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Crime in context
Discuss the role of the media in the construction of the general public`s perceptions of crime and the implications of this for the development of safety policies.

The primary source of information on crime and safety policies is the mass media. Mass media has a primary aim to inform and entertain and therefore the coverage of crime may be inaccurate, biased and may promote inappropriate policies of crime control. However, the influence that the media imposes upon the public about crime will ultimately be dependent upon how the content of the media is interpreted by specific audiences. In relation to crime statistics and the public’s perceptions, the Government's British Crime Survey (BCS) of 2008/9, results showed that UK public felt crime had increased locally from 36 per cent in 2007/08 to 38 per cent in 2008/09 and an increase in the proportion of people who think crime has increased nationally from 65 per cent in 2007/08 to 75 per cent in 2008/09 when in fact the figures had decreased. On the other hand, some categories of crime did show an increase, such as theft from the person which increased by 7 per cent.

Two main categories of mass media are print media and electronic media. Both categories differ in the way that print media is mainly factual and electronic media tends to provide visual imaging to relay information. At present visual media coverage is the most predominant in conveying the meanings and emotions of various crimes. It appears that visual media is what helps to shape the public’s perceptions of crime, the control of crime and social order. By providing a visual image, Rupert Murdoch (2006) suggested that it can “feed the mind and move the heart”. Many criminologists have tried to find how different types of media contribute to the public’s perceptions of crime. For example, many broadcasted fictional programmes, such as “The Bill”, aim to entertain and therefore the criminality within the programme is exaggerated and can act as a subversive threat to law, order and morality or as an insidious form of social control paving the way to authoritarianism by cultivating exaggerated fears about criminality ( Renier,R. (2002) “Media Made Criminality” in Maguire, M, Morgan, R. (ed) The Oxford Handbook Of Criminology. USA :Oxford University Press ). This in turn may encourage public fear and insecurity which then may affect laws that affect crime control and prevention.
Newspapers also contribute to the public’s perception of crime. Newspapers are widely available throughout the world and therefore can be easily accessible for all of society. Newspapers generally take a conservative approach to crime and therefore will generally support the criminal justice system and criminal justices agencies. ( Williams,K. (2004) Textbook on Criminology.5TH edn. USA :Oxford University Press ) this immediately suggest that a biased view will be provided in favour of how successful the criminal justice system is when this is not always the case. By providing a political stance it also provides specific views on cures for various crimes which in turn may influence the public’s perception as a whole and implicate changes on various safety polices. A study conducted by Graber 1980, revealed out of the newspapers she studied 22 to 28 per cent of the newspaper coverage was on topics related to crime and the criminal justice system. A more recent study in 1981, conducted by Ditton and Duffy, took in to account six Scottish newspapers and established that 6.5 per cent of the coverage was also on crime related topics. To further this yet another study by Williams and Dickinson (1993), discovered 12.7 per cent of the news was also based on crime. In addition to this Williams and Dickinson (1933:41) also discovered that the more down market the newspaper was the coverage on crime related topics increased with the Guardian having 5.1 per cent coverage on crime and The Sun containg 30.4 per cent. Both the Sun and the Guardian are one of the UK’s most popular daily newspapers meaning that the majority of society would purchase them daily. ( Renier,R. (2002) “Media Made Criminality” in Maguire, M, Morgan, R. (ed) The Oxford Handbook Of Criminology. USA: Oxford University Press, pp 382). The high percentage of crime coverage in the newspaper could ultimately effect the public’s perception as on a daily basis society are constantly being made aware of the various crimes and dangers that occur in everyday life. However, as a newspaper has a general aim to inform and entertain the crimes and dangers discussed maybe exaggerated for entertainment value and therefore the extent of the crime is not a true account. An interested point to make is that even though journalists have access to official sources such as the police, and the Home Office the majority of sources that are used are witnesses, victims and informants which immediately suggests that the view of the crime could be inaccurate and biased as they are not proven facts only allegations. To further this, it is very rare that a newspaper report will contain statements from the criminal or suspect’s point of view so the review given is often one sided providing an exaggerated account of the crime to make the report more interesting and the suspect to appear not only a criminal but a danger to society.Moreover, as newspapers are in a constant battle to gain more sales to be the most popular daily paper, the crimes which are covered are generally the most