Media and crime, victimology Flashcards
(25 cards)
How does the media present crime?
-Offers a source of information about crime also exaggerate crime, create moral panics, distort the reality of how much crime occurs and who commits it.
-Report the relationship between crime and deviance. Media things we see like on the TV, in films and listen to in music cause crime by encouraging anti-social behavior, depict the majority of victims as white, female, and middle class.
-Research in Toronto, USA showed that an alarming 45-71% of all news items and articles focused on various forms of deviance.
Is news coverage realistic
Ditton and Duffy
Media representations of crime are distorted and often exaggerate the frequency and seriousness of crimes. Create a moral panic about crime which often results in some groups being unfairly discriminated against by society and the criminal justice system.
The media over-represent violent and sexual crime – Ditton and Duffy (1983) found that 46% of the media’s crime coverage was about violent or sexual crimes, yet these made up only 3% of all crimes recorded by the police.
Felson (2002)-
Dramatic fallacy
Age fallacy
Ingenuity fallacy
-Media portray criminals and victims as older and more MC than those found in the criminal justice system – Felson (1998) calls this the ‘age fallacy.’
-Media coverage exaggerates police success in clearing up cases. Because police are a major source for crime stories and want to present themselves in a good light, and because the media tend to focus on violent crime, which has a higher clear-up rate than property crime.
-Crime is reported as a series of separate incidents without structure and without examining underlying causes.
-Media portray ordinary crimes and underplay ordinary crimes. Felson calls this the ‘dramatic fallacy.’ Similarly, media images lead us to believe that crime one needs to be daring and clever the ‘ingenuity fallacy.’
Sociological theory and media effects
Functionalists (Reiner) – Media and advertising promote material success, creating anomie (moral uncertainty) among the poor. The gap between media portrayals and reality weakens moral values, reinforcing materialism and encouraging crime when legal success is unattainable.
Marxists – The ruling class controls crime reporting to emphasize working-class crime while downplaying white-collar and corporate crime, shifting public focus away from elite wrongdoing.
Left Realists – Media representations highlight relative deprivation and social exclusion, making poorer groups feel alienated as they cannot afford the glamorous lifestyles promoted in the media.
The media as a secondary agent of socialisation
Elizabeth Newson- ‘hypodermic syringe
-Elizabeth Newson- impressionable young audiences, like children or teenagers, may be negatively influenced by violent, immoral or anti-social media content.
-Saw media as an influential ‘secondary agent of socialisation’, arguing that it shapes the behaviour of young people.
-Known as ‘hypodermic syringe’ model, as she compares the media to a drug in the way that it effects people. Newson claimed that mass media content, particularly that which is violent, results in copycat behaviour as children imitate deviant role models.
The social context of violence
David Morrison critisisms of Elizabeth Newson- ‘hypodermic syringe
-David Morrison showed a range of violent film clips to groups of women, young men and war veterans. All of the groups thought that a very violent scene from Pulp Fiction was humorous cuz of light-hearted dialogue.
-But a scene from Ladybird, showing domestic violence, caused distress because of the realism of the setting, the perceived actualness and because child actors were part of the scene.
-Morrison therefore criticises the hypodermic syringe model because it fails to consider that the context in which onscreen violence takes place affects its impact on the audience.
Jewkes Neworthy
-News is a social construction does not simply exist ‘out there’ outcome of a social process in which some potential stories are accepted and others rejected. –Jewkes- news values determine whether a story is newsworthy enough to make it into the newspaper certain criteria including:
Immediacy (closeness)
Dramatisation – action and excitement
Personalisation – human interest stories
Higher-status persons and celebrities
Simplification – easy to understand
Novelty or unexpectedness – a new angle
Risk – victim-centred stories about vulnerability and fear
Violence – especially visible and spectacular acts
Interactionist moral panic 
Interactionists believe that the media contributes to the social construction of crime by labelling groups as criminal or deviant through moral panics.
A moral panic is characterized by heightened concern regarding a social issue or group that has been highlighted by the media. Moral panics often exaggerate the perceived threat posed by the issue or group, often inflating it beyond its actual significance.
Cohen (1971) – Mods and Rockers moral panics:
Media Overreaction – Cohen studied the media’s exaggerated response to minor clashes between Mods (smart dress, scooters) and Rockers (leather jackets, motorcycles) in 1960s seaside towns.
Three Key Elements:
Exaggeration & Distortion – Overstated violence and damage.
Prediction – Assumed future conflicts.
Symbolisation – Linked Mods & Rockers to deviance.
Deviance amplification media portrayal increased tensions, leading to harsher policing, marginalisation, and a self-fulfilling prophecy as more youths joined in.
Media Dependence – Most people rely on media for information, reinforcing distorted perceptions of crime and deviance.
Functionalist and McRobbie and Thornton
Functionalist moral panics ways of responding to the sense of anomie created by change. By dramatising the threat to society in the form of a folk devil, the media raises the collective consciousness and reasserts social controls when central values are threatened.
McRobbie and Thornton however believe that Moral Panics are an outdated concept for a number of reasons:
-Frequency- The frequency of moral panics has increased nobody notice them anyomore
-Context- In the past moral panics were scapegoat a group and create ‘folk devils. Today many viewpoints and values in society no group can be singled out
-Reflexivity- Because concept known, some groups use to there benefit
-Difficulty- less certainty about what is unambiguously ‘bad’ today, moral panics harder to start
-Rebound- People wary about starting moral panics possible rebounding staring them
Positivist Victimology
Earliest positivist studies focused on the idea of victim proneness. They aim was to identify the social and psychological characteristics of victims that make them different from, and more vulnerable than, non-victims.
