The mass media has played a major role in structuring public perceptions of crime and deviance. Discuss

Catherine Dye

Rationale

The mass media has played a major role in structuring public perceptions of crime and deviance.

My hypothesis is: The mass media has played a major role in structuring public perceptions of crime and deviance.

I am going to investigate how the media has played a major part in shaping the public’s perceptions of national crime, focusing mainly on the negative effects. The consequences of this relationship between media and the public can be characterised as a unidirectional influence, since the media effectively provide the information that shapes what people might know or understand about criminal activity. Many individuals awareness of crime and deviance is therefore based mainly on secondary sources.

I want to answer questions like, how seriously does the public take note of stories and reportings in the media. I think it is important to look into this aspect of my hypothesis so I can get honest opinions from individuals in society. I would also like to look at ideas such as a deviancy amplification spiral, where media portrayal make crime worse which I feel will support my hypothesis well, especially looking into the negative side of the media representations. I desire to focus mainly on media such as TV and Newspaper reportings. As if I make the focus too broad it will be hard to come to an accurate and correct finding.

I have decided to look at crime and deviance and the media because I wish to do a criminology degree at university in the nearby future and I feel that the topic I am looking at is a major part in introducing me to research based at most criminology degrees which will be useful for my future education. I feel this is significant to my hypothesis/study as I myself have my own perception of crime and deviance and I am interested in discovering why I have these discernments.

I have also decided to choose this subject as crime and deviance are a major aspect of modern society, it’s a setback to the public and doesn’t seem to be improving so I hope to make a small difference within my local community with this project.

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Contexts and Concepts

Context

Crime and deviance are a major source of public concern. There are many images, discussions and dramatic illustrations of crime in press, film and television. Given the size and inscrutability of contemporary society, few people are likely to have direct experiences of criminal and deviant behaviour. Therefore, most people’s awareness of crime and deviance must be based on secondary sources.

Sociologists claim that the mass media plays a major role in structuring public perceptions of crime and deviance by;

Defining certain activities as criminal or deviant
Defining certain activities or actions as ‘news worthy’
Defining certain activities as suitable for fictional presentations in novels, movies and televisions programmes

Many studies have looked at the way in which the media portray crime. It has been found that the media tend to disproportionately represent violent accounts of crime. The media cover events which are “intense, exciting, arousing or extreme” (MacLatchie, 1987)

Williamson & Dickinson (1993) found that personal violent crime made up 64.5% of the space allocated to British newspapers but constituted to only 6% of the official total of all reported crime.

This theory relates well to my hypothesis as it supports it well. These statistics sustain my hypothesis that the media has a negative effect on crime. And also has a major role in forming public perceptions of crime. These figures show how newspapers ‘select’ their reportings. Young once stated, during his research of the drug problems in 1970 that “Newspapers select events which are atypical, present them in a stereotypical fashion and contrast them against a backcloth of normality which is over typical”.

Cohen (1987) studied the ‘Mods and Rockers’ incidents of the 1960’s. Cohen concentrated on the communal responses to the disturbances which took place and not so much on the actions of the supposed ‘mods and Rockers’. The mass media represented the disturbances as a confrontation between rival gangs “hell bent on destruction”. Looking at the disturbances, Cohen actually found that the actual physical aggression and vandalism was not that immense as what the media had informed it to be. The mass media had fashioned a twisted version of what had actually gone on. The general public sensitised by these incidents and twisted representations in the media meant that the police made more arrests, the media reported more deviance and young people more readily identified with mods and rockers.

This theory is well connected with my hypothesis as it is looking into the negative side that the media has on crime, I also stated that I wanted to look into the amplification side of the media and crime and how the media can sometimes make the criminal activity worse. Becker’s (1963) discussion of dope smokers, Young’s (1971) study of drug takers and Cohen’s (1972) analysis of Mods and Rockers attempted to demonstrate processes of ‘labelling’, ‘deviance amplification’, ‘moral panic’ and ‘moral entrepreneurship', in society.