serious such as murder, rape and paedophilia. It appears that in general violent and interpersonal crimes are over – represented across the media (Chiricos et al 1997; Beckett and Sasson 2000: chapter 5). By the over representation of violent crimes it has been suggested by Marsh, 1991 that this can be advantageous to the police as they appear to be more successful in solving violent crimes than property crimes. Similarly broadcasted news reports in general also devotes the majority of it coverage to crime (Cumberbatch et al.1995:5-8). However, the crimes that are covered are yet again the most violent with murder and death covering 53 per cent of all new stories on Sky News, 42 per cent on ITN and 38 per cent on BBC 1 (Cumberbatch et al. 1995:25). By these crimes being constantly reported the more common crimes such as property offences and assault are less feared by the public as it has been suggested that these crimes are under reported (Marsh, 1991). It is clear to see that crimes such as rape are greatly fear by the public as safety policies such as personal attack alarms have been created and made available for the all of the public. By introducing such safety equipment suggest that a personal attack is more common in everyday life and immediately suggests that society as a whole should fear the concept of potential personal attacks when in fact personal attacks are not the most common crime in today’s society. To reflect the public’s growing concern over fears of crime, in June 2009 the government announced they aim to introduce a Policing, Crime and Private Security Bill in its draft legislative programme with the Bill aiming to cover four key themes: safer streets, preventing crimes against the venerable, shutting down criminal and exploitive markets and justice for victims and their families. The aim of the bill is to protect the community by introducing measures to prevent a range of threats from violence to financial exploitation; and to ensure that justice is done for victims and their families’.(Home office, (2009) Crime Reduction. Available at www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov)..In relation to the criminal justice system the media can influence public to encourage more tougher sentencing on convicted criminals as it has been said that the public “may accept or even welcome repression if it promises to relieve their insecurities…” (Signorielli, 1990, p.102) this in turn may cause repetitive miscarriages of justice just to reassure the public’s fears.Yet another media that could ultimately affect public’s perception is the use of fictional programmes on crime such as Dexter, CSI and Heartbeat. Most fictional programmes on crime related issues are up to date with contemporary fears and therefore are much exaggerated in order to gain an increase in viewers. Most crime dramas are moralistic in the way that good will triumph over evil i.e.: the criminal is caught and correctly punished (Dominick, 1973; Estep and MacDonald, 1984; Carlson, 1985; Kooistra et al. 1998, Zillman and Wakshlag, 1985). This helps to reassure the public that criminal justice does work. However, programmes such as "The Wire", actual exposes criminal corruption which emphasises the fact that the criminal justice system does contain flaws. Furthermore, currently approximately 50 percent of all films shown at cinemas have large crime content, this yet again is for entertainment purposes therefore crime such as murder are exaggerated but compared to official statistics are less common than other offences. By various types of media playing on societies anxieties for commercial purposes, portrayals of crime may be increasing fear and decreasing feeling of safety and citizenship. (Williams,K. (2004) Textbook on Criminology.5TH edn. USA: Oxford University Press ). In addition, presentations of the police are often over-dramatized and romanticized by fictional television crime dramas while the news media portray the police as heroic, professional crime fighters (Surette, 1998; Reiner, 1985). The favourable view of policing is partly a consequence of police’s public relations strategy. Reporting of proactive police activity creates an image of the police as effective and efficient investigators of crime (Christensen, Schmidt and Henderson, 1982).By creating a positive police portrayal media helps to reinforce a traditional approach to law and order that involves increased police presence, harsher penalties and increasing police power (Sacco, 1995). (Dowler,K. (2003) “Media Consumption and Public Attitudes Toward Crime And Justice” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture. 10(2) 109-[Online].Available at: http://www.albany.edu).Throughout the media there is a clear pattern in the portrayal of people that are more likely to commit crime and who are likely to victims of crime. Within the media criminals are typically older, higher status, white males which is not always the case as it appears that it is the opposite that are actually processed by the criminal justice system ( Roshier 1973:45-6; Graber 1980 Reiner 2001). Official statistics from the British Crime Survey shows that offenders are more likely to be male young offenders between the age of 16 and 24 . Moreover, at the end of June 2009, 76 per cent of the population in prison custody consisted of sentenced males aged 18 or older. It has also been suggested that in local news reports and broadcasting crime reports seem to be focused on ethnic minority groups such as the Black community as within