Media, Crime and Criminal

Justice
What are the Media?
• Wide range of sources of news and entertainment

• Includes TV, radio, newspapers, magazines,

Internet, etc.

• Mainstream media are easily, inexpensively, and

simultaneously accessible to large segments of
the population.

• Mainstream media are arranged within a hierarchy

of controlling institutions

• They have an inner ring, middle ring, and an

outer ring
What are the Media
• Inner ring media have the most impact on us. They are the most
watched, heard, read, etc.
• Inner ring media owned by large corporations or powerful individuals
e.g.
• Time Warner owns CNN
• Walt Disney owns ABC, ESPN, ESPN2
• The Aga Khan own Nation Media
What are the Media
• Why is corporate and powerful individual ownership of the media
problematic?
• Many viewers are unaware that the crime news
they see on TV is the version that large
corporations choose to air.
• they own and control, define problems, identify crises, and thereby
determine
what issues will be brought to the attention of political leaders and citizens.
• the media have a direct impact on policies, including criminal justice
activity, because they set limits on the breadth of ideological views
that enter the policy-making debate. The media also choose which
stories to emphasize and which to ignore
 Media Stereotypes
• Media stereotypes are simple media images based
on prejudice.
• Below are some images. In groups identify how the
media portrays these groups in society.

1. Black male
youths 4. Muslim Women 5. Young Females
3. White males

2. Asian Males
Media Stereotypes
• In the Media, Ethnic minority groups are frequently
portrayed in terms of the ‘problem’ that they present to the
majority population.
• They sometimes are also portrayed in terms of the ‘threat’
that they represent to the society.
Social Construction of Crime
• From objective facts
• Blown out of proportion to actual threat
• Problem is typified
• Linked to other social problems
• Typically related to powerless groups
• Policy is created (e.g., law)
• Legitimated through MEDIA
Social Construction of Crime
• The distorted picture of crime painted by the news media reflects the
fact that news is a social construction.
• Crime is the outcome of a social process in which some potential
stories are selected whilst other are rejected (Cohen and Young 1973
– news are not discovered but manufactured)
Social Construction of Crime
• A central aspect of the manufacture of news is the notion of news
value which is the criteria by which journalist and editors determine
whether or not a story is news worthy.
• The media love crime and use it extensively in their war with other
papers for circulation and profitability
• Gatekeepers include news editors, owners of newspapers and
journalists and reporters. They decide just which news stories are
going to feature in the news. Crime stories are very attractive to
gatekeepers, they are very good for selling papers and enabling
publications to hold or even increase their share of the market.
Social Construction of Crime
• The distorted picture of crime painted by the news media reflects the
fact that the news is a SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
• News does not simply exist out there waiting to be gathered in and
written up by the journalist. It is a social construct – the outcome of a
social process in which only stories that make people buy newspapers
will be printed – all the time stories are being considered - then some
are selected, some are rejected.
• As Cohen & Young (1973) argued news is not discovered but
MANUFACTURED
Media Coverage of Crime
• Crime coverage is inaccurate and focus is on:
• Violent crime
• Random crimes
• Unusual, bizarre crimes
• If it bleeds, it leads!
• Far less focus on corporate and white-collar crime
• This is problematic because the media serve as the major source of information about
crime or most people

• Also very little context provided

Media Coverage of Crime
• Media over represents violent and sexual crime (sexual crimes are
more likely to be reported in the media that property offence crime),
• Media portrays criminals and victims as older and more lower &
middle class
• Media coverage exaggerates police success in clearing up cases,
• The media exaggerates the risk of victimisation especially to women,
white people and higher status individuals,
• Crime is reported as a series of separate events,
• The media overplays extraordinary crime and underplays ordinary
crimes (dramatic fallacy)
Outcome of Media Coverage of Crime
• Generates both a fear and fascination about crime which is partly shaped
by the media.
• The media can sensitize issues and help define crime. E.g. For example,
media attention and ‘anti FGM’ campaigns have challenged the idea that
FGM is not a ‘cultural matter’ but a crime
• The media can both amplify deviance and create moral panics.
• That the media is selective in who and how it treats victims of crime.
• Generally, outcomes of media coverage of crime increase
• Perceptions of risk
• Fear
• Distrust
• Insecurity
Media Coverage of Criminal Justice
• Criminal justice coverage is inaccurate
• Most focus is on early steps of CJ process
(policing)
• Less focus on courts and corrections
• Court coverage implies adjudication occurs
through formal means (trials)
• Little to no coverage of corrections
• Reinforces support for Crime Control model of
criminal justice
Key News Values influencing the selection of
crime stories
• How are crime stories selected? Through NEWS VALUES – a set of criteria
which editors and journalists decide if a story is NEWSWORTHY Key news
values influencing selection of crime stories:
• Immediacy
• Dramatisation: action + excitement
• Personalisation: human interest stories about individuals
• Higher-status persons + celebrities
• Simplification: eliminating shades of grey/ clear good and evil, ‘innocent
victim’/wicked perpetrator’ extreme
• Novelty or unexpectedness: a new angle
• Risk: victim-centred stories about vulnerability + fear
• Violence: especially visible and spectacular acts
Media and Moral Panics
• The term moral panic was developed by Stan Cohen
(1970, pictured left).

