Media Influence on Crime Perception

Crime and the media:

Media representations of crime:

Crime and deviance make up a large proportion of news coverage:

• Williams and Dickinson (1993) = on average, 12.7% of newspaper space is devoted to crime stories
• Depends on the newspaper - e.g. the Sun devoted 30.4%, compared to the Guardian who devoted 5.1%
• Cumberbatch et al (1995) = 40% of news on BBC Radio was focused on crime

Does the media reflect/ mirror society?

Media coverage is highly selective:

• Not all crime that takes place is reflected in the media
• Certain types of crime are given priority over others
• Crimes of violence and sexual crimes are heavily reported in tabloid newspapers
• White-collar and corporate crime are underrepresented in tabloid newspapers

The Media use 'interpretative frameworks' or 'frames': - Stuart Hall (1973)

• The media doesn't simply tell us about what's happening but offers us particular ways of understanding what they have selected.
• Framing refers to the way an issue is presented to the public - the 'angle'
• Put attention to certain aspects and ignore others
• 📝E.g. Language - rapists are labelled 'beasts' or 'sex fiends'

The media distort the image of crime – what do the official statistics say?

1. The media over-represent violent and sexual crime: Ditton and Duffy found media reports would only show sexual/violent crimes - but this only made up 3% of crime statistics

2. The media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle-class: than those typically found in the criminal justice system. Felson calls this the 'age fallacy'.

3. Media coverage exaggerates police success: in clearing up cases, this is partly because the police are a major source of crime stories and want to present themselves in a good light.

4. The media exaggerates the risk of victimisation: especially to women, white people are higher-status individuals.

5. Crime is reported as a series of separate events: without structure and without examining underlying causes

6. The media overplay extraordinary crimes: and underplay ordinary crimes. Felson calls this 'dramatic fallacy', the media images lead us to believe that to commit crime you need to be clever - Felson calls this 'ingenuity fallacy'.

Felson argues that the media can be guilty of presenting a picture of the patterns of crime and deviance that is far from the real thing. He argued that the media makes up the following areas in their reporting of the true nature of crime:

• Age fallacy: the media portrays criminals and victims as older and more middle-class than those typically involved in the criminal justice system.

• Dramatic fallacy: the media focuses on violent and extraordinary crimes and underplays ordinary crimes.

• Ingenuity fallacy: media gives the impression that criminals are clever, yet most crime is opportunistic

• Victimisation fallacy: the media gives the impression that women and white individuals are most likely to be victims of crime.

• Police fallacy: The media gives the impression that the police are more efficient and noble than they really are.

• Agenda setting: the idea that the media have a powerful influence over the issues that people think about because the agenda is already set by journalists.

• This is because people can only discuss and form views about the issues they've been informed about.

• The power that journalists and others working in newsrooms have in society is clearly extensive.

• By having the ability to set the agenda, journalists decide the main topics of discussion for people in society. This can mean the public never discusses some subjects because they are not aware they're on the agenda for discussion.

• Media representations may therefore influence what people believe about crime and deviance, regardless of whether or not these are accurate. 📝Example: the sun didn't cover the breaking of COVID rules by the Prime Minister/ government 'party gate' - because the editor was there.

• Greer and Reiner point out that the media are always seeking out newsworthy stories of crime and deviance, and they exploit the possibilities for a 'good story' by dramatising, exaggerating, over-reporting and sensationalising some crimes out of all proportion to their actual extent in society. They do this in order to generate audience interest and encourage audiences to consume or buy their media products.

• Jewkes suggests that news values guide the choices writers, editors and journalists make when they decide what stories are newsworthy to report and what to leave out.

• Greer suggests that it is these news values that explain why all mainstream media tend to exaggerate the extent of violent crime, and why the media fixates on whether a celebrity deviates/ commits a crime/

• News values = immediacy, threshold, proximity, predictability, simplification, individualism, spectacle, celebrity/ high status, risk.

• The presence of these news values in crime stories explains the priority given in both tabloid newspapers and broadcast news, to sexual and violent crimes.

• In contrast, stories about crime rarely focus on economic crimes (although they may have a section in the business sections of the quality broadsheet newspapers)

• It means that those committing these crimes (wealthy individuals/corporations) aren't being punished but also means this type of deviance is 'being marked off from real crime'. The backwards law: Public Perceptions and the Distortion and Exaggeration of Crime:

• Surveys (such as the CSEW) show that the majority of people base their knowledge of crime and the CJS on the media rather than direct experience.

