The media and its approach to the sensitive issue of law and order has come in for some criticism from crime experts recently

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The media and its approach to the sensitive issue of law and order has come in for some criticism from crime experts recently who say that media spin on crime is driving populist law and order policies that don’t work. But perceptions appear to be almost as important as crime itself these days as it plays a vital role in the way police operate. The community judges law enforcement personnel by what appears in the media. Very few citizens have direct contact with police officers; so, they make decisions on the police department's effectiveness based on what they read, see, or hear.

I have created a discussion thread on an internet forum for car enthusiasts know as OZHonda. In this thread I asked the users about their thoughts on media’s role in policing, the users on this site vary in age and gender, the responses can be viewed in the assignment appendix.

From looking at some of the responses, one aspect of media’s effect on policing can be highlighted in post #2 in the thread by the user “Boostzor”. He raised the concern about TV crime shows such as CSI (Crime Scene investigation). It can be said that such TV shows give wrong perceptions of policing by implying certain procedures and outcomes which may not be true in reality. Such TV shows imply the “CSI effect”, referring to how “on TV, its all slam-dunk evidence and quick convictions,” but in reality, criminal convictions based on forensic evidence alone are very rare (Roane 2005). The empirical evidence which is dug up by the detectives on the show is somewhat less compelling in real life. A recent study published in the journal Science notes that forensic evidence testing errors are the second leading cause of wrongful convictions, and that 63% of wrongful convictions can be attributed to such errors (Saks and Koehler 2005).  According to this same study, 27% of wrongful convictions result from “false/misleading testimony by forensic scientists” (Saks & Koehler 2005, p. 892). In relation to this, solving most crimes hinges on good basic police work, on what the local law officer does at the scene. Particular version of criminal justice reality portrayed on television is invariably something less than authentic, even as one must respect the professional growth of a TV CSI investigator with a 98% clearance rate, but whose first calling was that of a professional nightclub stripper in order to solve a serious crime.

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Programs like “Blue Heelers” and “CSI” might rightly be viewed as public relations efforts or propaganda as stated in post #5 in the discussion thread, by the user “bennjamin”. Unfortunately we now exist in a media environment in which the media’s portrayal of criminal justice “reality” is best characterized by what criminologist Ray Surette calls the “law of opposites”: “Whatever the media show is the opposite of what is true. In every subject  category, crimes, criminals, crime fighters, the investigation of crimes, arrests, the processing and disposition of cases, the entertainment media present a world of crime and justice that ...

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