crime media

• Moral panics:

  Cohen points to 'mods and rockers'. This was a relatively minor disorder, but the media overreacted, distorting these groups who were then all negatively labelled and associated with deviance. This then allowed the media to link them with unconnected crime events. This then produced a deviance amplification spiral. Calls for increased control from the police & courts, leading to further stigmatisation of mods and rockers as deviants. This then encouraged polaristion and helped create a self fulfilling prophecy of conflict as youths acted out on roles assigned to them.
• Evaluation of MP:

  • Who is to decide what is a proportionate reaction and what is an overreaction?
  • Marxist: Mugging in the 1970s served to distract attention from capitalism, dividing the WC on racial grounds to legitimise a more authoritarian rule. The media controlled by RC by creating folk devils to divide the WC against eachother to prevent a revolution. MP allow the government to create policies for more surveillance and control of the WC.
  • Functionalists: By dramatising the threat to society via folk devils, the media raises the collective consciousness & reasserts social controls.
• Through labelling, moral panics can be created by the media, which is an exaggerated overreaction by society to a perceived problem, and so the reaction enlarges the problem out of proportion to its real seriousness.
• There have been concerns that the media has a negative effect on attitudes, values & behaviour, especially those deemed suscepetible to influence, like the young, the working class ect
• The media may cause Crime and deviance through imitation. Bandura suggests that people learn through observation and imitating seen behaviour. This can be applied to crime, as with the media creating violent games and films, people may copy this criminal behaviour in real life. EG The murder of James Bulger is thought to be imitated by the film Chucky, his murder reflecting a significant scene in the film.

  • However, It could be argued Bulgers murders were unlikely to have seen the film, & most studies tend to find that exposure to media violence has a small and limited effect on audiences
• Media may cause relative deprivation. In todays society even the poorest groups have media access. The media emphasises & presents images of a highly materialistic 'ideal life' (eg hauls & abundance of adverts) LR argues that the marginalised, poorest groups feel excluded as they cannot afford these material goods through legitimate means, and suffer from relative deprivation. Therefore, these groups turn to illegitimate means, crime, to aquire this same materialistic lifestyle.

  • This view is deterministic. People can have different responses (than crime) when legitimate means are blocked
• The internet has grown rapidly, with over half the worlds population is now online. And with this, crime has seemingly grown. Media is often seen as the cause of crime, aswell as pushing ideologies which may encourage stricter policing.
• Jeweks: The internet creates opportunities to commit both conventional crime, such as fraud, and 'new crimes using new tools', such as cyber crime. Cyber crime includes online harrassment, identity theft, and hacking. All of which wouldnt have been possible without the media.

  • However it can be argued that the creation of the media and the internet has helped to decrease crime, providing the state with greater opportunities for surveillance and control.
  • EG the murder of Brittney Gargol was solved after her murderer posted a picture on facebook with the murder weapon