Crime, which has advantage to be reported i.e if it is stolen-and is insured, can compensate the money from insurance these crimes are reported regardless of the incident being big or small. (Moore, S 2002)
Sometimes crime statistics are deficient and misleading. Phenomenologists argue that sociologists should take care when interpreting crime; sociologists should do more than describing the social facts. (Selfe, P 1987)
Therefore crime statistics are seen as misleading and biased because they do not represent corporate and governmental crimes. The statistics reflect crimes that are conventional crimes of the lower class. Victimization surveys reveal severe deficiency, the survey are under record of crimes. There is under reporting of conventional crime. Victims have to recognize themselves when a crime has been committed against them, and whether they should report it. In many incidents victims do not report crime, but when it is brought in the attention of the police it is interpreted differently. (Moore, S 2002) Crime leaves negative impact on people who have been victims of crime or violence. The impact of crime on poor people is has serious consequences. Watt and Jacob highlighted that there is more crime in poor neighborhoods. The crime is targeted within the intra-group and not inter-group. Therefore the majority of working class are victims of crime and not the middle or upper class. New Labour is trying to tackle the problem in such areas that are dominated by social housing were a majority of under class are residents. (Gordon, D. Pantazis, C. 2000)
The mass media refers to all forms of written communication to the public, for example newspapers, magazines, books and forms of transmitted communication such as radio, television and cinema. The media’s perception of crime is biased it sensationalizes crime. Media and moral panics are part of political package of deviance and how one act towards being deviant. Sanctions are imposed where social and political actions are seen as criminalized and when boundaries of tolerance are threatened. Crimes committed by people are packaged together, with an audience and media attention. According to Becker deviance is an act of rule breaking behaviour in which someone is labelled as deviant.
Becker states:
“ Deviance is not a quality of the act a person commits but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an offender. The deviant is one to whom that label has successfully been applied; deviant is that people so label.” (Box, S. 1981 p11)
Therefore labeling is seen as how society categorizes people. It is people in society that retrospectively label them. This stigmatizes some people in society and creates significance for certain people. It is easy to establish stereotype of certain group of people it makes the world consistent and it makes future predictions easier. (Selfe, P 1987)
People in society can become worried and affected on how they behave where crime takes place. The BCS survey shows that 60% of adult population is afraid of burglary and one third of women are frightened of being raped. The most feared according to BCS is burglary. Local surveys conducted by Lea and Young in Islington found that fear is related to high crime areas. According to BCS survey 1995:
33% feared burglary = 6% of all crime, 15% feared mugging, Mugging = 1% of all crime, Crime most feared by all = burglary. Women most fearful of crime especially rape.
The survey showed that 16% of people living in poor housing estate did not go out in the dark because they fear crime. Stories about crime problems frighten individuals. Fear of crime is also linked to other demographic factors such as age, class, gender and ethnicity and most studies suggest that there is an inverse relationship between fear of crime and the actual risk of becoming a victim of crime. Even though many people fear they will still be attracted to read a story of crime and criminals. (Moore, S 2002)
Stanley Cohen examines how media interprets crime, and the public perception of crime when highlighted in the media. Cohen focuses on mods and rockers.
The media can create moral panic. Stanley Cohen a sociologist in the 1960s used the term ‘moral panic’. In the 1960s in Clacton seafront, Cohen saw outcome of ‘youth disturbances. The two youth groups, the mod and rockers’ ended up fighting on the seafront. The media interpretation of the headline was that they had disturbed peace for other holidaymakers, and portrayed ‘people are living in terror as the events unfolded around them. The press had sensationalized the event in newspaper headline that youth violence was out of control. The press drew attention to members of public that gang youth were taking over the seaside. This negative perception of the crime portrayed frightened members of the public. This type of headlines in the newspaper led to public outcry. This is what Cohen meant by the term moral panic. (Cohen, S. 1973)
The public believed that the fabric of society was breaking down around them, due to this reaction policing methods started to change. The police started to police areas were there were gangs of youths. If any disturbances were seen police would rush to make arrests. Therefore more youths appeared in courts. The media would continue to report this. More and more punishments were given out to the youths. (Box, S. 1981)
The actual event is blown out of proportion, further on by causing a huge stir of the event leading to wider public concern about a breakdown in morality.
