media as a cause of crime

• media as a cause of crime

  it has become a widespread fear that aspects of the media may promote crime, such as shows like peaky blinders, games like gta and rap music. this is particularly thought to be the case in youth and it may happen through

  • imitation - copying characters' behaviour
  • desensitisation - repeated viewing of violence makes people get used to it
  • transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
  • stimulating desires for unobtainable goods
  • glamourising offenders
• a moral panic around media?

  overall most of thousands of studies have found that exposure to media violence has a limited negative influence

  • schramm et al. - 'for most children under most conditions most television is neither particularly harmful nor particularly beneficial'
  • livingstone - despite these conclusions there is still a fear of the effects of media on children, which links to aries' view of the cult of childhood and postman's theory of the information hierarchy
• fear of crime

  the media's exaggeration of crime and the risk to some people of becoming victims may be distorting people's view of crime and causing unrealistic fear

  • gerbner et al. - heavier users of television had higher levels of fear of crime
  • schlesinger + tumber - found a correlation between media consumption and a fear of crime , particularly in tabloid users who expressed a greater fear of becoming a victim
  • these correlations don't prove that media causes a fear of crime
  • greer + reiner - the research may not investigate the meanings viewers give to different media violence
• media, relative deprivation and crime

  rather than considering how violent portrayals cause people to offend, some people investigate how depictions of 'normal' life may lead people to crime

  • lea + young - the way media portrays normal causes viewers to feel relatively deprived by sit com families for example, which left realists argue pushes people to crime
  • links to merton's strain theory and the response of innovation as they can't legitimately achieve the goals advertised in media, which are depicted as achievable
• cultural criminology, the media and crime

  cultural criminologists argue that the media turns crime into a commodity that people desire and encourages viewers to consume it

  • hayward + young - late modern society is media-saturated and we are all immersed in the 'mediascape' - an ever-expanding landscape of digital images. this causes a blurring of the image and reality of crime so the two are no longer distinct
  • gang assaults are sometimes acted out in order to be filmed and posted online and reality cop shows are used as copaganda in which police change their behaviour
• the commodification of crime

  hayward + young - late modernity emphasises consumption, excitement and immediacy which causes corporations to use crime to sell their products

  • hip hop combines street hustler community images with consumerist success
  • fenwick + hayward - 'crime is packaged and marketed to young people as a romantic, exciting cool and fashionable cultural symbol'
  • counter-cultures are also sold - designer brands valued by young people are now considered symbols of deviance, such as trackies and 'cheap-looking' brands such as gucci, which have become linked with 'chavs'