence.
cyber crime: 3 key statistics
$190,000 a second
$16.4 billion a day
4115.4 a week
cybercrime: what is cyber crime
identity and data theft
internet fraud
hacking
infecting devices with viruses
denial of service attacks
3D printing of illegal products
cyberwarfare
child pornography
cybercrime: what is cyber-dependant crime?
refers to crimes which can only take place over computer networks e.g. hacking, viruses, and e=denial of service attacks. these are new as they are only possible since the internet.
cybercrime: what is cyber-enabled crime?
refers to almost all cybercrime and includes old types of crime that have been made easier with the internet e.g. internet theft and fraud.
Globalisation and crime: what is globalisation?
Globalisation is the increasing inter connectedness and interdependence of the many peoples of the world who all live and work on one large planet.
Globalisation and crime: what has caused globalisation?
Technology
Transportation
International cooperation
Migration
Globalisation and crime: what crimes have been caused by globalisation?
Cyber-dependant crimes such as denial of service attacks
Made cyber-enabled crimes easier such as fraud and identity theft
Human trafficking
Drug dealing
Globalisation and crime: global risk consciousness
Globalisation creates new insecurities and produces a new mentality of risk consciousness, in which risk is seen to be global rather than tied to a particular place. E.g the increase in migration of people seeking work or trying to flee persecution is leading people in the western world to fear the risk of crime and disorder and the need to protect their own border.
Much of our knowledge about risks come from the media which often give an exaggerated view of the dangers we face. In the case of immigration, the media create moral panics. Negative news of immigrants - portrayed as terrorists - has led to hate crimes against minority groups
Globalisation: globalisation, capitalism and crime
Globalisation has allowed transnational cooperations to move to low-wage countries producing job insecurity, unemployment, and poverty. Marketisation encouraged people to buy into cheap fashion etc
Widening inequalities and insecurities meant that people especially the poor would turn to crime. The lack of legitimate job opportunities destroys self-respect and drives the unemployed to look for illegitimate jobs e.g drug trade
Globalisation: Patterns of criminal organisation
Hobbs and Dunnigham: the way that crime is organised is linked to the economic changes bought around by globalisation.
Glocal organisation: new forms of organisation emerge that have international links
Hobbs and dunnigham suggest that globalisation has led to new opportunities for crime
McMafia: refers to an organisation in Russia and Eastern Europe following the fall of communism. Deregulation of global markets meant that goods could be sold to make huge profits
New mafia were not like the traditional fighting, family led, heirarchal groups of Italy. They were economic groups that were only interested in self-betterment.
Global risk culture: beck - developments in society and production. This leads to an increase in the risk to society.
