The Media and Crime

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  • Created by: Amy
  • Created on: 19-01-13 23:49
What are some forms of media?
TV, newspapers, internet, film
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What does the media do to the image of crime?
Distort it
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How does the media do this?
Exaggerate violent & sexual crimes; portray criminal as middled class/aged; show police in a positive light; ignores explanations of crime
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What do victim surveys indicate?
Violent crime is decreasing
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How does the distorted image of crime reflect on the general public'?
How they understand crime and the criminal justice system
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What did Ditton and Duffy find in media reports?
46% were about violent or sexual crimes but these made up only 3% of crimes reported by the police
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What did Marsh find about the portrayal of violent crime in America?
That a violent crime was 36x more likely to be reported that a property crime
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What 's Felson's 'age fallacy'
The media portrays criminals and victims as older and more middle class than those typically found in the criminal justice system
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What is Felson's 'dramatic fallacy'?
The media overplays extraordinary crimes and underplay the ordinary crimes
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What is Felson's ingenuity fallacy?
media images lead us to believe that to commit crime (and to solve it) one needs to be daring and clever
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How are real life murders mostly committed?
In brawls and domestic
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What are fictional murders a product of?
Greed and calcuation
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What terms are used to describe an offender?
Bullying brute, drunken thug, beast
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What terms are used to describe victims?
Loving dad, former carer
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How are victims addressed?
By their first name
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How are offenders addressed?
Their second name
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How do these terms and phrases shape the impression of violent crime in the mind of the reader?
The words can dehumanise the offenders and make the readers hate them even more
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What are some examples of news values?
Novelty of unusual crimes; personalisation - human interest stories; celebrities/people in high status; excitement; violence; risk - about vulnerability and fear; immediacy
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What does this suggest?
Crimes that are dramatic and exciting - but very unusual - are more likely to appear in the media
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Which type of newspaper is more likely to have stories about violent crime?
Tabloids
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Who are more likely to read tabloids?
Working class people
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However, what does Richard Sparks claim that this ignores?
The meanings people give to crime portrayed in the media
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Whose ideas does this criticism reflect?
Interpretivists
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How may the media encourage people to commit crime?
Learn techniques of committing crime; they become desensitised; portrayal of police and incompetent; glamorising crime; imitation; adverts about desirable goods may encourage theft
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What is a weakness of this view?
Very limited evidence of a link between images of crime and a crime being committed
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The media creates deviance through what?
Labelling
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What can this lead to?
Moral panic
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What is this?
The media identifies a group or individual as a threat to society's values and interests
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What does this lead to?
A deviancy amplification spiral
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What is this?
The public become concerned about the group and demand tougher action by authorities. The police do so and the group reacts negatively. Also people not associated with the group join in
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What does this suggest about the media?
It not only exaggerates the threat of the group but also causes more deviancy
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Whose study of the mods and rockers is an example of this?
Stan Cohen
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Who are the folk devils?
The group singled out as a threat
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What two ways are there of measuring crime?
Official crime statistics and victim surveys (british crime survey)
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What are official crime statistics?
They are created by the government and are based on the number of crime recorded by the police
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How valid are official crime statistics?
Might lack validity because they ignore unreported and unrecorded crime
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What crimes are less likely to be reported to the police
Domestic violence; child abuse; petty crime; sexual assault/****; financial fraud
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What crimes are not dealt with by the police?
animal cruelty and tax evasion ( dealt with by RSPCA and HM revenue and custsoms)
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Why are around 30% of crimes not recorded by the police?
They do not believe the account given to them; victim may not want to press charges; police may not record trivial crimes to save paperwork and to improve their 'clear up' rate
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What does this suggest about official crime statistics?
It is a social construction based on decisions made by individuals rather than a valid measurement of crime
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How reliable are official crime statistics?
They may lack reliability if the method of counting crime crime varies
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What is an example of this by Nottingham police?
They used to record all crimes including those involving £10 or less, but other police forces did not. This made Nottinghamshire appear to have more crime but because the way crime was counted differed to other forces, it was not a reliable compariso
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How have the government changed the ways of counting crime?
Before 1998, summary offences (dealt with magistrates courts and including offences such as drink driving) were not included. Crime rates have 'increased' since 1998 but this is not a reliable measurement because crimes not previously counted are now
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According to the British Crime survey, how many cases of domestic violence were reported to the police?
1 in 3
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What is a victim survey?
It asks respondets whether they have been the victims of a crime over the previous 12 months. Based on sample of people over 16 living in england or wales
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Why can victim surveys be more valid than official crime statistics?
They include crimes not reported to or recorded by the police
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What crimes aren't included?
Shoplifting or offences against homeless people
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What offences are still underreported?
Domestic violence and child abuse
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What does the media do to the image of crime?

Back

Distort it

Card 3

Front

How does the media do this?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What do victim surveys indicate?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

How does the distorted image of crime reflect on the general public'?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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