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Concepts

Desensitation

This is where individuals see so much criminal behaviour or aggressive behaviour in the world around them that they become less emotional aroused when witness this behaviour. This means that this criminal or deviant behaviour becomes more emotionally accepted within the individual. I feel this relates well to my hypothesis as the media can play a major role in this Desensitising as the media focuses on the most extreme criminal activity and after a while the public becomes more established to it and learns to accept it more effortlessly.

Deviancy amplification spiral

Deviancy amplification spiral is a phenomenon defined by media critics as an increasing cycle of reporting on a category of antisocial behavior or other undesirable events. In , wrote a book, Folk Devils and Moral Panics, whose thesis is that usually include what he called a deviancy amplification spiral.

According to theory, the spiral starts with some "deviant" act. Usually the is but it can also involve legal acts considered morally repugnant. The mass media report what they consider to be newsworthy, but the new focus on issue uncovers hidden or borderline examples which themselves would not have been newsworthy except in as much as they confirm the "pattern". For a variety of reasons, what is not frightening and would help the public keep a rational perspective (such as statistics showing that the behavior or event is actually less common or harmful than generally believed) tends to be ignored.

As a result, minor problems begin to look serious and rare events begin to seem common. Members of the public are motivated to keep informed on these events. The resulting publicity has potential to increase deviant behavior by glamorizing it or making it seem common or acceptable.

This is a preview of the whole essay

In the next stage, supporters of the theory contend, public concern about crime typically forces the police and the whole system to focus more resources on dealing with the specific deviancy than it warrants. Judges and magistrates under public pressure pass stiffer sentences. Politicians under pressure pass new laws to deal with the perceived threat. All this tends to convince the public that any fear was justified while the media continue to profit by reporting police and other law enforcement activity.

I have chosen to look at the subject of deviancy amplification spirals as I feel it will have a major part in determining, investigating and evaluating my hypothesis. For a deviancy amplification spiral to take place, the mass media reports on what they consider to be newsworthy. For this reason I believe this context relates directly to my hypothesis. I believe this concept will be very useful in my project

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Moral Panic

A moral panic is a based on the false or exaggerated perception that some cultural behavior or group of people, frequently a group or a , is dangerously and poses a menace to society. It has also been more broadly defined as an "episode, condition, person or group of persons" that has in recent times been "defined as a threat to societal values and interests." (Cohen 1972: 9)

These panics are generally fuelled by coverage of social issues, although semi-spontaneous moral panics do occur. can be an element in these movements, but moral panic is different from mass hysteria in that a moral panic is specifically framed in terms of and is usually expressed as outrage rather than unadulterated . Moral panics (as defined by Cohen) revolve around a perceived threat to a value or norm held by a society normally stimulated by glorification within the mass media or 'folk legend' within societies. Panics have a number of outcomes, the most poignant being the certification to the players within the panic that what they are doing appears to warrant observation by mass media and therefore may push them further into the activities that lead to the original feeling of moral panic.

I have decided to look at the idea of moral panic as I believe that these are a consequence of the media and the public perceptions of crime. The mass media are responsible for moral panic so therefore I find it important to include this idea in my project for this reason I believe my hypothesis suits this well.

For my method I will have to operationalise these concepts. I plan to, in the case of moral panic ask questions such as. “Have you ever been concerned about a criminal activity after reading a news report in the paper or seeing it on television, that otherwise would not have concerned you. I.e. graffiti in your local area” I also aim operationalise these concepts well in my method, so I would add definitions that are easily understood.

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Methodology

The methodology that I am going to adapt for my investigation will be a positivist methodology. Positivists generally assume that reality is objectively given and can be described by measurable properties which are independent of the observer (researcher) and his or her instruments.

I have choose to use this method as I would like to test certain theories that are already out there, theories such as Cohen’s ‘Mods and Rockers’ Positivist studies generally attempt to test theory, in an attempt to increase the predictive understanding of phenomena. So by using a positivist approach I hope to amplify my understanding of certain actions demonstrated by individuals.