• However, Surette (2010) suggests that there is what he calls a 'backwards law' with the media constructing images of crime and justice which are an opposite or backwards version of reality.

• Greer and Reiner suggest this backwards law is shown by media news and fiction misrepresenting the reality of crime in the following ways:

• By hugely over-representing and exaggerating sex, drugs and serious violence-related crimes and by under-representing the risks of the most common offence of property crime.

• By portraying property crime as far more serious and violent than most recorded offences, which are fairly routine and trivial.

• By over-exaggerating the risks of becoming victims faced by higher-status white people, older people, women and children.

• By emphasising individual incidents of crime, rather than providing an understanding or analysis of crime patterns or the causes of crime. Fictional representations of crime:

• We don't just get our images of crime from the media

• Fictional representations from the TV, cinema and novels are also important sources of info = so much of their output is crime-related.

• Ernest Mandel estimates 1945 to 1984 over 10 billion crime thrillers were sold globally. Press reporting of rape and sexual assault:

• Mariah (2008) analysed a random sample of 136 news articles about rape and sexual assault of girls and women by men and boys that appeared in UK national newspapers and on BBC in 2006.

• She argues that the way in which these offences are reported construct rape as an outdoor crime committed by monsters/strangers, who may be foreign and use extreme violence to overpower a victim.

• This construction is way out of line with the picture that emerges from social research - but how? Facts to prove:

• Although only 13% of rapes take place in public places these account for 54% of press reports of rape.

• Attacks against underage girls are over-reported by the press while attacks against adult women are underreported.

How does the media cause crime?

Ways that the media possibly causes crime and deviance:

• Imitation = by providing deviant role models, resulting in 'copycat' behaviour
• Arousal e.g. through violent or sexual imagery
• Desensitisation e.g. through repeated viewing of violence
• Transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
• Stimulating desires for unaffordable goods e.g. through advertising
• Glamourising offenders. Causes of crime

**1)**The media relative deprivation and crime:

• Left realists (Lea and Young) argue that the mass media helps to increase the sense of relative deprivation among poor and marginalised groups.
• In today's society (media-saturated society) - the poor are exposed to the media presenting everyone's life with material demands - false needs. They promote that these things are the norm.
• They show the importance of a materialistic lifestyle = social inclusion and economic exclusion.
• Causes the poor to commit crimes to become materially rich (utilitarian crime)
• Merton argues pressure to conform to the norm can cause deviant behaviour when the opportunity to do so, is blocked - the media helps promote the importance of materialism. Link to strain theory. A02: London riots - causes the poor to commit crimes to become materially rich (utilitarian crime) and non-utilitarian crime out of frustration and anger.

A03: Not everyone who feels relatively deprived will commit a crime.

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2 The media commodifies crime: contrastingly cultural criminology argues that the media turns crime into the commodity that people desire - media encourages individuals to consume crime.

• Cultural criminologists Hayward and Young (2012) see late modernity as media-saturated - we are in a 'mediascape' (an ever-expanding tangle of fluid, digital images, including images of crime).

• There is a blurring between the image and reality of crime - the difference between how crime is presented in media and real statistics. Media commodifies crime: a further feature of late modernity is the emphasis on consumption, excitement and immediacy:

• Crime and its thrills become commodified - corporations and advertisers use media images of crime to sell products, especially to the youth market.

• Youth market = for example 'gangster rap' and hip hop combine images of street hustlers' criminality with images of success in doing so

• Hip hop stars wear designer clothes and have expensive cars, champagne and women = this drives the desire to commit crime.

• Crime and deviance become a style to be consumed.

• Fenwick and Hayward: "Crime is packaged and marketed to the young market as a romantic, exciting, cool and fashionable cultural symbol.

• Counter-cultures are packaged and sold, for example, graffiti is the marker of deviant urban cool which the media have now jumped on.

• Companies are moral panics, controversy and scandal to market their products. A03: People have agency/choice. They make rational choices on whether to pursue a life of crime just because their favourite rappers do (right realists). Although RR would argue also that the w/c may be more susceptible to following this way of life = socialisation and the underclass.

