Crime & the Media

• Foucault: society is a form of social control, e.g. CCTV
• Garland: changes in the culture of control are largely due to technological advances
• Varioous agencies have a role in deciding what the media finds out, e.g. the police, goverment
  
• We each have a different level of exposure to crime which is difficult to measure
• Media uses pictures as a powerful tool that increases the amount of information that we remember 
• Billions of acts of deviance/crrime on a daily basis but only becomes news if someone in journalism reports it
• Journalists and their environment determines which events are reported and which are not

Hall (1978)

• Idea that society has the same interests/perspective
• Media is owned/controlled by the elite so reflects their interests
• Primary definers: those in power; the spokespeople
• Secondary definers: the media who reproduce the interests of the primary definers

Greer & Reiner (2012)

• Media = subtle form of social control as it plays a role in controlling the availability of information and is subversive/a source of criminality

Chibnall (1977)

• Immediacy: event that has just happened
• Dramatisation: action
• Personalisation: involvement of a celebrity
• Simplification: black and white; no grey area
• Titillation: arousal/excitement; can't help but read it
• Structured Access: involvement of experts/authority and their opinion
• Novelty: a twist/speculation
• Conventionalism: hegemonic ideology

Jewkes (2004)

• Risk: extent to which the police keep us safe and the extent to which we need to keep ourselves safe
  
• Children: involvement of children increases likelihood of a story being considered newsworthy
• Proximity: geographical proximity and cultural proximity (how relevant the story is for its intended audience)

Greer (2003)

• Deviant behaviour makes the news easily 
• Rate that police 'clear-up' crime is exaggerated
• Offenders mentioned in national newspapers are of a higher socio-economic group and are older than is generally the case within the CJS
• Risk of victimisation for white females of a higher socio-economic group is exaggerated
  

Williams & Dickinson (1993)

• Between 5 - 30% of newspaper content is about crime and justice
• More radio content is about crime and justice compared to newspaper content - preference for hearing about such topics rather than reading about it

Cohen (1972)

• Event that has been exaggerated by the media 
  
• Identification of a folk devil - who society should fear as they threaten the interests of society, easily identifiable as they have been characterised by a symbol; symbol carries more importance than the person who carries it
• Signification spiral - interaction between moral entrepreneurs and the mass media in the creation of a folk devil
• Reinforced through the opinion of experts
• Can have lasting effects; or disappears and becomes a memory
• E.g. mods and rockers 

Thomson (1998) identified 5 elements to a moral panic:

• Identification of a threat
  
• Threat is defined by the media so that it's easily recognisable
• Quick build-up of concern - creation of momentum/snowball effect = past the point of no return
• Response from authorities/those in power
• Panic disappears or changes in social/political policies are made

5 Factors that Influence Reporting of Violence

• Visable and spectacular acts
  
• Sexual and/or political connotations
• Graphic presentation
• Individual pathology - e.g. dissociative identity disorder, schizophrenia and psychopathy get extra media attention
• Deterrence and repression

• In Scotland, 46% of crime news is about violent/sexual crime yet this accounts for 3% of police recorded crime (Ditton & Duffy, 1983)
  
• Sex crime is common yet the cases portrayed in the media are highly selective
• Idea of a 'sex beast'/'sex fiend' - have the same characteristics, e.g. are lonely
• Theme of linking sex offences and links to previous sex fiends, e.g. the Ripper
• Discovery of a p aedophile particularly exploded during 1990s
• Moral panic about sex offending and notifying local authorities about convicted sex offenders in the community led to policy changes in UK (Sarah's law) and US (Megan's law)
• Selective portrayal of specific facts

E.g. youth crime is largely blamed on exposure to violence through different forms of media which results in a moral panic, such as 'video nasties', video games, horror movies (James Bulger case)

• Labelling: defining certain groups/behaviours as deviant/a threat
  
• Deviancy amplification: exaggerated amount of harm a behaviour causes
• Creation of moral panics
• Creating excitement for personal desires: e.g. for material gain which some can only obtain illegally
• Creating sexual arousal: e,g, violent/sexual/pornographic images lead to some wanting to recreate these for themselves
• Desensitisation: repeated viewing of violence so it no longer becomes shocking
• Glamourises offending: being remembered
• Imitation: copycat crimes; 90% of offenders have improved their criminal techniques by watching crime programmes (Jewkes, 2004)
• Undermining the credibility of the CJS

Mass Society Approaches 

• Originated after WWII
  
• Idea that society has become increasingly individualised and disorderly as a result
• This means the media has become increasingly important in influencing and potentially manipulating public opinion

Behaviourism

• Crime as a learned behaviour/direct link between external stimuli, e.g. the media and human behaviour
  
• Experiments such as Bandura's bobo doll study aim to see if watching violent/sexual images result in a change of behaviour

Criticisms

• Little evidence that actually links the media with behaviour that is associated with offending - however the media frequently hold rap music, violent video games and horror movies responsible for youth crime
  

• Large body of research attempting to identify and isolate the effect of the media 
• E.g. correlations between what a person sees and their subsequent behaviour
• Many studies show that there is an effect, although the effect is small

Possible reasons that explain the correlation

• More aggressive people choose to watch more violent programmes
• Violent programmes make people who watch them more violent
• Certain circumstances make people more aggressive, and in turn more likely to watch violent programmes

Criticisms

• Use of artificial stimuli rather than real TV programmes
• Only measures short term effects/lack of follow-up studies
• Definitions of violence are subjective
• Lab experiments are artificial

Wall (2001)

4 types of cyber-crime:

• Cyper-trespass: crossing into someone else's property, e.g. hacking
• Cyber-deceptions and theft: stealing, e.g. credit card fraud
• Cyber-p ornography
• Cyber-violence: psychological harm or inciting physical violence

• New media generally creates a moral panic, e.g. dangers of the internet
• Cyber crimes are hard to police due to the sheer size and complexity of them
• The nature of cyber-crime is constantly changing so it is difficult for the police to keep up

Reiner (1994)

• Police have a department dedicated to dealing with the press
• Newspapers are largely reliant on the police for information
• A good relationship is reliant on goodwill and cooperation
• Since the creation of the police, how they are seen by the public has always had to be managed
• The period of time in which a TV programme is created reflects how the police are portrayed
• Nowadays they are generally seen through a rose-tinted lens and portrayed as courageous, determined and dedicated

Crime News as Hegemony in Action

• What is deemed newsworthy is evidence of authority exercising their power - relationship between social order and the reporting of crime through the media
• Hegemony = dominant social class
• Links between hegemony and masculinity - men must act masculine as they are dominant in society and this is reflected in the frequent reporting of spousal homicide
• Links with Marxism - news is controlled by the elite as they own the media; victims of crime are often the powerless proleteriat

Crime News as Cultural Conflict

• News about crime is the result of interaction between different factors
• Interaction between different political parties and their objectives, and everyday pressures

Jock (1973)

• West London in 1960s during a moral panic about drugs
• Considerable differences between the fantasy stereotype of people who smoke cannabis and the reality of such
• Increased sense of unity amongst drug users due to misrepresentation by the press
• Increased police presence meant that drug users felt the need to protect themselves, mainly done by segregating themselves from non-drug users and making the division more visable, e.g. having long hair and wearing more unusual clothing
• Identification with their label
• Made entrance back into society more difficult