Misconceptions In Crime: Sensational Crime

933 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How can the media affect the publics perception of crime

Skyler Huson Professor Danielle Cooper Introduction to Criminal Justice (03H) CJST 1100 2 December 2015 Misconceptions in Crime: Sensational Crime Crime happens everywhere, anytime, to any degree from purse snatching to serial killing. To the average person, the latter of those two sound more interesting. This is the concept of a sensational crime. These are the type of crimes that everyone seems to be talking about from the biggest news broadcasts to your family around the dinner table. Crimes that are atrociously gruesome, unimaginably cruel, or show a rare level of inhumanity make it into the category of sensational. These crimes are often the subject of news reports and under the public eye. A study done by Herbert Gans in 1979 remains …show more content…

Misconceptions created by media over sensational crimes also deal greatly with race, as much of the reported crime in recent news does. Sensational crimes reported in the news are exaggerated forms of reality, the worst situation that could possibly happen. The public assumes because this is what is presented to them that these crimes are happening as often as they do on the news, perhaps even more. The public assumes that because murder, even multiple murders, occur in every crime show episode that big cities must be full of killers and dead bodies are everywhere. It is not just news and media outlets reporting crime in the real world. Crime is everywhere, including fictitious items such as a best selling book, the top rated television show. Crime is not just on the front page of every paper, and every night on the six o’clock news, it is engrained in our entertainment as well. However, this blatant yellow journalism with the motto, “if it bleeds, it leads” was only created because the public is more interested in such stories of violence, gore, inhumanity, police triumph, and errors. The public wants to hear about what the real crime is to compare to the fictitious nature of shows, books, movies, and more. Such as previously stated, a serial killer is more interesting than a purse snatcher to the general public looking for entertainment. Small crimes, petty crimes, even unsuccessful crimes are not worthy of news coverage because it does not hold a candle to the elaborate schemes and gore of crime television. Sensational crimes like murders get more attention from the public but are much less likely to occur than the common domestic violence call. Dubbed “Tabloid Justice”, the act of reporting crimes for entertainment is prevalent, and often details are dissected and analyzed by all forms of media in a

Show More
Related

  • Central Park 5 Essay

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender and Race play the most prominent role in the criminal justice system. As seen in the movie Central Park 5, five African American boys were charged with the rape of the a white women. In class decision we’ve discussed how the media explodes when it reports cross-racial crimes. The Central Park 5 were known everywhere and even terms were being made up during the process such as wilding. Also, during one of the class discussions it was brought up that victims of crime are of the same race of the perpetrator. However, the media likes to sensationalize crime of the victim being of a different race, because it makes for a good story. By doing this, the media does create more of a division of race. As seen in the video Donald Trump was trying

    Read More

  • Media Portrayal Of African Americans

    733 Words  | 2 Pages

    Network news appears to convey more stereotyped impressions, a narrower range of positive roles for blacks than for whites. Representations of whites in network news are more varied and more positive than of blacks, not because of conscious bias, but because of the way conventional journalistic norms and practices interact with political and social reality. The findings raise questions about the journalist ability to represent the reality of black America while adhering to the professional practices that currently shape network news. Mainstream news portrayed African American as criminals, homeless beggars, welfare queens, ghetto-dwelling gang members, or drug addicts in American Society. Perpetuation of young black men as dangerous has been planted in the mind of American society not only by words and images projected by journalists but also in the mainstream news especially. Television particularly the news has the least positive representation of African Americans especially young males. When television became a house-hold item in the early 1950, this was a dark time in American History because there were huge racial tensions brewing in the south. The news show African American mostly young males getting abuse, hosed by police and attack by police dogs during a peaceful protest. It gives the negative images that African American was unlawful people and need to be dealt with swift action. Most of the time African Americans weren’t resisting but the news media depicted the images that they were and police were just doing their job to keep the peace.

    Read More

  • Ted Bundy: Who Are The Most Faceful Serial Killers?

    2397 Words  | 5 Pages

    “We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere. And there will be more of your children dead tomorrow.” These were the terrifying words of one of America’s most infamous serial killers, Ted Bundy, after he confessed to coldly slaughtering thirty women. Every year Hollywood writers go after serial killers like Bundy for their gruesome and bewildering stories; in turn, these writers have created a serial killer stereotype. They cover their faces with masks and stalk their prey in the cover of night’s darkness. They are unknown outsiders, and sometimes even invincible. These faceless murderers horrify masses of people around America. But who are the real killers, the individuals walking around freely in the sunlight without a disguise?

    Read More

  • Culture in Urban Neighborhoods

    1688 Words  | 4 Pages

    The final theme portrayed within race, crime, and The Wire is the media’s influence on public views. The media plays a large role in influencing the views of the public. What the media decides to air is broadcast to the whole world as what is “right” so discretion should be used in reporting information. Blacks already carry a large stigma for many reasons, however the media should not reinforce this. Anderson (1990) states that many learn to fear minorities based on crimes seen on television as well as in the newspaper.

    Read More

  • Criminal Justice Myths and Facts

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    The media plays a huge role in forming people's perceptions of crime. Without the media we would remain ignorant to occurrences outside our direct social groups. The media and especially news coverage therefore provides us with an important point of contact with the rest of society. In evaluating its effect on popular perceptions of crime it becomes important to consider where most of the information comes from and how representative it is on actual criminality. If it takes "facts" (the truth, the actual event, a real thing) or if it is heightened to a crime myth. With a myth being based upon "exaggeration" or heightening of "ordinary" events in life. Crime myths become a convenient mortar to fill gaps in knowledge and to provide answers to question social science either cannot answer or has failed to address. Myths tend to provide the necessary information for the construction of a "social reality of crime (Quinney, 1970)." As crime related issues are debated and re debated, shaped and reshaped in public forms, they become distorted into myth, as largely seen in the mass media.

