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Summary sociology crime and deviance, crime in the media 30 marker
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sociology paper 3 30 marker example response for crime and deviance, crime in the media
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Sociology 30 marker –‘Much media output is devoted to crime, but the media offer a distorted portrayal of crime
and criminals. The media are also often seen as causing crime, for example by creating a
sense of relative deprivation or causing moral panics. The new media also provide
opportunities both for committing crime and policing it’
Applying material from item B, evaluate sociological contributions to our understanding of
the relationship between crime and the media:
The relationship between crime and the media has been demonstrated to be corrupt, this
being as the media is a social construct, that acts for purpose of gaining audience’s
attention, rather than to report on crime. Cohen himself arguing that the media
manufactures news to sell papers, of which is likely to produce an over-reaction to crime,
although left realists argue that the fear of crime is irrational and an individual is able to
develop their own belief surrounding crime. The media exaggerate the amount of violent
and unusual crime, as well as the likelihood of certain groups becoming victims, portrayal of
victims within the media typically regarding that of young women and old people,
presenting a false image in that statistics have are found the frequent victim to be that of
working class men.
There is therefore concern that the media may be distorting the public's impression of crime
and causing an unrealistic fear of crime, this occurring due to the gatekeeping and agenda-
setting on behalf of reporters. This being as the media upholds news values, putting forward
stories should they follow certain standards, such as being extraordinary, being that the
crime being reported differs from that of which occurs annually within individuals’ day to
day lives. This, however, causes for a distorted portrayal of crime to be put forward, such as
in that the most frequently occurring crimes in the media, being regarding that of serious
offences such as murder and large-scale events, does not reflect those seen most within the
crime statistics produced by the Home Office. This relationship between crime and the
media goes on to cause for vulnerable individuals to develop a fear of crime, this being
thought to cause for them to even struggle to leave the house, of out fear that they will
become a victim. However, this fear of crime is in fact likely to be deprived from the TV
media, they are likely to be consuming at a greater level due to them being at home more
often, with most of the television content being regarding that of crime.
Through this distorted portrayal of crime, the media are also thought to be acting as a cause
of crime, in that they cause for a moral panic to occur, seen such as in that of the mods and
rockers incident. Studied by Cohen, the mods and rockers were a youth group that was
known to engage in mild acts of deviance within their local area, not being known such as
criminals. However, in need for a story, the media took this group and manipulated their
image for purpose of creating a story. This exaggerated perspective led to the development
of a moral panic to arise within the public, of which within called for a moral entrepreneur,
being that of local politicians, to call for stricter police control, as a means of regulating the
groups behaviour. However, this criminalisation of previously only ‘deviant’, not illegitimate,
behaviour caused for a deviancy amplification spiral to occur in that youths were now being
arrested for previously socially accepted behaviour, as consequence of media influence. One
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