How is Crime represented in the Media

How is Crime represented in the Media?

In this Coursework I will be discussing, analyzing and evaluating the issue of Crime Represented in the Media. I chose this Specific topic because Crime plays an important part in the media. To me this is the most interesting topic I could discuss, it involves so many questions which I don’t know the answers to and so to grasp this topic I will carry out an Investigation, analyzing aspects of Crime and the media such as Over Reporting, Moral Panics and Stereotyping.

My aim is to explain the impact of the media’s portrayal of crime on the reader and on the general public and how the media portrays crime.

I will do this research by carrying out Cross-sectional studies, gathering sociological information perhaps from other sociologists, carrying out questionnaires, interviews, gathering statistics and just looking at different forms of media. I will use different people of different ages to carryout my questionnaires. Before carrying out my research I expect there to be reporting of negative aspects of crime such as rising statistics of certain crimes e.g. knife crime, instead of levels of certain crimes decreasing.

Crime is an act punishable by law, as being forbidden by law or harmful to the public welfare. The characteristics of these could be peer pressure, criminals have not been taught the difference between ‘right and wrong’, mental illness. The majority of prisoners have mental health problems, a failure to rehabilitate ex-offenders back into society.

Age

The most common ages to commit crime are 14-20. After age 25 there is a steep drop in criminal activity as people take-on new roles such as wage-earner, parent, spouse etc. The possibility of jail time becomes a more-serious matter because of the impact it will have on the person’s life and responsibilities. As people get older they take-on more personal responsibilities, for example work, and social responsibilities (children or a partner for example) which makes them consider the effect their behaviour might have on people they love. Young people have fewer social responsibilities which means any conviction will have less impact on others (such as young children). Middle and upper class youth have fewer opportunities for crime because they are more-likely to be in full-time education up to age of 21 / 22 than working class youth. It has been that youth commit a lot more crime because of a lack of social control.

Gender

Female involvement in criminal activity is not restricted to a few areas. While females do not tend to commit crimes of violence, they are involved in a wide cross-section of crime. Violence by females tends to occur within the family, mainly as a final response to male violence. Men have greater freedom within the family than women, giving more opportunity to commit crimes e.g. women’s freedom may be limited by family responsibilities. Male socialization prompts men to be more aggressive and more-likely to solve problems using violence. Females commit far fewer crimes. Males commit crime five times more than female crime. The conviction rate ratio from male to female is 7:1

Ethnicity

Arrest rates amongst those of West Indies origin are much higher than those of any other race group. Also as a result of racism they are at a disadvantage, possibly leading to crime. Ethnic minorities are more likely to be in the lower classes of society, it is not surprising that there are a greater percentage of their population in trouble with the law. If you look at class all ethnicities have a very similar amount of street crime activity in their populations. When ethnic minorities move to "white" neighbourhoods that are lower in crime, their crime rate is the same as the rest of the neighbourhood, while whites living in lower class areas tend to be as criminal as their minority counterparts. Many black working class families are headed by a single parent (usually female). Families may lack a father figure, leading to lack of discipline and social control. Some Asian groups have large extended family structures which act as a strong agent of social control.

Place
People in urban areas have many impersonal relationships which means they are more likely to rationalise their criminal behaviour because their victims are either shops and businesses or people with whom they do not have close, personal, ties.

Socialisation in rural communities is more likely to involve effective relationships in dealing with people on a close, personal, level. They are less likely to commit some forms of crime against people with who they have this type of relationship with.

Middle class rural and urban areas more-likely to employ crime-prevention measures such as neighbourhood watch schemes, burglar alarms, etc.

Media are forms of communication using modern technologies which reach large numbers of people. The characteristics of these are the audience receiving the information has barely any chance of responding back to that particular medium. The media always involve the technology of broadcasting, or print and distribution. The media’s main priority is usually to generate profit. The Media are usually run by fulltime professionals, who reflect the opinions and ideas of the controllers and owners of that medium.

The media tend to sensationalize issues in order to attract readers and viewers.

Newspapers and Television also create “folk devils”, they are portrayed as troublesome and become reported so much that the public are fixated on getting rid of them. The public aren’t the only ones influenced by this; the police are to meaning that more arrests will be made. This all stems from the over exaggeration of the trouble these groups really make, and so creating moral panics as a result of these labels.

Media interest in serious crimes In general, investigations into serious crime such as murder and rape attract a large amount of press interest, particularly in the first few days of an enquiry. After this, interest will tend to weaken although some particularly newsworthy offences will maintain national media interest for some time. The factors that determine the level of press interest will vary from case to case and depend partly upon the coverage of other news events. For the cases examined, the age and background of the victim and location of the offence were most frequently perceived as influencing the level of media coverage. Not all offences, however, attract the desired level of press interest.

Methodology

Secondary Research

Above is a graph of the level of Crime in the last 25 years. Since 1995 there has been a significant decrease of Crime, currently the level of crime remains constant. In between 1993-95 there was a considerable increase of Crime.