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Fear and media representation of crime
Media portrayal of crime victims
How the media distorts crime
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Crime Waves, Fears, and Social Reality begins by explaining a poll that states that 17% of Americans are worried about being murdered. 45% would have their homes burglarized. 43% would have their car stolen. 26% would be mugged and 13% would be sexually assaulted. The number of individuals who fear crime in the United States is vast. Americans typically envision criminals as young, poor, males that are physically harming or stealing something instead of a suit wearing white-collar criminal. However, this is not the case. There is no crime wave in the United States, and crime has been steadily declining. Typical crimes are not violent or even that serious, that our minds are imagine. They are actually minor crimes causing no significant finical or physical loss. The violent crimes that are committed are not committed by psychotic strangers most people imagine. They are committed by someone close to the victim. Violent crimes that are committed usually do not involve a weapon and typically do not cause serious injury. The government also has a vested interest in some crimes. So, they remain silent on certain issues and have a major impact …show more content…
Politicians like Donald Trump are using extreme cases and are using these crimes myth’s to their advantage to push their political agenda. I hear daily people who still believe the stereotypes and crime myths. For example at work many of the employees see a young black man and they already assume that he is either dangerous or looking to steal. Also, if you turn on the news are read the paper the media is always depicting extreme crimes. They are focused on selling more and more and are not interested in the facts. This has created a society that has been dehumanized to crime and in some cases are entertained by it. There are so many crime shows on TV that are helping enforce and are depicting stereotypes and crime myth’s. The crime genre is one of if not the most popular genre on
You can see specific examples in the subtitles and subtext from different news articles. The way they cover different stories and the stories they choose to cover. The way we perceive crime and such has a very large connection to how it is presented to us. The more negative the coverage, the more negative we are going to feel about it. Like for instance, ever since the 9/11 terrorist attack, the media coverage of Muslims has gotten significantly worse, further extending racial barriers.
Even though there have been many ex-cons that have left the prison system many times when they are released they are merely better-educated and skilled criminals, it does not matter how much money you have, your race, color, background, religion, sex everyone is affected because we are all a part of this problem. If you vote, if you pay taxes, if you are afraid to walk alone at night, you are already involved. More than half of all US prisoners that are serving time for non-violent offenses, and most nonviolent offenders do in fact learn a lesson while in prison: how to be violent.
So, in a time of social, political and economic change it makes sense that how we enforce the law and systems of punishment would begin to shift into the public eye. Gunther claims that we have a criminal processing system, rather than a criminal justice system; But what makes a criminal justice system an impartial justice oriented system rather than the harsh, biased and unfair processing mechanism that Gunther saw? For this, we look to Packer’s four assumptions of a justice system.
President Barack Obama, the United States of America’s 44th president is on his second term of presidency and has addressed more social and financial issues during his tenure than crime control policies. President Obama came into office in 2009 and continues to serve as President of the United States. As one evaluates the policies that are in place during his administration a conclusion can be made that his primary focus has been that of health care, civil rights, and foreign policy amongst other agendas that don’t necessarily address his crime policy. President Obama has not proposed any majorly significant crime policies or drastic changes in the crime policies that were in place prior to his appointment (Marion & Oliver, 2012).
Crime in this country is an everyday thing. Some people believe that crime is unnecessary. That people do it out of ignorance and that it really can be prevented. Honestly, since we live in a country where there is poverty, people living in the streets, or with people barely getting by, there will always be crime. Whether the crime is robbing food, money, or even hurting the people you love, your family. You will soon read about how being a criminal starts or even stops, where it begins, with whom it begins with and why crime seems to be the only way out sometimes for the poor.
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).
In America, violence has always been an integral part of national culture. Crime and bloodshed are glorified both on and off screen. The more disturbing the act of violence, the more enthralled the public seems. The most prolific of crimes, those committed by infamous serial killers, inspire the most attention. As said by Jeff Lindsay, creator of the book series that inspired the wildly-popular television program, Dexter, “We’re sickened and disgusted, but we need to know. And the more we know about the scene, the more we really are horrified” (“Sympathy for the Devils”). Violence, especially committed by this special class of felons, is enthralling. News reports play a role in this strange attraction, as it is through the news that people even have knowledge of such killers, but the evolution in the “serial killer genre” (Lindsay, “Sympathy for the Devils”) of film and television helps to desensitize people to the gruesome murders that are committed. This begs the question of whether this disturbing trend should be stopped, lest the American “culture of violence” (this has a source) continues to grow stronger. Through news reports, film, and television, criminals are constantly romanticized through use of sympathetic characterization and gratuitous depictions of their crimes, which lends to peoples’ increasingly positive attitudes toward violence and, in turn, feeds the growing culture of violence in America.