The initial sociological “problem” that I identified was the negative influence that the media has on public perspectives of crime and deviance. The hypothesis that I developed from this was, The mass media has played a major role in structuring public perceptions of crime and deviance.

I will be using Primary sources to collect my research. I am using random sampling so that every member of the sampling frame has an equal chance of being selected. The sample will be held within my school. The reason I have done this is that it is makes it easier for myself having my sample at school around me. I will have a list of all the people in the school and I will randomly select 50 samples in which I will ask them to complete my questionnaire, if they refuse or are otherwise unable to complete the questionnaire I will simply randomly select somebody else. I have decided to take the sample from my school as it is easily reachable and will be quicker in the research process. I feel that this sample would be a good representation of the general population as there is a wide variety of people in my school.

I will be using a questionnaire using qualitative data with closed and open ended questions. I have chosen to receive qualitative research so that the questions will not be as limited as if I was using quantitative date. In a sense with qualitative data I can get a wide variety of opinions I will be using a mixture of closed and open ended questions to get a good balance of opinions I have decided to use open ended questions so that the questionnaire would not be as bias as a simply closed-ended questionnaire. I hope that the closed-ended questions will not be bias so I will try to make the answer range as wide as possible, and these questions will be easy to classify and quantify

I think the strengths of my method are that firstly It will be pretty inexpensive to run which means I can worry more about the content of the questionnaires. Also as the precipitants will be in a close range it will be easier to receive back after completion. Also with this method it is possible to survey a large sample. Another strength of questionnaires is that the responses are gathered in a standardised way, so questionnaires are more objective, certainly more so than interviews. Another advantage is that generally it is relatively quick to collect information using a questionnaire

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Weaknesses of my questionnaire will be that firstly respondents may not understand the questions or follow the instructions carefully enough. Also answers within the questionnaire may be incomplete, illegible or incomprehensible. Another weakness is that closed questions may seriously limit what the respondents say. Questionnaires, like many evaluation methods occur after the event, so participants may forget important issues. Open-ended questions can generate large amounts of data that can take a long time to process and analyse. One way of limiting this would be to limit the space available to students so their responses are concise or to sample the students and survey only a portion of them. Respondents may answer superficially especially if the questionnaire takes a long time to complete. The common mistake of asking too many questions should be avoided. Students may not be willing to answer the questions. They might not wish to reveal the information or they might think that they will not benefit from responding perhaps even be penalised by giving their real opinion. Students should be told why the information is being collected and how the results will be beneficial. They should be asked to reply honestly and told that if their response is negative this is just as useful as a more positive opinion. The questionnaire should be anonymous.

Reliability and validity, as the terms are used in scientific study, are characteristics of the dependent variable and the specific operational definition. In analyzing a study, after the dependent variables and their operational definitions are identified, their reliability and validity must be established. When designing a study, I should consider whether there is research to support the reliability and validity of the specific measure, or operational definition.

I hope to improve reliability by making sure the questionnaires are all the same and that I stick to my random sampling well. I will also be adding my personal contact details such as my name, email address and my tutor class so that if anybody has a problem with the questionnaire they can come straight to me. Lastly I will be making sure that the precipitant is aware that the questionnaire will be in the strictest confidentiality

To improve validity I will try to make sure that the data gathered should match the decisions I need to make. I will also make sure to gather information from all the people that can contribute information, even if they are hard to contact. And if I am going after sensitive information I will try to protect my sources, i.e. the questionnaire will be strictly confidential and anonymous to all participants.

Concepts that were operationalised into my questionnaire were that of moral panic, Desensitation and deviance amplification spiral. I used closed and open ended questions to portray these concepts and I worded them simply so that they could be understood easily.

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Appendix A

Questionnaire

Please fill out the questionnaire as honestly and truthfully as possible

Note. The questionnaire will be completely confidential any information given will be treated with the strictest confidentiality.

You do not need to write your name down, or any other personal information such as address etc.

