...Media Influence on Criminal Justice 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...
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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 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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...Chapter 1 – Media’s Perception of Terrorism and Influence over the Audience By principle, the media should be impartial, unbiased and independent while illustrating their duties. The main aim and task of the media is to give accurate information to the public which should be based on the truth. During times of war the western media has become a place where the opinion of the audience at home is of vital importance to the success and failure of the war being fought against terrorism. In today’s time, the media is the main means of expression through which people receive information on terrorism or any other conflict, which then enlighten us about the unfolding events. Since the western media undisputedly is the most powerful, it has the means to present government actions in a supportive way, expose atrocities on either side and raise issues to the public which assist their governmental agenda. Here the question that comes to mind is whether the western media portrays terrorism, Muslims and Arabs in an accurate aspect. The western media uses certain techniques to depict terrorists in their own view which have had disastrous effects on Arabs as well as Americans all over the world. It is very unfortunate that despite all the recent terrorist attacks, weather they were significant or minor, the media still has not come up with a definitive definition of “terrorism” and “who is a terrorist”. The main issue with western media reporting on terrorism is their flaw of having discrepancies...
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...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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...Female victims who fit these physical and demographic variables receive disproportionately more coverage because they are a group within society that are rarely targeted – in comparison to other social groups – in other types of murder cases (Gekoski et al., 2012; Haggerty, 2009). Additionally, Gekoski et al. (2012) argues that individuals unconsciously tended to rate the photo of an attractive female victim as of higher importance or worthiness than one of an unattractive female. Picturesque victims further accentuate the story of an unjust crime, which in turn increases the probability of newspapers putting the story on the front cover to not only raise viewership but profitability too. Likewise, children in all other forms of murder are infrequent victims and automatically earn victim legitimacy – meaning violence against them is not questioned or refuted – which jointly cause a spike in news coverage when they are victims of serial killing (Gekoski et al., 2012). Peelo et al. (2004) highlights that of all the serial killing cases broadcasted within the media, children ten and under represented 65% to 70% of the victim population. Reasoning behind this over-representation...
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...Extra Credit Assignment 2 The film that I watched is Gone Girl which is about a woman in a troubled marriage who goes missing. Gone Girl captures the misconception of marriage, the capacity of manipulative and destructive behavior, and the criminal education that can be obtained from crime and all while playing on the effect media has of what is fact or fake. Deviance is a behavior, trait, belief, or another characteristic that violates a norm and causes a (negative) reaction. How the media portrays deviant behavior in the film is that with the main character of Amy with the occurrence of the media focusing on an attractive white female victim or a white female perpetrator. In the film, there is a major issue with media coverage criminal investigations as it ignores the victims based on their situation of being the blame due to the public pressure encouraged by news media placed on police...
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...MEDIA AND CRIME Introduction -With the growing urbanization (παγκοσμιοποίηση) it is necessary to rely on media to find out what has been happening in the world. As in the majority few people are vi ctims of serious crime, images of offending are formed in the majority of the people from the mass media! (MME) : newspapers, books, magazines, TV, radio, etc… Does Media have Legal Constraints? (Περιορισμοί)? Τhere is a difference between: • Broadcasting (μετάδωση): Section 6 of Broadcasting Acts requires impartiality (αντικειμενικότητα) in the reporting of news and political matters • But in the Press (εφημερίδα) there is no such a legal obligation! Written media can published more/less what it wants subject to the Law of Libel (δυσφήμιση) and some specific prohibitions. (example: Official Secret Act which prohibits press from publishing sensitive informations. Sources of the media’s information on crime • Police (The police still provide the bulk of the material in crime reporters. Because of their big influence manipulation (χειρισμός) of the media has now become a big part in policing!) • Home Office (Press Office) • The Legal Profession • The Prison Officer’s Association • Academics Selection of Crime News The journalist and editor play the central role as to how a story is formulated and presented in a newspaper! They select their stories in a subjective basis in accordance with the newspaper agenda! In his book “Law and Order News” Steve Ghibnall listed...
