Crime + The Media

Question 1

Williams and Dickinson found that on average what percentage of British newspaper coverage is devoted to crime?

Answer 1

30%

Question 2

Harper and Hogue found that sexual offences made up what percentage of news stories?

Answer 2

20%

Question 3

What types of crimes do the media tend to overrepresent? How do official statistics present these crimes?

Answer 3

The media over represents violent and sexual crime. Ditton and Duffy found that 46% of media reports were about violence/sexual crimes, yet they only make up 3% of actual crimes.

Question 4

How does the media exaggerate police success?

Answer 4

Police success is exaggerated, especially in terms of clearing cases up. Possibly because the police wants to present themselves in a good light.

Question 5

What does Felson say regarding how the media portrays the age of criminals?

Answer 5

The media padres criminals as older and more middle class. Felson argues there is an age fallacy – we are led to believe criminals are much older than they really are.

Question 6

Explain Felson’s claim that there are dramatic fallacies and ingenuity fallacies in the media’s representation of crime

Answer 6

there is a dramatic fallacy - we are allowed to believe crimes are more dramatic than in reality. there is a ingenuity fallacy - we are allowed to believe that you need to be daring and clever to solve crime

Question 7

The media have increased coverage of what type of crimes?

Answer 7

Sexual / rape crimes

Question 8

How has the media distorted the picture of rape?

Answer 8

Media coverage is increasingly focused on identifying the ‘sex fiend’ or ‘beast’. The resulting distorted picture of rape is one of serial attacks carried out by psychopathic strangers however these are rare and in most cases the perpetrator is known to the victim.

Question 9

Why do people argue that the news is simply a social construction?

Answer 9

News is not out there waiting to be reported, is the outcome of a series of social processes where some new stories are selected and others rejected. News is not discovered but manufactured.

Question 10

Define new values

Answer 10

The criteria that journalists and editors used to decide whether and story is newsworthy enough to make it

Question 11

Name at least four of the eight news values

Answer 11

• immediacy
• Dramatisation
• personalisation
• higher status
• simplification
• novelty/unexpectedness
• risk
• violence

Question 12

Does fictional coverage of crime in the media tend to be a true representation of crime?

Answer 12

No

Question 13

How does sociologist Surette explain fictional media coverage of crime?

Answer 13

Fictional fictional coverage works on a ‘law of opposites’ - portraying the exact opposite to what the official statistics show

Question 14

Give two examples of how fictional media coverage portrays the exact opposite to what the official statistic show of crime

Answer 14

•property crime is underrepresented. Whereas violent, drug + sexual crimes are overrepresented.
•fictional sexual crimes are committed by psychopathic strangers not acquaintances.
• real life homicide man the result from fights/domestic abuse but fictional ones are the products of greed + calculation.

Question 15

How can the media be a cause of crime on which groups can it particularly affect?

Answer 15

Crime media can have a negative effect on attitudes values + behaviour, especially amongst groups who are susceptible to influence such as youth + lower classes

Question 16

What type of media was blamed for corrupt in the youth in the 1920s/30s?

Answer 16

Cinema

Question 17

Give an example of a film that has often been accused of causing crime

Answer 17

‘Natural born killer’ - 1994 film tells the story of two victims of traumatic childhood who became lovers and mass murderers

Question 18

What type of copycat crimes are reported to have been committed as a result of the film ‘Natural Born Killer’ ?

Answer 18

• school shootings
• young couples watching the film and then killing people

Question 19

What recent type of media has been accused of corrupting the youth and their interpretation of crime?

Answer 19

Rap songs, but mainly video games, such as grand theft auto

Question 20

Name three of the ways that the media is seen to cause crime, other than through imitation and copycat behaviour

Answer 20

• arousal
• desensitisation
• glamorous crime
• stimulating desires for un affordable goods
• transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
• portraying the police as incompetent

Question 21

What are the two arguments regarding the debate of violent video games?

Answer 21

Summary researchers claim there is zero connection between entertainment and behaviour. Whereas others claim violent video games can make you more aggressive, more numb to others suffering, and make you more fearful of violence from others. However, most studies are inconclusive.

Question 22

What evidence does Gerbner et al present to support the idea that the media creates a fear of crime?

Answer 22

In the USA heavy users of television (over 4hrs a day) had higher levels of fear of crime

Question 23

What evidence does Schlesinger & Tumber present to support the idea that the media creates a fear of crime?

Answer 23

Found a correlation between media consumption + fear of crime. Tabloid readers + heavy users of TV expressed greater fear of becoming a victim, especially of physical attack & mugging.

Question 24

How can Schlesinger & Tumber’s I wouldn’t for the media career in a fear of crime criticised?

Answer 24

Existence of such correlation is doesn’t prove that media viewing causes fear. It may be that those who are already afraid of going out at night watch more TV because they stay in more.

Question 25

What do Greer & Reiner note regarding the media and fear of crime?

Answer 25

Much research on the media as a cause or fear of crime ignores the meanings that viewers give to media violence. They may give very different meanings to violence in cartoons, horror films + the news. Sue Palmer - children can’t interpret media like adults do.

Question 26

Left realists argue that the media helps to increase the sense of what for poor, marginalised groups?

Answer 26

Increases the sense of relative deprivation

Question 27

What types of media might be intensify in feelings of strain/relative deprivation in society today?

Answer 27

Advertising Social media, particularly influences and celebrities promoting products and mass consumerism

Question 28

Name the two critical criminologist sociologists (neo-Marxists) which share their view on crime on the media

Answer 28

Hayward and Young

Question 29

What do critical criminologists Hayward and Young believe regarding the media, relative deprivation and crime?

Answer 29

The media has turned crime into a commodity that people desire. They see late modern society as media saturated - we are immersed in a ‘media scape’, which blurrs the distinction between images of crime + the reality of crime.

Question 30

Give an example of advertisers using images of crime to sell their products

Answer 30

Dolce and Gabbana promoted the masculine aftershave with images of men surrounding and overpowering a woman alluding to crimes like sexual assault or subordination

Question 31

What is a moral panic?

Answer 31

Where a negative label is attached to a group of people and it causes the general public widespread concern or fear

Question 32

What role does the media have in creating a moral panic?

Answer 32

It presents the news to the public and can often sensationalise it. It has the power to negatively label people and therefore conform public opinion and attitudes. Moral panics are caused by the media.

Question 33

What impact does the moral panic have in terms of levels of deviance?

Answer 33

When a moral panic amongst the public occurs, authorities like the police/government usually respond to the concern with Harsha labelling and persecution of the group. However, this often leads to deviance amplification spirals.

Question 34

What case study illustrates a huge moral panic?

Answer 34

Mods vs rockers 1964

Question 35

Can you think of any recent moral panics?

Answer 35

Islamic terrorism, levels of illegal immigration

Question 36

Give a criticism of the concept of moral panics

Answer 36

•it assumes that the society reaction is an overreaction, but who decides that? •why do pandas not go on increasing indefinitely? •do today’s media audiences, who have become used to shock/horror stories really react with panic to media exaggerations?

Question 37

What new type of media has arguably caused a moral panic?

Answer 37

The Internet

Question 38

Name three categories of cyber crime

Answer 38

• cyber trespassing • cyber deception and theft • cyber pornography • cyber violence • global cyber crime

Question 39

How can we argue that ICT and the new Internet media does have positives for crime?

Answer 39

New ICT also provides the police/state with greater opportunities for surveillance and control of the population. ICT permits routine surveillance through CCTV cameras, digital fingerprinting etc.