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.
During one of our class sessions we discussed the different areas within the criminal justice system. The topic of courts and sentencing specifically of juveniles was mentioned. As we get to know the inside students we learn some of their backstory of how they ended up at Joseph Harp Correctional Facility, many of them had their first contact with the criminal justice system as a juvenile. Several of the inside students expressed animosity toward the courts when it came to sentencing of juveniles. They thought that some of the ways juveniles are sentenced is too harsh.
I don’t know what people thought of when they saw JH’s family before their involvement with the criminal justice (CJ) system. However, I am sure they did not suspect the horrors that went on behind closed doors. JH, now about fifteen years old, was being sexually abused by his older brother and father. They both even recorded the acts. Eventually law enforcement got involved, police arrested the father and brother, the DA pressed charges, lawyers got involved, the courts sentenced them, they were incarcerated, at some point they’ll most likely have a parole hearing, and eventually might be released from prison. That is what most people think of when they think of criminal justice. Criminal justice is often erroneously limited to a crime, the
Criminology is the study of crime and criminals. In criminology, crime data is gathered in many different ways. All of these ways are part of the National Incident-Based Reporting system, which is a program that collects data on each respond crime incident (CITATION). There are Primary Sources of collecting crime data, and Secondary Sources of collecting crime data. Under the Primary Sources of collecting crime data are the National Crime Victimization Survey, Self Report Surveys, and the Uniform Crime Reports. These reporting surveys and official records gather information for Criminologists about all types of crimes. Some examples of these are homicide, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, arson, burglary, and larceny. Criminologists use these also to measure the nature and extent of the crime, along with behavior and personalities of the offenders. Secondary Sources of collecting crime data are Experimental Research, Observational and Interview Research, Data Mining, Crime Mapping, Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review, and Cohort Research. These gathering techniques gather informatio...
“Crime myths are powerful constructions of reality because they speak to our personal values and beliefs and are steeped in rich symbolism, which reinforces those values and belief.” (Kappeler & Potter, 2004) Crime myths are created when a series of fictional events that are later altered so that they become social and political problems. The media plays a major role in the creation of crime myths they broadcast images and videos to go along with the crime myths, they also use social context that play on humans thought on the community seeing it as unsafe. Myths also contain some measure of economic conditions that then cause reactions by politicians to create new laws to prevent these myths from becoming major problems in the criminal justice system. (K&P, 2004) In order for a statement to be characterized as a crime myth, if the crimes instill fear and threaten the vast majority of society. (K&P,2004) Crime myths are made up of components that targets and identify of a distinct deviant population, they involve innocent and helpless victims, the emergence of brave and virtuous hearos ,comes as a threat to peoples established norms, values, or traditional lifestyles.
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.
Reports on crimes usually follow certain patterns or trends relating to specific crimes deemed ‘newsworthy’ (AIC, 2017). Thus, it is evident that there are many statistical reasons for why the perceptions of crime can influence society’s beliefs on the nature of crime in Australia. Public anxiety about crime can be escalated to such an extent which leads to a moral panic based on a crime, specifically violent crime. “There is a widespread concern that the level and type of crime reported in the media present a distorted view of the real level of crime in the community” (Media portrayals of crime, 2000).
In today’s society there is a high fear of crime by society. Society actions show that there is anxiety and fear about crime. Therefore, anxiety and fear about crime has placid our cities and communities. Society express fear of being victimized by crimes, criminal activities, and behaviors. Therefore, according to, (Crime, 1999) states that “ the level of fear that a person holds depends on many factors, including but, not limited to: “ gender, age, any past experiences with crime that a person may have, where one lives, and one’s ethnicity.” All of those factors have a huge impact on one’s fear level.