...The media influences viral crime by perpetuating police brutality. It’s all over the news, newspaper, social media, and anything anyone can think of. The media mostly talks about police officers beating or shooting a man. It’s one story after the next and the media is always on top of it. One thing they aren’t on top of is telling the people what led to the incident or why it happened. There are many police shootings that have happen all over the United States these past few years. I believe that police officers do stereotype people, such as black men to be a threat. Incidents like police shootings happen because of stereotype threats. For example, if a police officer came across a black male in a stop they would be more aware of him and ask...
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...more of a hindrance than a help to the police in combating crime”. Discuss. The relationship between the police and the mass media have long been the subject of intense debate. The mass media and the police have different roles in the public eye causing the media to be of concern to the police. Historically and in the contemporary era the police have had to meet high expectations of being the public’s crime-fighter. It is the police’s role to prevent crime, maintain order and protect the public (Carrabine, 2009) whilst, the media fulfil a role that is supposed to challenge the state institutions on behalf of the public. Media handling in serious crime investigations is a complex issue. On the one hand, they provide the public with access to information and help generate important information for an enquiry. For example, since its first broadcast in 1984, Crimewatch UK has sought help and information from the public in order to solve crime (Carter and Branston et al., 2002). On the other hand, the media can mislead the public and interfere with the investigative legal processes. As a whole the media plays a critical role in shaping the public’s views by exposing corruption and the activities of the powerful and of agencies of control such as the police (Croall, 2005). More to the point the media are there to maximise audience revenue to get money and to entertain via means of print, audio, visual and social media. Whereas, the police are the primary protection for the public...
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...behaviour. The essay will show how the media constructs and defines antisocial behaviour through the portrayal of folk devils which creates moral panic. The concept of folk devils and moral panic was explored by Stanley Cohen (1973) in his case study of mods and rockers of the 1960’s. The Mods and Rockers were two opposing British youth gangs that engaged in fighting and vandalism at seaside towns in the 1960’s.Cohen’s research focused on how this the media’s portrayal of events provoked a mood of public fear and outrage throughout society, labelling the two groups as folk devils. Folk devils have been depicted as mindless, evil and deviant beings with their behaviour completely different to that of normal people. These deviants have been blamed for all the wrongs in society and have been punished brutally. This characterisation has been central to Cohen’s theory with the role of the media inciting moral panics with the dramatization and construction of Folk devils. (Kelly and Toynbee, 2009, p370) Stanley Cohen, Suggests the UK media’s representation of the antisocial behaviour of the British youths played a major role in fostering irrational fears in the population thus creating a moral manic; the fear that it created was totally exaggerated to the behaviour exhibited. Moral panic is a reaction to a perceived threat or challenge presented by either a group or an individual which may be seen as a challenge to current social norms. ( ‘The making of order and disorder’ 2009, CD 3)...
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...The Media’s Impact on Criminal Justice. Juvenile Justice System David Scholtes I believe that the media has a profound impact on criminal justice. Firstly in the way that it reports the crime. I believe the media is shaped by economic considerations. Whatever will help them sell more papers, get more sponsors or get better ratings is what they report, it seems that is their criteria of what is newsworthy. They tend to over dramatize crimes at times. I believe trying to give the viewer or reader the fear factor with crime scene photos and videos of pools blood, bodies still on the scene with white sheets covering them. It’s human nature to stop and look at an accident with ambulances present. The media attempts to interview victims, witnesses and family members of victims immediately after the crime. I think this type of reporting can effect a criminal investigation. Also they give out facts of the case that the police try to prevent the public from knowing so that it may not tip off a criminal of impending arrest. When there is an arrest made they like to film the arrestee in handcuffs being put into a car or being lead into the station “the perp walk.” Sometimes when the public views these situations it may be difficult to have a non-biased jury. The power of the media and their coverage can influence the operations of the criminal justice system and even the outcome of individual cases. The...
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...The media and law enforcement really seems to have a very dysfunctional relationship. While there are many examples of where both media and law enforcement cooperate very well together, more often than not, the relationship tends to tilt to the negative side. This relationship has even gotten worse as an effect of the most recent events. The textbook says that the media’s main focus is to generate profits. With that mindset of always wanting to make money, the media will sometimes make decisions to reveal things to the general public that are not entirely true. As an effect, that could cause the public to lose respect for law enforcement. An example of this can be seen from the events that took place in Ferguson, Missouri where teen Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer and eventually led to riots in the streets. These events happened because multiple media outlets decided to tell the public details about the shooting before any actual investigation could figure out what happened. The media kept spitting out information about the incident that made the Ferguson police department look bad. The police department could not defend themselves from these accusations because they could not give out any information about an ongoing investigation. Furthermore, the rise of technological advancements like social media outlets, i.e. Facebook and Twitter, are potential dangers that are beyond the reach of traditional policing methods to plan for. These social media outlets...
