crime and the media

Question 1

the media’s picture of crime vs. official stats

Answer 1

1. media over-represents violent/sexual crime
2. media portrays criminals/victims as older and middle class
3. media exaggerates police success
4. media exaggerates the risk of victimisation
5. media overplays extraordinary crime

Question 2

Galtung and Ruge

Answer 2

believe in 12 news values (i.e., frequency and negativity)

sociologists argue that the media is inclined to report on crime because it satisfies most news values

Question 3

Surette

Answer 3

fictional representations of crime follow ‘the law of opposites’ because they oppose official statistics, such as fictional homicides being calculated whereas real-life homicides are often the results of brawls

Question 4

AO3 of Surette

Answer 4

a new genre of infotainment shows more non-white underclass offenders and police brutality

Question 5

what are the 8 concerns of the media

Answer 5

1. people imitating crime
2. arousal
3. desensitisation
4. transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
5. as a target for crime, such as theft of electronics
6. stimulating desires for unaffordable goods
7. portraying the police as incompetent
8. glamourising offending

Question 6

Livingstone

Answer 6

our major concern about violent media impacting children isn’t our belief that they will turn to crime, its our regard that childhood should be a time of innocence in a private sphere

Question 7

Gerbner

Answer 7

cultivation theory

heavy users of television had higher levels of fear of crime

Question 8

AO3 of Gerbner

Answer 8

the media doesn’t increase fear because people already afraid to go out alone spend this time absorbing media

Question 9

(LR) relative deprivation

Answer 9

even the poorest groups have access to the media, fostering relative deprivation and social exclusion among marginalised groups - pushes to crime

Question 10

Hayward and Young

Answer 10

crime is commodified and sold to the young as cool and fashionable

• rappers using images of street crime
• car advertisements including pyromania and joy-riding
• ‘heroin chic’ imagery in branding (i.e., brands called ‘opium’)

Question 11

cultural criminology

Answer 11

the media makes crime itself a commodity that people desire, encouraging them to consume crime (i.e., staged violence)

Question 12

Cohen

Answer 12

moral panics

• example: mods and rockers
• how: the media identifies a folk devil -> stereotyped -> moral entrepreneurs condemn the group -> SFP
• context: moral panic reflects the anxieties of people in post-war britain

Question 13

deviance amplification spiral

Answer 13

making a problem seem out of hand increases deviance because it creates more stigma and marginalisation

Question 14

Thomas and Loader

Answer 14

define cyber crime as computer-mediated activities that are illegal and are conducted through global electronic networks

Question 15

Wall

Answer 15

5 categories of cyber crime

1. cyber-trespass
2. cyber-deception and theft
3. cyber-pornography
4. cyber-violence

Question 16

AO3 of moral panics

Answer 16

McRobbie and Thornton - moral panics are less impactful now they’re routine

late modernity - less consensus on what’s deviant so its harder to create moral panics