Crime and the media

The media as a cause of crime: moral panics pt 2

-Cohen argued that the media produced an inventory with three elements: 1) Exaggeration and distortion: the media exaggerated the numbers involved and the extent of the violence and damage. Non-events were made into news. 2) Prediction- the news would constantly make false predictions on further conflict and violence 3) Symbolisation- the symbols e.g. hairstyles of the mods and rockers were all negatively labelled -Cohen argued that the media's portrayal of events led to a deviancy amplification which made the problem worse.

The wider context: media as a cause of crime

-Cohen says that moral panics occur in times of social changes, when values seem to be undermined. There is uncertainty about where the boundary of acceptable and unacceptable lay and therefore the folk devil created by the media creates a symbol for the anxiety felt. -From a functionalist perspective, moral panics is due to the sense of anomie/normlessness. The media raises the collective consciousness and reasserts social control when values are threatened. -Stuart et al and his theory of mugging and black men take a neo-marxist approach. He linked it to the crisis of capitalism.

Fictional representation of crime

-Crime is portrayed in movies and tv and are important sources of how we view crime. -Surette argues that the fictional representation of crime follows the 'law of opposites' as in it is completely opposite to official crime stats, and looks more like news coverage. E.g. -The cops usually catch the bad guy and fictional sex crimes are committed by psychopaths not acquaintances.

The media as a cause of crime: Cultural criminology, the media and crime: Jock Young

-Cultural criminology argues that the media turns crime itself into a commodity. The media encourages people to consume crime, through images of crime. -Young argues that we are now in a media-saturated society where we are immersed in the 'media scape' - an ever expanding tangle of fluid digital images, including images of crime. -There is now blurring between the image of crime and crime itself.

The media as a cause of crime: fear of crime: Gerbner et al

-Gerbner et al found a link between those who used television for more than four hours a day and higher levels of fear of crime. -This is because the media distorts our impression of crime and creates an unrealistic fear of crime.

The media as a cause of crime: media and the commodification of crime: Hayward and Young

-In the late modern society, brands and marketing companies are now using crime to sell products, and to attract the youth. -E.g. FCUK is named after a swear word, the fashion industry thrives on the idea of 'heroin chic' and violence against women

Cyber crime and surveillance: Jewkes

-Jewkes argues that new forms of ICT make it easier for police to conduct surveillance e.g. through CCTV cameras, digital fingerprinting etc

The media as a cause of crime: relative deprivation: Lea and Young

-Left realists, Lea and Young argue that the media cause crime through provoking relative deprivation. Through adverts showing luxuries that not everyone can afford, this increases relative deprivation

Criticisms of the idea of moral panics: McRobbie and Thornton

-McRobbie and Thornton argue that in the late modern society, moral panics are now routine and have less impact. -As well as this, there is little consensus over what is deviant and what is not as the lines have blurred. -Left realists also argue that some reactions to news reporting is rational

The media as a cause of crime: moral panics

-The media can also cause crime and deviance by helping to label something as criminal. Moral entrepeneurs who disapprove of some behaviour, may use the media to put pressure on the police/state to do something. -A part of this process is the moral panic. The media are able to identify a group as a folk devil and a threat to societal values. -Once the folk devils are identified, there is usually a crackdown by law enforcement. This is likely to create a self-fulfilling prophecy and a deviancy amplification. -The most famous example is Stan Cohen's mods and rockers study

The media as a cause of crime

-The media has been accused of causing crime in the past and today. The number of ways they may cause crime are: -Imitation: deviant role models resulting in copy cat behaviour -Gives tips on how to commit crime -Desensitisation- to criminal behaviour through watching violence over and over again. -stimulating desires for unaffordable goods (can link to relative deprivation-left realist theory) -By glamourising offending

Changing type of coverage of crime: Schlesinger and Turnber

-They argue that in the 60's petty crime and murder were the focus, but they became less interesting due to the abolition of the death penalty, also crime had to be special to attract coverage. -This meant that there was an increase in football hooliganism, child abuse, terrorism etc -Rape cases have also become more popular, but the media give the impression that rapists are pyschopathic strangers but this isn't the case

The media gives a distorted view of crime, seen through official statistics: Ditton and Duffy

-When comparing crime statistics to news reporting, they found that whilst nearly half the media reports were on violent and sexual crime, they only made up 3% of crimes. -The media exaggerates the risk of victimisation of women,the middle class -The media always over-exaggerates police success in crime cases.

Cyber crime

-With the arrival of the internet and video games etc, there has been a moral panic over cyber crime and its effects. Many people fear that it's corrupting the young. Wall: Identifies five types of cyber crime 1) Cyber deception and theft: illegal downloading, filesharing, including identity theft 2) Cyber trespass: crossing boundaries into others' cyber-property 3)Cyber-pornography: involving porn of underage children 4) Cyber violence- psychological harm or inciting physical harm 5) Global cyber crime: due to globalisation, it makes it very difficult to catch crime as the laws are not so clear when it involves another country.

News values and crime coverage: Jock Young and Stanley Cohen

-Young and Cohen argue that news coverage of a crime is a social construction as it has been manufactured not found. -A key idea of the manufacturing of news is the idea of 'news values'. These are things which newspapers find newsworthy. These include; -Immediacy: breaking news -Dramatisation: action and excitement -Personalisation: human interest stories about individuals -Novelty/unexpectedness: a new angle -Risk: victim centred stories about vulnerability