Any questions please do not hesitate to contact me, my details can be found at the bottom of the page.

Do you watch news related programs, such as “Crimewatch UK” or read newspapers?

YES NO

Where would you say the basis of your criminal activity knowledge comes from? I.e. Your knowledge of a trial that happened recently or a burglary that happened in your area.

FRIENDS.

FAMILY.

NEWSPAPERS.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

TV.

OTHER.

DON’T KNOW

Do you think the ways in which some criminal situations are reported can often be shown in a bad way to make the news more popular.

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Have you ever been concerned about a criminal activity after reading it in the news or seeing it on TV, that otherwise (i.e. hearing it from your friends) would not have concerned you? I.e. a burglary in your local area.

YES NO DON’T KNOW

.In your opinion, does the media (TV, newspapers) give accurate reporting of all the facts.

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Would you say that you have accepted certain criminal behaviour because you have seen so much of it in Newspapers or on TV. I.e. it doesn’t shock you anymore

YES NO DON’T KNOW

“The mass media can sometimes produce a distorted version of the truth within certain criminal activity, this can often distress the general public who then force the law enforcement into dealing with the criminal activity more-so than they would have done without the attention of the media”

How do you feel about this statement, do you agree, disagree, not know or don’t care etc?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

Catherine dye

Tutor group: 13RV

Email :

Evidence

Objective 1.

Whether most people perception of crime stems from Media.

In order to find out about this objective the questions I put into my questionnaire were

Do you watch news related programs, such as “Crimewatch UK” or read newspapers? This question would be Primary quantitative data, the reason I chose this data type was so that it would be easily quantified into data that could easily be interpreted and read. I interviewed 50 people and made a graph to show the outcome of this question

This pie chart shows me that out of the 50 people I interviewed the majority do watch news related programs or read newspapers. The next question I asked in my questionnaire should show where peoples knowledge of crime and deviance stems from.

I can relate this to my hypothesis when focusing especially on the negative effect of the media by looking at Maclatchie’s study of media and the crime where he states that the media tend to disproportionately represent violent accounts of crime. The media cover events which are “intense, exciting, arousing or extreme”. So this question found that the majority of people I interviewed read newspapers or watch news related programs and as stated in my context and concepts Williamson and Dickenson found that 64.5% of newspaper space was taken up by personal criminal acts and this only totalled to 6% of all reported crime. This is also desensitising the public to crime portrayed in the media.

My next question was as follows;

Where would you say the basis of your criminal activity knowledge comes from?
FRIENDS/ FAMILY/ NEWSPAPERS/ PERSONAL EXPIERENCE/ TV/ OTHER/ DONT

KNOW
For this question I chose a closed ended question which would collect primary quantitative data. I made a bar chart to show these results, as some people chose more than one item the chart does not add up to 50 like the pie chart above

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The results from this question have supported my context and concepts firstly, the Williamson and Dickenson study about how much personal violent crime takes up space in the media Also Young’s study on crime and the media where he stated, during his research of the drug problems in 1970 that “Newspapers select events which are atypical, present them in a stereotypical fashion and contrast them against a backcloth of normality which is over typical”.

This graph shows that most peoples knowledge on criminal activity comes from secondary sources, from a sociological point of view it is known that secondary sources can not always be seen as true. The results here support my objective

in that the media is the main influence that shapes peoples perspectives on crime. Here my objective has been confirmed

Objective 2

The media are not truthful in their reporting

I added 2 open ended questions in my questionnaire to research this objective, I chose primary qualitative data so I could get a wide range of answers and opinions. The first question I asked was;

Do you think the ways in which some criminal situations are reported can often be shown in a bad way to make the news more popular?

I found that the data I collected relating to this question was mainly agreeing with how the media can show news in a bad way to make the news more popular and read-worthy. The answers that portrayed were very similar which is showing validity and reliability in my project. I noticed that some commented on how the papers ‘lie’ about stories. Here are a few of the answers which support my objective.