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3) Moral Panics and Deviance Amplification:

Moral Panic = widespread feelings of anxiety and concern held by the general public that develop for a certain reason:

• Moral panics caused by the media can affect public opinion.
• Deviance amplification by the media can affect people's behaviour. 5 distinguishing features of moral panics:

1. Concern = belief that the behaviour of the group or activity will have a negative effect on society.

2. Hostility = hostility towards the subject = they become 'folk devils'

3. Consensus = widespread agreement needed that the group poses a threat

4. Disproportionality = the level of anxiety and concern is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the accused group.

5. Volatility = moral panics are highly volatile = they;'' disappear as quickly as they appear (is this true though?) Moral panics go through several stages, with the media implicated at every stage:

6. The news media report on the event

7. Moral entrepreneurs react to the media reports condemning it = they insist on the police ect take action

8. The media oversimplifies the problem and begins to demonise the group as a social problem (folk devils are now created).

9. Authorises stamp down hard on the group/activity (police stop and search, courts harsher sentences, governments introduce new laws)

10. The reporting of the incidents increase = more visible

11. The media reports the arrests = fulfilling the initial media prophecy

12. The group react to the moral panic by becoming more deviant in protest etc. A02 examples: Cohens - mods and rockers, Young's study of hippie marihuana users in Notting Hill, Hall's policing the crisis.

• One way in which the media can cause crime and deviance is through labelling.
• For example, moral entrepreneurs who disapprove of the use of drugs may use the media to get the government's attention to do something about drug use – if successful, their campaigning will result in the negative labelling of the behaviour and perhaps changes in the law
• For example in America, Marijuana was previously legal, but through the media, it became illegal and demonised.
• This leads to a moral panic – a moral panic is an exaggerated overreaction by society to a perceived problem – usually motivated by the media. In a moral panic: 1)The media identify a group as a folk devil or threat to societal values.

2. The media present the group in a negative, stereotypical fashion and exaggerate the scale of the problem

3. Moral entrepreneurs, editors, politicians, police chiefs, bishops and other 'respectable' people condemn the group and its behaviour

-This usually leads to a 'crackdown' on groups, however, this creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that amplifies the problem that caused the panic in the first place – for example, setting up more drug squads leads the police to discover more drug usage or dealings. As the 'crackdown' catches more deviants, members of the public will demand more tougher actions from them.

Mods and Rockers:

• Stanley Cohen's – 'folk devils and Moral Panics' book = Cohen examines the media's response to disturbance between 2 groups (w/c) teenagers, the mods and rockers, in Brighton from 1964 – 66.
• Mods wore smart dresses and rode scooters, rockers wore leather jackets and rode motorbikes – at the beginning, youngsters did not identify themselves with any group = however, tension grew, from throwing rocks to broken windows.
  Although this was minor – the media over-reacted creating a moral panic = Cohen uses his analogy of a disaster and these are the 3 main features:

13. Exaggeration and distortion – the media exaggerated the numbers involved & how dangerous it was.
14. Prediction – the media assumed/predicted further violence would come.
15. Symbolisation – the symbols of the mods and rockers were labelled negatively. Deviance amplification spiral:

• Cohen argues that the media's portrayal of events produced a deviance amplification spiral by making it seem as if the problem was spreading and getting out of hand – this led to an increased control response from police and this produced further marginalisation of mods and rockers.

• The media amplified the defiance – youths began to accept their labels - they went from being groups to gangs & self-fulfilling prophecy took place.

• Cohen argues the media's exaggeration caused the situation to become more serious. The wider context:

• Cohen argues moral panic occurs during periods of social change – people fear change and new adaptations. He argued moral panic was a result of boundary crisis = uncertainty between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in a time of change.

• From a functionalist perspective, moral panics can be seen as a way of responding to anomie or 'normlessness' created by change – by dramatising threats, it creates great fear.

• Stuart Hall et al (Neo-Marxists) argue the role of moral panics is to serve capitalism by segregating the working class and middle class. Criticisms:

• It assumes societal reactions are over-exaggerated, so what would be the best response? A03 - Evaluation of Moral panics and deviance amplification spiral as a cause of crime:

Strength ( comment ): provides powerful ways of understanding the relationship between crime/ deviance and the media

Weakness ( evaluation): assumes that the societal reaction is a disproportionate overreaction - but who is to decide what is a proportionate reaction and what is a panicky one?