Miers (1989)
Defines positivist victimology as having three features:
-It aims to identify the factors that produce patterns in victimisation especially those that makesome individuals or groups more likely to be victims.
-It focuses on interpersonal crimes of violence.
-It aims to identify victims who have contributed to their own victimisation.
Implication of positivist victimology
Marvin Wolfgang’s (1958)
This issue with these ideas is that the victims in some sense ‘invite’ victimisation by being the kind of person that they are. This can also include lifestyle factors such as victims who ostentatiously display their wealth.
Marvin Wolfgang’s study of 588 homicides in Philadelphia. Found that 26% victim triggered the events leading to the homicide, for instance by being the first to use violence. For example, this was often the case where the victim was male and the perpetrator female.
Evaluation Positivist Victimology
+Fiona Brookman says, Wolfgang shows the importance of the victim-offender relationship fact that in many homicides, it is a matter of chance the individual/ group becomes the victim.
+This approach identifies certain patterns of interpersonal victimisation
-Ignores wider structural factors influencing victimisation, such as poverty and patriarchy.
-Can easily tip over into victim blaming. For example, Amir’s (1971) claim that one in five rapes are victim precipitated is not very different from saying that the victims ‘asked for it’.
-It ignores situations where victims are unaware of their victimisation, as with some crimes against the environment, and where harm is done but no law is broken.
Critical victimology
Based on conflict theories such as Marxism & Feminism share the same approach as critical criminology. I focuses on two element:
-Structural factors- such as patriarchy and poverty. Which places powerless groups such as women and the poor at greater rick of victimisation. victimisation is a form of structural powerlessness
-The states power to apply or deny the label of victims - ‘victim’ is a social construct in the same way ‘crime’ & ‘criminals’. Through the CJS process that state applies the label of victime to some but withhold it from other. when polices decided not to press charges against a man assaulting wide deny of this status press charge against a man for assaulting wife deny of this status.
Tombs & whyte
Critical victimology
-As with many rape cases this both denies the victime of official ‘victim status’ and balmes them for there fate
-Ideological functions of this ‘failure to label’ or ‘de-labelling’ By concealing the true extent of victimisation and its real cause. Hides crime of the powerful and denies the powerless victims any redress
-In the hyarachy of victimisation the powerless more likely to be victims less likely to be acknowledged the status.
Evaluation
Critical victimology
-Disregards the role victims may play in bring victimisation on themselves through there own choice (not their homes secure) of their own offending
+It draws attention to the way that “vitime’ status is constructed by powerful and how this benefits the powerfully
Main Impacts of Victimisation:
-Can have an emotional and physical impact. E.g.
-Disrupted sleep
-Feeling of helplessness
-Increased security consciousness
-Difficulties in social functioning
Examples of impacts: Pyroos et al (1987) - Child witnesses of a sniper attack continued to have grief-related dreams and altered behaviour a year after the event.
Hate crimes against minorities & Secondary Victimisation
Hate crimes against minorities can create “waves of harm” that affect others. Aims to intimidate whole communities, not just the primary victim. Challenges the value system of society.
Secondary Victimisation: In addition to the impact of the crime itself, the victim could also suffer victimisation at the hands of the criminal justice system. For example, feminists state that rape victims are poorly treated by the police and criminal courts.
Fear of Victimisation:
The fear of becoming a victim tends to be irrational (according to some sociologists).
For example, women don’t go out because they are afraid of being attacked, but young men are more likely to experience violence by strangers.
Feminists have criticised this, saying that sociologists focus too much on women’s psychological state when they should be focusing on their safety.
What is Victimology?
Victimology is the study of who becomes a victim of crime, why certain individuals are victimized, and what can be done to address victimization.
The likelihood of being a victim of crime is very unevenly distributed between social groups.
Class
Patterns of Victimisation
The poorest groups are more likely to be victimised. For example, crime rates are typically highest in areas of high unemployment and deprivation. This could be due to lack of affordability for home security. However, this doesn’t explain why crimes occur to begin with.
Adults residing in the most deprived 10% of areas were nearly twice as likely to experience crime compared to those living in the most affluent 10% of areas.
Age
Patterns of Victimisation
Younger people are more at risk of victimisation. For example, those most at risk of being murdered are infants under one, while teenagers are more vulnerable than adults to offences such as theft, domestic abuse, sexual harassment and assault.
Additionally, the elderly are vulnerable to abuse, especially within nursing homes, where instances of victimization may go unnoticed.
However, the overall pattern suggests that the risk of victimisation declines with age.
Ethnicity
Patterns of Victimisation
Data from the 2017 CSEW showed that people of mixed race were most likely to be victims (more than twice as likely as white people, who were the least likely to be victims of crime among larger ethnic groups).
In relation to the police, ethnic minorities, young males and the homeless are more likely to feel under-protected, yet over-controlled.
Gender
Patterns of Victimisation
Males are at greater risk of becoming victims of violent attacks, with about 70% of homicide victims being male.
90% of women compared to 10% of men, are more likely to be victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. However, women from low-income households (less than £10,000) were 3.5 times more likely to be victims of domestic abuse than their counterparts from households exceeding £20,000.
