Society’s fascination with crime and justice has always been high. From films, books, newspapers, magazines, television broadcasts, to everyday conversations. The community is constantly taking part in crime "talk". The mass media plays a significant role in the construction and portrayal of criminality and the criminal justice system. The public’s perception of law enforcement officials, victims, and criminals, is largely determined by how they are depicted in the media. Recent studies indicate that the majority of public knowledge regarding crime and justice stems from the media. Therefore, it is imperative to examine the effects that the mass media have on attitudes toward crime and justice. Effectiveness of law enforcement and fear of crime are important aspects of public attitudes toward the criminal justice system. Not only do police strategies reflect departmental values, they reflect their local community values as well. How the police are portrayed in the media can have a crucial effect on citizen’s attitudes toward the police. If the public forms a negative opinion regarding their local law enforcement agency this can cause problems with community relations and may influence citizens’ decisions to report a crime. This can have an even bigger effect if citizen’s fear of crime rises or they develop punitive attitudes toward law enforcement. This may influence policy making and law making by government agencies, as public support or opposition may determine policy.
Recent studies reveal that there are mixed results regarding the influence of the news media on creating an attitude of fear among the general public. Research has shown that individuals who watch a large amount of television, including news programs, felt more t...
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..., of which Ms. Graziosi violated through her comments on Facebook. Social media misconduct has proven to be a constant problem for law enforcement personnel. Unlike the citizens in the community they are held to a higher standard both in and out of uniform.
The ever growing popularity of the media in today’s society will constantly be an obstacle for law enforcement to overcome. Achieving a positive relationship with media outlets can be extremely helpful, along with proper training in regards to social media. This can lead to better community involvement and an improved perception of the law enforcement personnel within the community. However, officers are not only limited to the consequences of the duties of their job, but with media being accessible with the touch of a button, officers must remember the civil liability that the performance of their job entails.
The case is one that is all too familiar thanks to the growing trend within social media platforms. Allegations of police using excessive force, raising concerns about law enforcement’s credibility.
The researcher hypothesizes that the use of body-cameras on police officers would reduce the instances of gainful communication between civilians and law enforcement. The null-hypothesis is that the use of body-cameras on police officers will have no effect on gainful communication between civilian and law enforcement. In determining the implications of how body-cameras effects civilian behavior, the research will include a sampling survey of criminal justice students and information gathered from journal documents related to research on police body-cameras.
Most people use second hand information as their core source of information about crime, this source of information usually being the media. When carrying out sample research in Birmingham, Susan Smith (1984) discovered that 52% of people obtained most of their information about crime from the media, 36% obtained it from hearsay or alleged experiences of friends and neighbours, 3% from their own experiences, and 1% from the police service themselves (cited in Jones, 2001; 8). However the media tend to exaggerate upon areas of criminal activity causing a moral panic. ‘A moral panic is a semi- spontaneous or media generated mass movement based on the perception that some individual or group, frequently a minority group or subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses menace to society. These panics are generally fuelled by the media, although not always caused by, media coverage of social issues… These panics can sometimes lead to mob violence… (newsfilter.co.uk).
The social construction of myths of crime and criminal justice seems to follow a series of recurrent patterns. These patterns allow for an unprecedented amount of social attention to be focused upon a few isolated criminal events or issues. This attention is promoted by intense, but often brief, mass media coverage of a select problem. Intense social concern of an issue is achieved by a variety of means from the mass media, government, law enforcement officials, interpersonal communications, and the interests of reform groups whom all play major roles in focusing the publics attention on select so...
One large factor that fuels police brutality is the media. The media is constantly showing the world what police officers are doing wrong. The book “The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality”, is a book where author Regina Lawrence does an extensive study on how the media ties in with the formation of police brutality. Lawrence analyzed more than 500 incidents of police use-of-force covered by the New York Times and in the Los Angeles Times from the year 1981 to 1991. Lawrence informs readers of the structural and cultural forces that both shape the news and define when police use excessive force. Lawrence claims that police brutality incidents occur in greater numbers than those that are reported. She also explores how media is obtained, so the public can see a new perspective on policing policies. Journalists decide whether one story makes it to the news if the issues and events need light shone upon them. If it were not for the media, many issues and events would go undocumented, as police and elected officials would rather leave them unexposed. Lawrence also shows how a news event involving the police can become a tool for isolated social groups to gain access to the
The role of a Police Chief requires constant supervision and maintaining the police department in all aspects to ensure the employees are following rules. Handling the massive media reports about everything from illegal searches to discrimination would be a daunting task, but not impossible to conquer. In any type of media story pertaining negativity within a police department or a business, one of the main focus points of the story is the individual who is in charge. Implications such as discrimination and violent crimes committed by police officers would make people con...