media they appear to be presented to be more prone to commit a criminal offence. the idea of Black male being responsible for most crimes comes from the moral panic emphasised by the media through the idea of “mugging” identified by Stuart Hall et al, 1978. Within the research it was found that within the media mugging was presented as a new and rapidly growing phenomenon and therefore led the public to report more incidents and caused Black youths to become a “Folk Devil” that society should fear. This in turn, to led to an increase in punitive measures such police 'mugging squads' & heavy sentences in order to protect societies fears and anxieties. With the ethnic minority constantly being portrayed as criminal it has been suggested that the criminal justice system is more likely to stop and search young black males as confirmed by statics in 2003/2004 out of 738,016 stop and searches recorded by the police 15 per cent where black people, 7 per cent where Asian and 1 per cent other ethnic origins. This shows that Black people where 6.4 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people. Furthermore, out of 1.33 million arrests for notifiable offences 9 per cent where Black people meaning that they are 3 times more likely to be arrested than White people. (Marsh, I., Melville, G.(2009) Crime, Justice and the Media . Taylor and Francis). Even though Black males are presented to be more likely the criminal, according to official crime statics they are more at risk of being victims of crime such as racial attacks.In conclusion there is no concrete evidence that public’s perception of crime arises from the media, however the mass media is the only way that society becomes knowledgeable on everyday crimes and how the criminal justice system works as Sonia Livingstone concluded: most media researchers believe that the media have significant effects, even though they are hard to demonstrate,.... most would agree that the media make a significant contribution to the social construction of reality. (Renier,R. (2002) “Media Made Criminality” in Maguire, M, Morgan, R. (ed) The Oxford Handbook Of Criminology. USA :Oxford University Press).The medias main aim is to entertain and therefore audiences must remember that not all what is shown or said is not always accurate as most stories are exaggerated in order to gain interest. Media does appear to help implicate the development of safety policies. For example, the Jamie Bulger Case involving a horrific murder of a toddler by two youths created a moral panic and outrage within society which led to the age of criminal responsibility to be lowered to the age of 10 years old in order to be able to convict the toddlers murders to show that the criminal justice system works alongside the public’s perception. Yet another example is that when reports of dog attacks on members of society became more frequent the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 was introduced to show that the criminal justice system puts the public’s safety as a predominant factor.It is fair to say that the media have a great impact on societies overall perceptions of crime and what safety policies are implicated by the government such as the creation of Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBO’s) and the use of Youth Offending teams to help reduce the rise of anti social behaviour committed by youths. Without youths being exploited as “yobs” through the use of media society may believe that having such policies are irrelevant. This in turn poses a question that if media did not raise such issues would such policies be in place today and whether there is a issue to start with or have the media caused a moral panic within society in order for the criminal justice system to appear just and in favour for societies safety and security. However, for many criminologists the relationship between media and public perception on crime remain complex one despite efforts to establish any links. | Referencing Graber, D. (1980). Crime news and the public. New York: Praeger. Home office, (2009) Crime Reduction. Available at www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov Marsh, H.L. (1991). “A comparative analysis of crime coverage in newspapers in the United States and other countries from 1960-1989”: A review of the literature. Journal of Criminal Justice, 19 (1), 67-80. Signorielli, N. (1990). “Television’s mean and dangerous world: A continuation of the cultural indicators perspective”. In N. Signorielli and M. Morgan (eds), Cultivation analysis: New directions in media effects research, 85-106. Newbury Park: Sage. Soothill, K. & Walby, S. (1991). Sex crime in the news. London: Routledge. Renier,R. (2002) “Media Made Criminality” in Maguire, M, Morgan, R. (ed) The Oxford Handbook Of Criminology. USA :Oxford University Press Williams, P. & Dickinson, J. (1993). “Fear of crime: read all about it?” The relationship between newspaper crime reporting and fear of crime. British journal of criminology, 33 (1), 33-56. Williams,K. (2004) Textbook on Criminology.5TH edn. USA: Oxford University Press. Bibliography www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk www.homeoffice.gov.ukLetherby, G. (2002) Criminology: A Reader. London: Sage PublicationsNewburn, T. (2007) Criminology Devon: Willan – chapter 4 Renier,R. (2002) “Media Made Criminality” in Maguire, M, Morgan, R. (ed) The Oxford Handbook Of Criminology. USA :Oxford University Press Williams,K. (2004) Textbook on Criminology.5TH edn. USA: Oxford University Press |