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Public Perception Of Crime

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In this essay, I aim to inspect the ways in which the public’s perception of crime can be, and is, influenced or affected by the media. I will do this through the use of both criminological and media theory surrounding the issue of how crime is presented within various media outlets and link that back to a specific, media-prominent case.
The public’s perception of crime is often influenced by the media. This is because the media is only as successful as their numbers of views, which very often means that media industries focus on what sells and what the public are interested in. Research has shown that crime is generally over-represented in the media compared to actual crime rates. Research conducted by Dorfman and Schiraldi (2001) found that …show more content…

There are many examples of moral panics within the media, such as the mods and rockers in the 1960’s who were two groups, notorious for fighting with each other which the media mentioned a lot over a period of time which lead to people believing that . Another example is that of terrorism/ terrorists and the media representing all terrorists as being Muslim therefore leading to prejudice and stereotyping amongst the general …show more content…

This has the potential to lead to Muslims believing these things about themselves and thinking it’s the norm for their culture, and then pick up these deviant behaviours or criminal acts for themselves. This is because, as Ray (1961) said, “Treating a person as though he were generally rather than specifically deviant produces a self-fulfilling prophecy. It sets in motion several mechanisms which conspire to shape the person in the image people have of

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She is a history professor at Rowan University. Her research has informed the audience about modern sensationalism, which assists the audience in understanding the effects stereotypical tropes have on true crime viewers. In “True Crime: The Origins of Modern Sensationalism,” Wiltenburg discusses the roots of sensationalism in true crime media to illustrate that crime storylines sway the audience’s perception of crime, causing people to dramatize the criminal activity in their lives. “An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on a study finding that ‘heavy watchers’ of television news reports greatly overestimated the incidence of crime in their communities, as compared with ‘light watchers’” (Wiltenburg 1).

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Criminal bias has not changed since 1970’s in the article The News Influence on Criminal cases it states “81% of respondents said that they based their view of how bad the crime problem is on what they have read or seen in the news, rather than on their personal experience. In an American Bar Association poll asking respondents to identify "extremely or very important" sources of information on the criminal justice system, 41% of respondents identified television news, 37% identified primetime newsmagazines, and 36% identified local newspapers. Most people also trust the accuracy and fairness of the information received from these sources.” This quote from this article shows how most people receive their information online or through the media to form their own opinion on the events, criminal cases or everyday life. Most people don't study the facts and get reliable information, many people see the news on the TV, watch the coverage on the criminal case and believe everything they hear and see.

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As well, the dark figure of crime is an example of how these statistics could be incorrect. The dark figure of crime refers to the crimes that occur, but the police aren’t aware of them, or they are aware and don’t report them. (Morden and Palys, 2015). Since these crimes aren’t brought to the attention of the police, or the police don’t respond to them, they are not reflected in the Uniform Crime report, which is only based on police reporting’s’ of crime. Throughout the past several years, many crimes have moved to behind a computer screen (Morden and Palys, 2015).

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Introduction In America, media overwhelmingly gives the perception that many immigrants are criminals, and focuses on immigration in a negative manner. This portrayal by the media shapes the American public’s perception of immigrants and crime. This media uses the idea of “if it bleeds, it leads,” which makes it mainly focus on negative stories in order to capture and keep an audience. This tends to portray immigrants and immigration in a negative light, even though Criminologists know from research that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than American born citizens.

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Media is focused on people marginalized in society due to race, ethnicity and sexuality. It is based on well-known stereotypes and reinforces them. Moral panic sends society into mass hysteria over an issue or an event that occurs. Stanley Cohen believed that media created a moral panic. Stanley had published a book on folk devils and moral panics (1972) which says that moral panic occurs due to people or groups become threats to society and interests.

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These two elements fabricate a “social construct” of what is perceived as “real” by individuals, formed by everyday life, socialization and the use of language and knowledge (Serge, 2016). Criminologists’ adaptation of social construction investigates the generation of “facts” regarding crime, crime control and the legal system with the media being a relevant source of social knowledge, as the majority of the public lacks experience with the judicial system (Hans & Dee, 1991; Pickett et al., 2014). The impact of media portrayals has become concerning as newly identified effects on viewers, such as the “CSI” effect, have emerged that have consequences on the jury system, the most expensive and essential part of the legal system (Ferguson,

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When a problem occurs in daily life, humans are affected by social variables such as socioeconomic status (class differences), race, age, and gender differences which contribute to people being labeled as a criminal. In fact, they have a stereotype in their mind which can affect them by their society. It includes culture, education, living environment, and work. And then , they often think, action, and judge other people unsuitably which also don’t have any pieces of evidence to label someone as criminal. So that, to base on the social variable to contribute to someone being labeled as criminally is not persuasive.

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