Yes especially in newspapers sometimes the more explicit and sensational the more newspapers sell.

Yes crime news is more interesting than some gran who just had her hundredth birthday.

Yer, people like to read about scandal and crime so that they feel updated about news around them.

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Obviously there were some that didn’t support my objective although their were less they did make some valid points like the ones below.

No people like to know about what’s going on around them and media helps with that.

No criminals are bad anyway and anybody who does crime deserves to be slammed in the papers and people deserve to know about it.

The next question I asked to do with my second objective was.

In your opinion, does the media give accurate reports of all the facts?

The results of this question were a little mixed, I think people may have been unaware of the facts that lie within papers or they didn’t read them to look at facts but to read the stories they produce. I can conclude from this data that the people that answered this question thought that the paper does “twist” the truth and many thought that the media lies.

I can relate this to my hypothesis, context and concepts by looking at Maclatchie’s study of media and the crime where he states that the media tend to disproportionately represent violent accounts of crime. The media cover events which are “intense, exciting, arousing or extreme”. I feel this also relates well to my concept of Desensitisation as the media focuses on the most extreme criminal activity and after a while the public becomes more established to it and learns to accept it more effortlessly.

I think that overall I confirmed by objective, especially in the first question, I found that out of the people that read papers or watch news most of them are aware that the paper cant always be seen as a truthful source., but this doesn’t stop them believing what they read and acting with this information in mind which can be seen in my later objectives.

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Objective 3.

Desensitation in the media

I used primary quantitative data type for this objective, so that I could easily establish a pattern and general view on the subject. I only asked one question as I thought that this was a pretty simple objective and didn’t require any extra research the question I asked was;

Would you say that you have accepted certain criminal behaviour because you have seen so much of it in Newspapers or on TV?

This is the graph that I made from my questionnaire results as you can see most people agree that they are desensitised by the media, ie they are not shocked by it. This proves my objective of how when people see so much of something bad that would initially shock them they become emotionally accepted of it. So in theory the media has to keep coming up with new ‘shock’ stories, to entice their readers/ viewers in being interested in their reports. This is supported by Young’s view that “Newspapers select events which are atypical, present them in a stereotypical fashion and contrast them against a backcloth of normality which is over typical”.

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Objective 4.

The media helps to create a deviancy amplification spiral within society.

I used two questions in my questionnaire to research this objective one open ended and one closed ended question the first question I asked was a closed ended question which would create primary quantitative data. The question was

Have you ever been concerned about a criminal activity after reading it in the news or seeing it on TV, that otherwise would not have concerned you

YES NO DON’T KNOW

From the pie chart to the left I can see that most people who completed my questionnaire agreed with that after reading a criminal article in a magazine or seeing a crime report on TV they have become more concerned about that specific criminal activity than they would have done if they hadn’t of seen or read that report. This finding is supported by Cohen’s theory on Mods and Rockers and how the Media amplified certain criminal activities to make them seem worse and more people find out about them threw the media. And also the concept of deviancy amplification spirals that Cohen developed.

The next question I asked relating to this subject was an open ended question. I decided to add an open ended question so that I could get an equal research on this objective as this one is my main objective.

The question I asked would be a primary qualitative question and was as follows

“The mass media can sometimes produce a distorted version of the truth within certain criminal activity, this can often distress the general public who then force the law enforcement into dealing with the criminal activity more-so than they would have done without the attention of the media”

How do you feel about this statement, do you agree, disagree, not know or don’t care etc?

I decided to add a quote to explain the objective and to operationalise it well into the question. I found from this question that most of the questionnaires agreed with this statement. In that the media makes crime levels worse by promoting the event and creating a moral panic about it.

Here are a few examples of some of the answers I collected, firstly answers that support my objective.

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I think the media does make some situations worse, i.e. the binge drinking ‘problem’ of youth.

I think its true because the more interest in a crime through TV or whatever the more people who want it dealt with.

Yes for example Burglaries in our street encouraged local home watch scheme and contact with the police

Here are some statements that were made that didn’t support my hypothesis but still made quite good points.