• Late modernity - are people really reacting to moral panics when we live in a society consisting of shock and horror stories?
• Analyses of deviance amplification usually leave the original causes of the initial deviant behaviour unexplored and unexplained.

How does the media cause crime and what are the effects of this?

Media violence and real-life violence:

Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment:

• For the Bobo Doll Experiment, Bandura selected a number of children from the local Stanford Nursery School, varying in age from 3 to 6 years, with the average age being 4 years and 4 months. To test the prediction that boys would be more prone to aggression than girls, he picked 36 subjects of each sex.
• The experiment involved children playing with a "Bobo doll". The children were split into two groups, one watched the adult violently attack the doll and the other group watched the adult play nicely with the doll.
• Those in the group who watched the adult attack the doll copied the behaviour, which Bandura claimed shows that violence is learned behaviour.
• If his conclusions are correct, then children exposed to violent images in the media might learn that such behaviour is normal and act out the scenes in real life (limitation or 'copycat behaviour) A03: It's a lab experiment, we need real-life examples

Counter evaluation: James Bulger's case

• At age 10 on the 12th of Feb 1993, Thompson and Venables kidnapped, tortured and murdered two-year-old James Bulger. The 10-year-old boys led Bulger away from his mum in New Strand Shopping Centre. His mutilated body was found 2.5 miles away from where he had disappeared on a railway track in Liverpool.
• Prior to the crime, they had apparently watched one of the Child's Play series of horror films and had the intention that day of kidnapping and murdering someone. Does media violence lead to real-life violence?

For - yes it can:

• McCabe and Martin (2005) = that imitation was a likely outcome of media violence because it is the hero who uses it to deal with a problem = they go unpublished and also receive rewards.

• They also believe media violence has a disinhibition effect - it convinces children that in some situations 'normal rules' that govern conflict can be suspended = instead, discussion and negotiation can be replaced by violence. A02: McCabe and Martin's views are supported by Kevin Browne (a consultant to the Home Affairs Committee investigation of knife crime, 2009) who argued that there are 'well established short-term effects of children or teenagers watching violent video films or playing violent computer games and then behaving aggressively in the hours and weeks afterwards. Media violence may have a 'drip drip' effect on young people over the course of their children and result in their becoming desensitised to violence.

• Newton - Desensitisation = Newton argues that as children and teenagers become so used to seeing violence through the media, they become socialised into accepting violent behaviour as normal = people now have weaker moral codes (especially the younger generation)

Against - no it doesn't:

• Correlation does not necessarily prove causation
• Doesn't explain why others do not mimic or become affected by seeing media violence
• Katz and Lazarfield = two-step flow model of media influence suggests that people discuss what they see/hear/read in the media with others whose opinions they value.
• Audiences are active rather than passive = they select which media messages to expose themselves to (selective exposure) and then interpret them in light of their pre-existing attitudes, values and knowledge (selective interpretation) A02: Cumberbatch (2004) looked at over 3500 research studies into the effect of screen violence, encompassing film, TV and video and more recently computer and video games and found that there is no conclusive evidence either way that violence shown in the media influences or changes people's behaviour.

What are the effects of media coverage of crime? - new media

• New media refers to means of mass communication that use digital technologies such as the internet

• It also includes social media where people can communicate with others online

• The research of such media has grown spectacularly in recent years.

• According to the ONS: 90% of households in GB in 2018 had internet access

• According to Ofcom: roughly ¾ of internet users in the UK in 2018 had a social media profile. The new media and crime:

• New media has offered criminals the opportunity to commit old crimes in new ways (e.g. terrorist offences) but also opportunities to commit a wide range of entirely new types of crime (such as computer hacking) - such offences are known as cybercrimes Cybercrimes: this refers to a wide range of criminal acts committed via the use of ICT - usually the internet. Cybercrime is the fastest-growing criminal activity in the world.

• Cyber-dependant crimes: illegal intrusions such as hacking or disruption, downgrading of computer functionality and network space e.g. malware attacks.

• Cyber-enabled crimes: fraud, piracy, counterfeiting, forgery, cyber bullying/ trolling offences, cyberstalking and harassment, child sexual offences.