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...trust and accept police decisions based on law enforcement’s ability to demonstrate fairness and integrity while executing their authority (Tyler, 2014, pg. 10). Research shows that procedural justice plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of police legitimacy (Worden et al. 2018, pg. 150). There are four vital components to procedural justice, namely transparency, voice, impartiality, and fairness which defines personal interactions between law enforcement and community thus determines people’s perception (Peterson et al. 2017, pg. 4). Procedural justice leads to legitimacy when citizens perceive respectful treatment and are confident that police decisions and justice will be served based on facts (Tyler 2014, pg. 33). Our study reviewed eight articles that focus on procedural justice theories attempting to assess the efficacy of police officers engagement with citizens to reduce crime. Police legitimacy has also been evaluated through survey questions in a community project. Theory From the study by Worden et al. (2018), the subjective experience of people’s interaction with the...
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...correctional system and legal system are a few of the criminal justice professions that are entrusted by the government with the powers to protect and serve the citizens of the country. Law enforcement officer’s role is public safety, which can officially be broken down in different functions, enforcing the law, keeping the peace and protection of life and property. In carrying out the function law enforcement officer have to exercise discretion. Without law enforcement we would have anarchy and crime would be more prevalent. Policing is as much as helping people and maintaining community quality of life as it is about enforcing the law and apprehending criminals. In today’s multicultural and diverse society and with the high crime rate, discretion is very important. Even though their main focus is tackling the high crime rate, different approaches have to be taken when dealing CASE STUDY 3 with different cultural diverse groups. In order to combat this, most law enforcement agencies try to ensure that their community police force is a representative of its population. To do this...
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...The media is the most powerful source of information available to society. News broadcasts influence what society thinks about by perpetually spreading a particular concept or idea to its viewers. As one of the most significant agents of socialization, the media’s coverage and portrayal of crime has significantly marginalized blacks. The media is a structural force, its discourse has a direct impact upon the lives of millions of blacks. Black people’s behaviour in society is affected by the media’s discourse, the aspirations of millions are reduced to a bare minimum because of the media’s racialisation of crime. It is imperative for sociologists to understand the hegemony used by the media, to successfully dismantle prevailing racist beliefs...
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...5-JUN-09 8:30 Racial profiling and searches: Did the politics of racial profiling change police behavior?* Patricia Y. Warren Florida State University Donald Tomaskovic-Devey University Massachusetts, Amherst Research Summary Scholarly research has documented repeatedly that minority citizens are disproportionately stopped, searched, and arrested relative to their baseline populations. In recent years, policymakers have brought increased attention to this issue as law-enforcement agencies across the United States have faced allegations of racial profiling. In the 1990s, the politics generated by accounts of racially biased policing placed heightened pressure on law-enforcement agencies. However, to date, few studies have explored whether the increased social and political scrutiny placed on police organizations influenced or changed their general pattern of enforcement among black and white citizens. Using data in the search and citation file from the North Carolina Highway Traffic Study, this research specifically examined whether the politics generated by the media coverage of racial profiling and racial profiling legislation in North Carolina influenced the search practices of officers of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol’s drug interdiction team. The findings suggest that media accounts and the passage of new legislation were particularly powerful influences, which thereby reduced racial disparity in searches. Declines in the use of consent searches...
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...tendencies. | An example of a survey that would be applicable to society would be the issues and effects of marital separation that brings about disruption in the household and negatively affects the children as well as the spouses ability to cope and adjust which ultimately prevents reconciliation thereby leads to divorce. | An example of a survey that applies to criminal justice would be a survey that addresses how to change the public’s opinions and attitudes toward the criminal justices system. This survey would include the common criminal acts in their community, how they are currently being handled, what would like to see in the way of changing their community, what their expectations are of the local police, the changes they would like to see with how the police and criminal justice system handle these perpetrators. | Due to today’s economic hard times, I think a great survey could be how this nation’s economy has brought about change in the average American household and how individual’s are making adjustments to their economic behavior. When dealing with the household, and assuming there are children present, what is the family’s current income, do both parents work, how are the children being cared for if both parents work, and what type of changes are being made to support the family? When it comes to the...