I think people have a right to know about crime and stuff, and just because the media reports it doesn’t mean it gets worse.

Maybe the media reports crime before it gets bad.

I feel the evidence I collected supports my objective, confirming it and also relates to Cohen’s concepts of moral panic and deviancy amplification spirals and his work on the ‘Mods and Rockers’ phenomenon of the 1960’s. I found that most of the people who did these two questions agreed that media makes crime worse and has a negative effect on public perceptions.

I also feel my concepts of Moral panic ties well in here as moral panics (as defined by Cohen) revolve around a perceived threat to a value or norm held by a society normally stimulated by glorification within the mass media or ‘folk legend’ within societies. And my other concept of Deviancy Amplification Spirals . For a deviancy amplification spiral to take place, the mass media reports on what they consider to be newsworthy, which also ties in with Maclatchie and Young’s reportage’s on crime and media.

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Evaluation

I feel that I have been relatively successful in meeting the aims and objectives of my project. I managed to confirm all my objectives, some more strongly than others and I feel I have reached the target I have set for myself. I managed to prove my hypothesis, “The mass media has played a major role in structuring public perceptions of crime and deviance”. I used my context well to support my evidence, especially Cohen’s study of Mod’s and Rocker’s in the 1960’s. I feel that I operationalised my concepts correctly and efficiently and was able to receive a fair and truthful answer from my precipitants that did my questionnaire.

I imagine that in my project the parts that I did well was my selection of participants, I used a random sampling system of people in the school and I randomly choose 50 names, in this sense I could have broadened my range to use even more people as this was a good way of selecting. As the people were in my school, they could ask me questions, which they did about the questionnaire. I feel it was better to have the questionnaire held within my school not only because it was easier for me but that the participants could easily get hold of me. I made this even better by adding my name, tutor group and email address at the end of each questionnaire.

I believe that the things I did badly in my project was the questions set in the questionnaire, some were a little hard to understand for some people but those who didn’t understand did come and talk to me and I explained it. Also I feel I could have added smaller questions to ‘split’ the questionnaire up into easier sections. I also think I could have found more sociologists that supported my hypothesis and objectives, even though Cohen’s was a very strong sociologist to have more would have been better for the project. Also some criticisms of the subject I was researching would have been a good addition to my project, even though I received some of this in my questionnaire more sociological points of view would have enhanced my research so that I could see my investigation from a lot of different views and therefore the project would be less bias.

One of the mistakes I made during the entirety of my research was definitely the content In the questionnaire, I solved this before I did the questionnaire by adding my name, tutor group and email address. Out of the people who decided to complete my questionnaire, even though twelve people couldn’t and I had to randomly select another twelve I would say that a third of the people who filled out my questionnaire came back to me with questions, some of them were curious about why I was doing this projects, others didn’t understand parts of the questions.

A problem that I encountered was the random selecting of applicants, this part of my project was quite successful although twelve people were unable to do the questionnaire, I had to pick another twelve random people from my list, and I had to be careful not to be bias so it was definitely random selecting from the list. I.e. I was not picking out names that I wanted.

I split my hypothesis into four objectives that I thought related well to my hypothesis these were:

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Whether most people perception of crime stems from Media, The media are not truthful in their reporting, Desensitation in the media and the media helps to create a deviancy amplification spiral within society.

I concluded from my research that my aims and objectives were correct. Overall most whom did the questionnaire agreed that the media does have a negative effect of crime, sort of like bad advertising for it and they only pick out the really bad crime to ‘shock’ people as overtime more are being desensitised by the media that it takes a lot to surprise them. And that the media can have a negative effect on crime in the sense that it is making the crime worse, as supported by Cohen.

If I was going to go into further research I would suggest to myself to improve my questionnaire and I think that I would do unstructured interviews. I would try to broaden out to get opinions from many different types of people including journalists who write the stories and news readers whom report them. I would also look at more sociological background which would support my objectives well.