Crime is a part of society encompases the news and the public. A variety of studies of media content have estimated that as much as 25 percent of the daily news is devoted to crime (Surette 1992) and that crime is the largest major category of stories in the print and electronic media (Chermak 1994, 103). (Lawrence 18). With crime at an all time high, police are constantly having to deal with more and more issues. This can lead to stressed out and fed up officers, which can lead to poor decisions by an officer. The use of force by police is a highly controversial topic as it raises questions about a government’s ability to use force against its citizens (Lawrence 19). Today’s society is caught up on the ideals of civility and equality before the law, making police use of force a touchy
Releasing information about police officers is an important discussion between law enforcement and the media. Over the years, is been argued whether police should have the right of privacy, or their personnel information made public. This information can contain officer’s identity and private files. Should the officers’ information be release? In what situations should law enforcement have a right to privacy? Several articles in the document “Police Officers’ Right to Privacy” exemplify the court rulings and legislative actions regarding the matters of officers’ information being release.
Throughout society there are both individuals and groups of people with a wide range of perceptions about crime and justice. These perceptions are influenced by the media and what the media presents. Media presents crime stories in ways that selectively distort and manipulate public perception, thus creating a false picture of crime. Therefore the media provides us with perceptions and social constructions about our world. Firstly I will be discussing the role of the media in constructing knowledge about crime. I will begin by explaining why the media is important, and go further to explain that media representations construct knowledge of crime and since knowledge about crime is constructed it does not necessarily capture reality in fact crime stories are often sensationalised. I will then link this to my central argument that the media shapes people’s perceptions of crime and how this is important as it can lead to changes in the law. I will then explain what it is that the public or society needs to be aware of when reading and watching media reports about crime. We need to be aware of bias and moral panics that are created by the media and how the media shapes or influence’s public perception through this, it is important for us to be aware of misleading or false crime stories so that we are not swayed by the media in believing what they want us to believe.
It is important in regards to employment as well as for public perception. As the public and communities observe ethical behavior in off duty officers, they are assured that officers are not above the law. When unethical behavior occurs public perception changes. Social media and media have recently brought unreasonable force issues to the public, which has had a domino type affect which has escalated from communicating about unethical behavior and reexamining standards, to individuals rioting and protesting against law enforcement and police officers in general. Not all officers are unethical, most are ethical; one officers’ actions are being alleged by society that all law enforcement officers are unethical. This is a generalized supposition, conveyed by one person’s actions: it is erroneous. Law enforcement agencies must adhere to the high ethical standards that is essential to officers; they are responsible for ensuring ethical behavior standards are developed and used within its own
Sacramento Police Department’s twitter account has 36.3 followers and Los Rios police department has 79 follower (twitter.com). These tweets and hashtags are not only benefiting civilians but also police officers. The police are benefiting off of social media posts by civilians speaking up and giving clues and tips toward crimes. On September 3, 2015 Sacramento City College was part of a school shooting were one man was killed and two people were injured. The school was patrolled by police and put on lock down. During this time, students of the other Los Rios colleges were unaware of what was occurring. I was in class why this tragic incident occurred. Sacramento Police tweeted ever 10 to 15 minutes about this shooting that allowed other students to feel safe and informed of what was happening around them. Police also use social media in a positive way rather than also in a negative
The media today is often taken for granted; as people don’t realize the dominance the media source holds in the modern world. Through media sources such as newspaper, TV and social media crime could be easily spread through out the world within seconds. As a result of this, humans understanding of crime and crime control are largely relied upon the media as evidently most people will not be in those serious criminal situations. The media however takes advantage of this situation by exaggerating crime scenes and focusing on particular crimes to make the public fear. Particular groups in the media are stereotyped to an extent where the public foresees then as ‘dangerous’. As a consequence, a change in the public’s perception of crime has forced
Many of the citizens never had a one on one altercation with the law they only base their opinions on experiences with the police influence from other citizens, and that where they get their general image of the police. Many study indicates that police courteousness/friendliness in the direction of the citizen in a recent contact with police exerts the most powerful influence on the citizen’s general assessment of the police. However more studies have indicated that people’s previous overall views of police have sturdier influence on their evaluation of a succeeding specific contact than their evaluation of a specific contact has on subsequent overall views of police. The majority of the American public has not had face-to-face contact with a police officer. Most people respect the mass media as their primary source of information about the many crimes that go on around them, and crime news is the background for most mass media interpretations of police work. The implied message of much crime news is the lack of ability to catch offenders. A trend that is rising in a major way is in the news media. They are using it to focus their attention on a few
The mass media is a vehicle for delivering information and to entertain. But implications that the media do more harm than good concerning its practices and its effects on the public. The two main categories of mass media are print media and electronic media. Although they overlap in some areas, they differ mostly in the subject matter they cover and in their delivery methods. Research had been conducted in using both these forms to gauge the impact that each one has on the public. Print media tends to be more factual based whereas electronic media tend to focus more on visual aids to help relay the information. The public’s fear of crime has an impact on the public agenda of policy makers. Fear of crime not only affects individual but may also have an impact on the laws that affect crime control and prevention.
The media depicts officers in many different ways, most of which are not always positive. Officers face discrimination as a result and may not be able to perform their duties properly. The media is constantly talking about how all law enforcement officials are racist, violent, and ultimately criminals themselves. It can be very hard for a police officer to be taken seriously. People may even fear police officers, which makes it difficult to conduct an investigation of any sort. Officers are also in danger of violence, because people assume the worst about them, they may take extraordinary measures to prevent the police from doing their jobs. Of course, there are some bad police out there, but there are also a lot of police who are keeping us all safe. The media is definitely the biggest danger law enforcement officials currently