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...“We may not have a journalism of truth because we haven’t demanded one.” (Greenhouse 22). Greenhouse questions why truth, not opinions or personal influence, is so arduous of journalistic value. Objectivity, Greenhouse believes, should be, “regarded as tools to that end, they maintain, rather than as ends in themselves.” (Greenhouse 23). Reed Richardson, author of “GOP-Fox Circus Act”, also credits objectivity as an unbalanced relationship between political figures and news networks. In October of 2012, Fox News received extremely high ratings for its programming of the presidential campaign. The news station beat out rival TV channels during the Republican optimism of the campaign, but when November arrived so did reality. Obama’s victory deflated Republican politicians causing an absence of, “confronting the potent role played the Republican Party’s single most important messenger, Fox News.” (Richardson 11). A steep drop of ratings pressured Fox News into outrageous mottos. The fair and balanced motto Fox News once had, became a motto of whatever means necessary of getting views. Richardson demands Fox News to redirect their movement of temptation of rating victories unless they want to suffer more significant losses. Both Greenhouse and Richardson affirm objectivity as a problem with today’s news coverage. Equally important, media’s short attention span motivates problematic sensationalism in today’s news coverage. The way a particular report is perceived alters the public’s...
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...Fear of Crime: Development, Progress, and Efforts to Erase the Negative Effects it Leaves Behind Abstract This study diagnoses the different aspects that cause fear of crime to grow or progress in society. Things that have stronger influences on the mind are considered on higher scales than others. This report has many different points; it will be focused most on: demography and how it is used to show characteristics of your 'common victim', the media's ramification’s on crime, what effects the mind has on crime, and crime within schools. It will also mention different theories and how they affect the thoughts that people have on the amount of crime around them. Crime is a topic in today's society that cast immense fear into the mind and thoughts of many people, putting hindrance on what many people do in their lives. It is depicted in abundance on television, radio, books, and other entertainment sources of today's day and age, therefore causing more people to focus in on crime. Due to the added attention on the topic, fear of crime, the physical, social, economic, and emotional vulnerability as a result of the stress from crime, is more common than it used to be. Fake court cases and exaggerated crimes are all over reality television, in turn, taking minuscule fears and making them extraordinary with every hour they sit observing them in front of their television a daily basis, one show after another. Mind over matter is a theory that is mentioned when discussing...
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...Was Brian Wells a Victim? Christopher Seymour Professor Ann Burgess Victimology November 19, 2012 Seymour 1 INTRODUCTION Early on the morning of August 23, 2003, Brian Wells walked into the Erie Pennsylvania PNC bank and calmly handed over a note to the teller –‘Gather employees with access codes to vault and work fast to fill bag with $250,000, you have 15 minutes.’ Wells picked up a dumdum lollypop and casually waited. He was armed with a shotgun disguised as a cane and had a large collar brace under his t-shirt that he claimed was a bomb. Quickly apprehended by Pennsylvania State Police, Wells claimed that three African American men forcibly attached the bomb to him, and he was ordered to rob the bank. Though a bomb squad was called, the bomb attached to Brian Wells detonated while he sat handcuffed surrounded by police. The FBI investigation that followed sought to uncover who was involved in the planning, and whether Brian Wells was a victim or conspirator. While the facts of the case suggest that Wells was involved in the bank robbery, the actions of three others – Marjorie Diehl Armstrong, Ken Barnes, and Bill Rothstein caused the plan to spiral out of control and left a deceased Brian Wells as a victim in this tragedy. SUMMARY OF THE CRIME On the morning of August 23rd, Brian Wells was working his shift as a pizza deliveryman, the same job he had held since dropping out of high school 30 years prior. According to initial statements by Wells, he...
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...Assignment Two The news media only provides us with representations of reality. These representations are constructed by media conglomerates to manipulate our views on society; politics, international relations and current affairs. While the media is meant to be an objective source of information, it is important to remember that this information is filtered, watered down and often manipulated before reaching its audiences. After all, “one apprehends reality only through representations of reality... there is no such thing as unmediated access...” (Dyer 1993, p. 3, as cited byO'Shaughnessy & Stadler, 2005, p. p.77) This is done by ruling classes of society in order to ingrain dominant ideologies into cultural knowledge and thus maintain their governing status- the process of “hegemony”. The media both mirrors and shapes society- it is a “mechanism of mass control” (Flounders et al., 2000, p.89). The news, as an integral part of the media, does the same. Therefore it is important for us to remember that the image of our world shown by the media is only a portrayal, and not always objective or truthful. “The media define for the majority of the population what significant events are taking place, but, also, they offer powerful interpretations of how to understand these events.” (Stuart Hall, 1978, p. 426) In this quote, Hall states that media broadcasters, although providing important (newsworthy), accurate and up-to-date information to the public, are nevertheless...
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...|Department of Law and Criminal Justice Studies |[pic] | | | | |ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET | | |STUDENT NAME |Nkiruka-Rebecca Elliott |STUDENT No |ELL11053447 | | | |PROGRAMME | |(highlight correct subjects) | |MODULE NAME: | | | |Victims and Victimology | |MARKER’S NAME: |Rashid Aziz...
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