Media and Crime

• In a nutshell


  The media give an overly distorted image of crime - for instance, by over-representing violent crimes. This is because the news is a social construction based on news values that explain the media's interest in crime. Some sociologists see media as a cause of crime through imitation and the deviance amplification of moral panics.
• THE MEDIA AS A CAUSE OF CRIME


  Imitation - the media provides deviant role models, which results in copying their behaviour​

  Arousal - viewing violent or sexual imagery​

  Desensitisation - repeated viewing of violence

  ​Transmission of knowledge of criminal techniques​

  Stimulating desires for unaffordable goods (eg. through advertising)​Glamourising offending
• THE DISTORTED IMAGE OF CRIME


  Overrepresentation of sexual and violent crime​

  Exaggerates police success

  ​Exaggerates the risk of victimisation

  ​Overplay extraordinary crimes
• FICTIONAL REPRESENTATIONS OF CRIME - SURETTE:


  Fictional representations of crime follow the ‘law of opposites’, meaning they are opposite to official statistics:-

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  Property crime is underrepresented, while violence, sex and drug crimes are over-represented

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  Fictional sex crimes are caused by psychopathic strangers, whereas most sex crimes are committed by acquaintances

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  Fictional villains are higher-status, middle-aged, white males

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  Fictional police usually catch criminals
• MORAL PANICS - COHEN - THE MODS AND ROCKERS

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  Cohen examined media's response to disturbances between working-class teenagers (mods and rockers) in the 1960s. Cohen revealed that although this disorder was relatively minor, the media amplified and exaggerated this, producing a deviance amplification spiral. This resulted from:

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  Exaggeration and distortion - exaggerated the numbers involved, the extent of violence and damage

  Prediction - assumed and predicted further conflict

  Symbolisation - the symbols of the mods and rockers defined them
• NEWS VALUES - Cohen and Young


  News is not discovered, but it is manufactured. A central feature manufactured news is the concept of ‘news values’, these are criteria in which journalists and editors decide whether a story is newsworthy enough to make it into the news. Key news values include:

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  Immediacy - ‘breaking news’

  Dramatisation - action and excitement

  Personalisation - human interest stories about individuals

  Higher status - celebrities

  Simplification - eliminating shades of grey

  Risk - victim-centred stories about vulnerability and fear

  Violence
• THE MEDIA, RELATIVE DEPRIVATION AND CRIME - LEA AND YOUNG


  The media present everyone with the image of a materialistic ‘good life’, which is the norm in which everyone should conform. However, this stimulates the sense of relative deprivation and marginalisation felt by groups who cannot afford these goods.