• It is based on a false or exaggerated idea that some

group’s behaviour is deviant and is a menace to society.
• Cohen used the term ‘folk devil’ to refer to such groups
• ‘Moral panics’ are generally fuelled by media coverage
of social issues.
Circular Nature of Moral Panics

5. Problem 1. An activity
becomes gains media
redefined attention

4. Exaggeration 2. Agencies
Symbolisation of control
Prediction respond

3. Deviance
becomes
amplified
Media as ‘Moral Crusaders
• The media, having played a part in constructing a moral panic, may
then embark upon a 'moral crusade' against the identified 'folk
devils'.
• The desired outcome is to swell public opinion and for the authorities
to embark upon a moral clampdown on deviants
Moral Panics as Ideological Control
• Some moral panics are used to soften up public opinion and thus act
as a form of 'ideological social control'.

• For example, the media's coverage of Islamic terrorism is seen by

many to promote 'Islamophobia‘.

• The resulting Government anti-terrorist legislation has received broad

public support despite seriously reducing ordinary people's civil
liberties. (compare to Hall’s study of mugging)
Examples of Moral Panics
• HIV/Aids (1980s).
• Islamic terrorism (2000s)
• Xenophobia (2000s in SA)
The media as a cause of crime
• Media negative effect on attitudes, values, and behaviour especially those
groups thought to be susceptible to influence such as the young, the lower
class and the uneducated.
• Ways in which the media can influence crime and deviance
• Imitation,
• Arousal,
• Desensitisation,
• Transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques,
• As a target for crime,
• Stimulating desires for unaffordable goods,
• Portraying police as incompetent,
• Glamourising offending
Media Treatment of Victims and Offenders
• The media can be selective in focusing upon some victims more than
others.
• For example
• women attacked by their partners in their home often become front page
news. But ‘men abuse’ is largely ignored.
• Western media negatively targets ‘undesirable’ groups such as gypsies,
migrants, blacks and asylum-seekers. Such groups are viewed as “not us” or
“other-groups”.
• The media tends to demonise rapists as evil psychopaths, whereas in reality
the majority of victims are raped by men they know, trusted, and often live
with.
Media Treatment of Victims and Offenders
• The media plays up the image of black offenders, muggers and
criminality generally. However, it reports less the fact that the
evidence from official statistics suggests that African-Caribbeans and
South Asians are twice as likely to be victims of crime as the majority
White population.
Fictional Representations of Crime
• Fictional representations of crime form TV, cinema and novels are
important sources of our knowledge of crime (a lot of their output is
crime related)
• Fictional representations follow Surette’s ‘law of opposites’ (opp to
official statistics, and similar to news coverage).
• Property crime is under represented, while violence, drugs and sex
crimes are over represented • Fictional sex crimes are committed by
psychopaths, not acquaintances • Fictional cops usually catch the bad
guy
Fictional Representations of Crime
• Reality shows tend to feature young, non white ‘underclass’ offenders
• There is an increasing tendency to show police as corrupt, brutal and
less successful
• Victims have become more central, with police portrayed as avengers
and audiences invited to identify with their suffering
Theoretical Perspectives
• Marxist Theory on Media and Crime
• Marxists would argue it is not surprising that moral panics centre around
groups viewed as deviant or threatening to the rich and powerful in society
• They highlight the way the media portrays criminals as working-class, ignoring
white-collar or corporate crime.
• Frankfurt School point to the ideological control the media exerts in
perpetuating false consciousness. Louis Althusser would describe the media
as an ideological state apparatus.
Theoretical Perspectives
• Constructivist Theory on Media and Crime
• constructivist theorists, such as interactionists, emphasize the role of the
media in the social construction of news
• They view the media as supporting specific arguments with selective evidence
and data from appropriate surveys etc.
Theoretical Perspectives
• Functionalist and Pluralist Theory on Media and Crime
• Functionalists and Pluralists argue the media is simply a ‘window on the world’ reflecting life
as it is.
• Therefore, the media simply reflects a true or real picture of crime.
• However, critics argue that this is rather naïve given the fact that the real figure of crime is
way above the official figure.
Theoretical Perspectives
• Feminist Theory on Media and Crime
• Feminists argue that the media plays down the extent of women as victims of
crime.
• Feminists argue that the sexually explicit representation of women in all
forms of pornography (including tabloid newspapers and ‘lads mags’) renders
all women potentially unsafe since they encourage predatory attitudes
amongst men.
Theoretical Perspectives
• Postmodernist Theory on Media and Crime
• Postmodernists see the media as a crucial player in our perception of crime
(regardless of whether this perception is accurate or not).
• They highlight how the media present crime with a mixture of entertainment
and sensationalism ('infotainment').
• The ultimate expression of this is crime expressed as a spectacle.