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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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...The accuracy of crime represented in todays media isn’t always as truthful as it may appear on TV, in new papers, or online. The media and how they portray the news is immensely affects crime and criminals and how society sees them. The media’s main subjective is to make money. Media ownership plays a major part on how media is portrayed as they have the decision on what they want to put on the news or not. In Australia the media is owned by various sources all impacting what we hear about. First association is the government; this ownership connects to what is put in the media and what the public see. In Australia the government owned station are ABC and SBS (H. Hayes 1013CCJ lecture notes, March 12, 2015). The government and media authorities...
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...Crime is extremely prevalent and occurs often. Most people want to avoid talking about crime, out of fear. Whenever an act of violence happens, most people turn to the news to provide them with information regarding the incident. The information gets twisted, and a whole group of people get shamed for something out of their control. The negative ideas about mental health that come from the public are heavily influenced by the media’s negative portrayals when crime is committed by those with mental illnesses. When one “crazy” person does something wrong, every single person with OCD, for example, is also viewed as deranged and unpredictable. Although mental illnesses may ignite something in the brain to act, mental health can not fairly be the...
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...The long continuing debate of whether the current criminal justice system is 'about as fair and effective as we can reasonably expect' has been addressed in this essay. It is argued throughout this essay that the criminal justice system fails to meet with the protection and well being of the public by not appropriately processing offenders. Six main arguments of this essay highlight weaknesses within the system. The first argument of this essay exposes the time in which offenders spend in remand prior to their trial. The second, debates whether bail over remand is being used appropriately. The third shows how lenient judges sentencing decisions are, and in addition to this, the fourth argument shows what effect the media has on the courts decisions. Then finally the fifth researches the rate of offenders re-offending. This essay concludes that the criminal justice system is not using it's ability to the fullest to stop these offenders from re-offending within our community. The first argument in the weaknesses of the criminal justice system addresses the time an offender spends in remand, in the wait of their trial date. The length remandees are spending in custody is far too extensive, and more action needs to be done to trounce this problem within our system. When a person is placed in remand it is believed the main factors are; so that they actually show up for their hearing, to protect witnesses, or anyone else if they re-offend, and in some cases the accused themselves need...
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...has a very strong role in the general public's perspective of crime. The way media portrays crime and the person being accused of the crime has a very strong influence on how the general public sees the accused and the crime committed. This is very evident in the movie Primal Fear when the lawyer, Marty says "you know what they're calling him already? The Butcher Boy of St. Nicks." The source of this name has no information on the case or whether he is guilty or innocent, but by giving him that name it gives people the idea that he's guilty. 2. The mental state of someone should be a reason to alter or negate the consequences of their crime. Many mental illness prohibit a person from being able to know right from wrong. We can't punish people who aren't to blame for their crimes, we need to be getting these people the help they need instead of putting them in jail. However there will always be flaws in the system and people such as Aaron will get away with crimes they knew were wrong. 3. Aaron Stampler could be best represented by the social control/social bonding theory. He has very little ties to society because of the passing of his mother at a young age and growing up with an abusive father. After he was able to escape from his family he found the Archbishop, only to be sexually abused by him. He has no positive relationships with anyone is society, this makes him more likely to commit crimes. 4. Organized crime is a business operation that supplies illegal goods and services...
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...they cause crime and deviance through their devotion to exaggerating the truth in order to have a “newsworthy” story. Often it is the case that the media will play an important role in what Durkheim would say is maintaining the boundaries of society, reaffirming what is socially acceptable, and what is not. Durkheim would also say that all change starts with deviance, and the media highlighting this deviance on the world stage helps to excite and increase the rate of social change, which as suggested in the item, can lead to changes in law. Examples of this have been seen with public displays of homosexuality in countries where homosexual marriage is illegal, or disallowed. This kind of deviance is picked up by the media, and projected on a world stage in the name of news, and appeals to the world’s sense of equality and liberalism. So, while Functionalists would say the news plays an important function in society as a tool to catalyst social change, others would argue that it actually victimises a lot of people. This is seen with Cohen’s work on Folk Devils and Moral panics, in which a person with new norms, values or morals- or even all three, comes along and challenges societies accepted ones. This kind of challenge is met harshly and the new group, or person, is outcasted. They’re cut off from society as a folk devil and victimised for being different. This was seen in the study of the Drug Takers by Jock Young. However while the mass media show interest in crime they give...
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...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 for fears of crime and disorder. These...
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