    Read More

  • Racial Inequalities in the Justice System

    1738 Words  | 4 Pages

    New Century Foundation. (2005). The Color of Crime: Race, Crime and Justice in America. Retrieved from http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.pdf

    Read More

  • jhks

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thorsten Rushing and four of his friends Ehan, Timothy, Cody, and Westley have elaborately planned on what they would do, how they would hide the weapons, and whom they would blame it on. They displayed the crime scene by shooting the wall as if the intruders attacked them and have his friend Wesley Bankston disposed the evidence. Initially, Rushing told the police that two black men invaded his house but he then changed his statement to one white man and one Hispanic man. The motive for the shooting has not been determine. Unbelievably, these type of crimes happen every day and it has become somewhat such a norm to almost everyone. This raise questions to why some people would commit these type of crimes while others do not. Not only that, how does the media coverage influence the way that these crimes play out in real life? Criminal behavior is not something that is ingrain in their DNA. It is not something that someone is born with. In fact, it is something that is learn just like everything else. In addition, the way that the media p...

    Read More

  • Annotated Bibliography

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    This article focuses on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the media, and criminologists use the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) as a statistical report in order to interpret the crime rate in the United States. During May of 2011, the UCR showed that crime had significantly decreased to the point that it was the lowest in 40 years despite the fact that the economy was suffering. The article states that criminologists would have wanted the FBI to include white-collar crimes such as insider trading, antitrust violations, and hedge fund conspiracies that happened multiple times during the economic crisis. It also argues that criminologists and the media need to work together when relying on ...

    Read More

  • The Serial Killer: The Case Of Lemuel Smith

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    When it come to the wrongdoing of serial murders the first thing people think of is that the offender is psychotic, white, abused as a child and experimented with animals. However that is not true, serial killers have different alternatives, motives and desires. Some are sexual sadist, act in necrophilia and are mission base serial killers. However people do not know that African-Americans consist of the largest racial minority group among serial killers, representing approximately 20 percent of the total amount of serial killers in America. (Bonn) Most believe that serial killers are white and other races are not likely to partake in that type of crimes. However two notorious well known black serial killers are Lemuel Smith & John Floyd

    Read More

  • Crime in USA

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    66. Americans rank crime among the nations greatest problems. Crime can touch people of all lifestyles, race, and ethnicity. Public polls further illustrate that people in America remain fearful of crime without realizing that serious crime has declined since the record-setting years of the early 1980’s. However, many people still believe that crime rates are rising in United States. The news media and politicians help to keep the public’s attention focused on crime. This attention also keeps people fearful of crime in America. FBI data further supports that there is no national crime wave to fear. Most people will not experience crime directly but instead learn about it indirectly. Researchers believe that conversations with friends may help to magnify the amount of local violence. Fear of crime forces many Americans to “stay of the streets” and away from dangerous areas.

    Read More

  • The Hi-Tech Lynching of Celebrities and Politicians

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lynching, which occurred most frequently in the southern states, resulted in the hanging, mutilation, and death of many blacks at the hands of a powerful white ruling class. While lynchings of this type have not occurred as frequently as in previous decades, it has morphed into a new form, a form that is arguably just as devastating. Instead of unjustly prosecuting blacks, this new form of lynching targets celebrities and politicians and media to accomplish what is commonly referred to as “hi-tech lynching”. The job of the media is to relay information to a general public.

    Read More

  • Simpson And Versace Analysis

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recently, FX aired the second season of American Crime Story, a series focusing on murders well-known within American history, such as OJ Simpson’s trial for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, and the assassination of Gianni Versace by the late spree killer Andrew Cunanan. As these stories grasped the attention of millions of viewers, Scott Bonn, psychologist and criminology professor, studied the motive for the audience’s intrigue to this category of shows. Although Simpson and Versace were icons of their time, already appealing to the public, the concept of serial murder was what drew the vast audience, and the center for Bonn’s research. Bonn discusses how the impact of true crime television is harmless, as it merely just caters to the craving for thrills by the audience. However, true crime entertainment humanizes the inhumanity of these crimes, thus desensitizing the severity for those directly impacted. The persistent advertising of serial killers enables an unhealthy obsession within the American people, causing their fascination to not only be motivated by

    Read More

  • Underreported Crime: The Dark Figure Of Crime

    300 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many people are reluctant to report all types of crimes for a multitude of reasons. Non-reported crime is coined as the dark figure of crime. This can be dangerous as well as misinterpretation by statistics because not only does the offender get to walk free and continue but statistics about crime are usually from police departments and agencies that use formal complaints. The dark figure of crime contains so much more data that the general public is unaware of especially with the most underreported crime, rape.

    Read More

  • U.S. Criminal Justice System

    1842 Words  | 4 Pages

    Shelden, R.G., Brown, W.B., Miller, K.S., & Fritzler, R.B. (2008). Crime and criminal justice in american society. Long Grove, Illinosis: Waveland Press, INC.

    Read More

  • Social Disorganisation Theory And Strain Theory

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    Crime exists everywhere. It is exists in our country, in the big cities, the small towns, schools, and even in homes. Crime is defined as “any action that is a violation of law”. These violations may be pending, but in order to at least lower the crime rate, an understanding of why the crimes are committed must first be sought. There are many theories that are able to explain crimes, but three very important ones are rational choice theory, social disorganization theory and strain theory.

    Read More

More about Misconceptions In Crime: Sensational Crime

Open Document