Media representation of crime
- Created by: rebeccamellors
- Created on: 27-01-17 12:59
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- Media Representation of Crime
- Over represent violent & sexual crime
- Ditton & Duffy (1983) found 46% of media reports were about violent or sexual crimes
- However only made up 3% of crime reported by police
- Marsh (1991) studied news reporting in America, found violent crime more likely to be reported that property crime
- Ditton & Duffy (1983) found 46% of media reports were about violent or sexual crimes
- Portray Criminals & Victims as older & MC
- Different to those found in criminal justice system
- Felson (1998) calls this 'age fallacy'
- Exaggerates Police Success
- Wanting to present them in a good light
- Due to the overrepresentation of violent crime which has higher clear up rate than property crime
- Exaggerate risk of Victimisation
- Especially women, white people & higher status individuals
- Crime is reported as a series of separate events
- Without structure & without examining underlying cause
- Overplay extraordinary crimes
- underplay ordinary crimes
- Dramatic Fallacy
- Media images leads us to believe to commit crime one needs to be daring & clever
- Ingenuity Fallacy
- underplay ordinary crimes
- Amount of Crime in the Media
- Williams & Dickinson (1993) found British newspapers devote 30% of their news space to crime
- Change in type of crime coverage in news
- 1960s focus had been on murders & petty crime
- 1990s mired & petty crime were of less interest
- 1990s reporting had widened to include drugs, child abuse, terrorism, football hooliganism & mugging
- Over represent violent & sexual crime
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