This term explained by Cohen is deviancy amplification spiral. This moral panic then led to the youths becoming caught up in a deviancy amplification spiral. (Cohen, S. 1973)
Media attention led to more youths being dealt with in courts with offenders being severely punished and then again being highlighted in media for more attention. Therefore it was clear to see problems of deviancy were thus spiralling, at least in terms of media reporting. To the general public to show that deviant behaviour was getting worse.
Outbreak of abnormal behaviour generated an enormous media reaction, in part because it made such a good news story. The political reaction towards the media representation was seen to be blown out of proportion to the actual problem or have invented problems, which were none existent. The media plays an important role in identifying an issue, defining it as a problem and presenting it in a particular way, could do with particular responses. These are all the stages in the social construction of an issue as a “moral panic”.
Stanley Cohen writes, “societies appear to be subject, every now and then to periods of moral panic. A condition episode or group of person emerges to become define as a threat to society. The moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right thinking people”. (O’Donnel, G. 1998. p69) Moral panics may be socially constructed, but that does not mean they do not have a real impact in the world. On the contrary they do. More likely than not, the moral panic around street crimes such as mugging since the 1970s has resulted in discriminatory rates of stop and search and conviction of young black men by the police. The attitude of the mass media towards race has been to see the whole topic in the terms of a social problem. The general position of the press has been to stress the negative aspects of crime amongst people from different races. The press portrays big headings when associating crime with black and ethnic minorities. The negative impact of such stereotype within politicians is a point of crisis, because this unreal situation comes from the police and media who have built a rough orthodoxy about the existence of such a crisis. Black youth throughout the 70s and 80s have been labeled to be in deviant in society. They are portrayed of holding a “heritage of violence” either has “muggers”, “”drug barons”, “steamers”, “yardies”, and “posses”. Many are victims of stereotype; the mass media and politicians support this idea. But no focus is given on black youth when they have cooperated with the police to secure political influence and professional autonomy. (Cashmore, E. 1991.p11)
There has been little to show the achievements of black and ethnic minorities in other dimensions. In a mugging a black person is mentioned as being black and a mugger, but when it is an athlete who has won something the black person is not highlighted for his/her achievements.
Freudi suggests that moral panics are occurred when, ‘at times when society has not been able to adapt to dramatic changes’.
However Cohen’s version of moral panic is divided in five segments of society ‘the press, the public, agents of social control, or law enforcement, lawmakers and politicians, and action groups’.
So, Cohen’s idea of moral panics suggests that public perceptions of crime and police response to crime may be shaped by the responses of the media and other social commentators. Media coverage may focus on the public arena and ignore the very high incidence of violent crime in the private arena of the home. Our fear of crime may in part be the result of our fascination with crime. Perceptions of and concerns about of crime are affected by a variety of factors, the media being the most obvious.
In conclusion this essay has helped to understand what crime and deviance are, we can reflect on the sociological concept of social control. It has explained what Cohen meant by the term ‘moral panic’. It has also looked at how the media can fuel the public into believing that crime is out of control, and that youth deviancy is getting worse. Crime is a popular subject and the media reports crime it grabs headlines, fuels the story in order to make money. The more the story is sensationalized the more the public will buy. The way the media highlighted report of incidents occurring in Clacton, one would believe that youth crime and violence was out of control and that youths were running riot. Shocking stories and biased accounts are more appealing than carefully supported arguments in many cases. It is unfortunate that these stories can leave fear in many people. People are terrified if there area has been highlighted in the press that crime is increasing.
Crime focuses on an offence committed by an offender going beyond the personal and into the public sphere, breaking prohibitory rules or law. On the other hand deviance includes violations of norms and constructions of stigma associated with such violations. In some cases crime and deviance are used interchangeably, but in fact such usage does not capture the whole story of each. Crime relates to violations of the law codified by legal code, while deviance could include legal violations as well as social violations like someone talking in a library. People’s perceptions of crime and deviance in society overlaps. Therefore sociologists take in consideration that each is invariably linked to the other. In reference to crime and deviance the response of society is varied. Forms of social control is needed to maintain social balance, there is need of accurate statistics when crime is recorded. Media coverage fuels the situation to cause disharmony. This harm disrupts people with fear of crime.
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