Crime and Media

Mass Media and Crime…read more

Media Representations
· Over-represents violent and sexual crime- Ditton
and Duffy- 46% of media reports were about
violent or sexual crimes but only make up 3% of
all crimes reported.
· Portrays criminals and victims as older and more
middle-class
· Exaggerates police success- Police are a major
source of crime stories so want to present
themselves in a good light
· Exaggerates risk of victimisation
· Crime is reported as a series of separate events
· Overplays extraordinary crimes and underplays
ordinary crimes…read more

Key values influencing the selection of
crime stories include;
­ Immediacy
­ Dramatisation (Action and excitement)
­ Personalisation
­ Higher-status
­ Simplification
­ Novelty or unexpectedness
­ Risk
­ Violence…read more

Fictional Representations of
Crime
· Important source of society's knowledge of crime.
· Mandel (1984) ­ From 1945 to 1984, 25% of prime time
TV and 20% of films were crime shows or movies.
· Surette (1998)- Law of Opposites- How crime, criminals
and victims are represented is the opposite of the official
statistics and similar to news coverage.
­ Property crime is under-represented
­ Violence, drugs and sex crimes are over-represented
­ Fictional murders are caused by greed and calculation whereas
real ones are mainly caused by fights and domestic disputes.
­ Fictional sex crimes are committed by psychopathic strangers
when in real life the victim usually knows them.
­ Fictional police get the person they are after most of the time.…read more

Media as a Cause of Crime
· It is seen as having a negative effect on attitudes, values and
behaviour. Especially on the most susceptible to influence.
· Rap lyrics and computer games are seen as encouraging violence
and criminality. However, studies have found that exposure to media
violence has at most a small and limited negative effect.
· Ways the media may cause crime and deviance;
Imitation- Providing deviant role models
Arousal
Desensitisation
Transmitting knowledge of criminal techniques
Fuelling a desire for unaffordable goods
Portraying the police as incompetent
Glamorising offending…read more

Media as a Cause of Crime
Fear of Crime
· Media exaggerates the risks of certain groups
becoming victims of crime, thus distorting the
public's impression of and causing an unrealistic
fear of it.
· Gerbner et al- People in the USA who watch TV
for more than four hours a day feared crime
more.
Relative Deprivation
· Media portrays of `normal' lifestyles could also
encourage people to commit crime.…read more