The Role of Media in Influencing Public Perceptions of Crime

This article examines the role of media in shaping public perceptions of crime and its impact on the criminal justice system. It discusses how the media influences public opinion on crime, punishment, and law enforcement. The article also highlights the importance of equal treatment by the media in reporting on crime.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
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Topic -The role that the media plays in influencing public perceptions of crime
1. The outlets of the communication or the tools that used for storing and the delivering of
the data and the information is commonly termed as the media. The term, media
furthermore includes the components such as the communication of the mass media
industry like the publishing, the media of the news, the advertising and the print media.
The public knowledge of the crime is primarily being delivered from the depiction in the
context of media. According to Hayes and Prenzler (2014) media impacts the opinion of
the crime of the public and the punishments together with the perception of the police.
The media being responsible for the headlines, the conclusion includes that it impacts the
attitude of the public towards the criminal incidents. The public knowledge and the
understanding of crime is often derived from the media and is generally dependable on
the witnessing or the hearing through several of the forms of the media. There have been
several of the studies that have witnessed some of the major correlation among the view
of the people regarding the crime and the process of the criminal justice together with the
media (Marma, De Lint and Palmer 2012). The entire western society is being fascinated
with the context of the justice and crime. Starting from the books, the films, the
newspaper , television and the day to day conversation people in the current world are
constantly engaged the talk related to crime. The mass media plays a very essential role
towards the construction of the criminality and the system of the criminal justice that
includes the process of investigation, prosecution, trial, sentencing, appeals and
punishment. The public perception regarding the criminals, the victims and the law
enforcement officials are largely being determined by their portrayal in the mass media.
According to the researches, there lies some of the majority of the public knowledge

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regarding the justice and the crime that is derived from the context of media. The
criminal justice is the process that involves the series of the steps with the criminal
investigation with the release of the convicted offender from the correctional supervision.
In the connection to the above, the criminal justice policy is the authoritative collection
regarding the published writings that addresses the essential issues of the international
perspectives and the nature of the crime. In the connection to the media, the process of
the criminal justice policy includes social construction and the social contract. The
definition of the social constructionism includes the theory of the knowledge regarding
the communication theory and the sociology that intends to examine the development and
the growth of the understanding of the world forming the shared assumptions regarding
the reality (Morgan, Maguire and Reiner, 2012). The context of the social
constructionism has some deep connection with the media showcasing crimes and the
knowledge related to the criminal activities. Within the centre of the theory lies the
development of the meanings regarding the coordination of the human and the society
towards the reality. According to Makkaiand Prenzler (2015) as per the social
constructionism within the context of the political and the moral philosophy, the theory
that originated at the age of the enlightenment is the theory of the social contract. The
theory explains the fact that individuals tend to consent tacitly and explicitly for the
surrender of some of the freedoms for the submission to the authority with the exchange
of the rights and the maintenance of the social order.
2. The criminal justice policy is the process of the delivery of justice towards the people
who have been committing crimes. The policy includes a series of the agencies of the
government and the legal institutions whose target is towards the identification and the

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catching of the unlawful individuals for inflicting the form of the punishment to them.
The development of the criminal justice policy includes the political figures, the
discussion regarding the proposed policy, the federal policy and the development of the
new policies. In the context of the role of the media. It serves as the primary source of the
public regarding the source of the crime information. According to Davis and Dossetor
(2010) the commercial pressures are determining the contemporary treatment of the
media regarding the violence and the crime that results towards the coverage of the role
of the criminal justice policy towards reshaping the opinion of public and criminal justice
policy and regulations. To summarize, the policy of the criminal justice is the legal entity
and the standards developed by the series of the governmental agencies and the legal
institutions whose target is towards the identification and catching of the individual who
are unlawful and inflict them with punishments. The media plays as essential role
towards the identification of the unlawful activities and the criminal records so that the
criminal justice policy can be applied to the individuals.
3. The media is supposed to provide equal coverage to the criminals or crimes in the world.
The reason is that they are viewed by the people as a genuine and authentic source from
where they could have information about the crimes that are happening and the criminals.
Equal treatment by the media on crime is when it provides information about the actors in
the crime, the place and the victims without hiding any information based on ethnicity,
religion or nationality. However, it needs to be remembered that the some discrepancy
has to be maintained while reporting on crime. It has nonetheless been observed that the
media tends to show the news related to a specific religion and ethnicity as being more
inclined towards crime than it does for others. Equal treatment would be if the media

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equally covers the news on crime irrespective of the fact that the accused is from a
particular community or nationality. It is known that all persons have to be equal in front
of the court and tribunals and the same thing applies to the media as well (Townsend,
2019). Unequal treatment by the media on crime happens when the coverage of a
particular incident on both print and electronic media is high solely because it involves an
individual who is not from the concerned media’s dominant race or community. Yes, it is
a bad thing to have the media provide unequal coverage to incidences of crime based on
preference to particular community.
4. To cite some examples, Justin Carl Moose, a man who described himself as the Christian
equivalent of Osama bin-Laden and Buford “Bucky” Rogers who made homemade
bombs and cheered the marathon bombings in Boston, United States were never covered
extensively by the media. Both the culprits hailed from the US (Imv-report.org, 2019).
While Carl Moose was not given any coverage by either The Washington Post or The
New York Times, Rogers received mere two articles in both the top media houses in the
country. On the contrary, the two media houses posted around ten articles on Antonio
Martinez who was convicted of acting on behalf of Islam. This is clear example of
unequal treatment by the media. In Australia too, similar trends are visible where the
coverage of minority community associated with crime is more than those of white
Australians are. As reported in ABC News, the portrayal of African offenders in the
media is remarkable higher. As per the latest statistics, the African youths especially
those born in Sudan account for about 1 percent of the criminal offenders alleged. Peter
Kidd, the County Court Chief Judge states that the media chooses to report on the cases
involving the African offenders, which is a “false impression” (Abc.net.au, 2019). Hence,

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it could be seen from the above examples that the media mostly treats the crime and
criminals unequally thus presenting a false influence on the viewers.

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References:
Abc.net.au (2019). If you’re African and in court, ‘rest assured your case will be reported on’.
[online] ABC News. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-05/media-coverage-of-
african-offenders-skewed-warns-chief-judge/10452172 [Accessed 31 May 2019].
Davis, B. and Dossetor, K., 2010. (Mis) perceptions of Crime in Australia’, Trends & Issues in
Crime and Criminal Justice No 396, Australian Institute of Criminology.
Hayes, H. and Prenzler, T., 2014. An introduction to crime and criminology. Pearson Australia.
Imv-report.org (2019). Equal Treatment? Measuring the Legal and Media Responses to
Ideologically Motivated Violence in the US. [online] Equal Treatment? Measuring the Legal and
Media Responses to Ideologically Motivated Violence in the US. Available at: https://www.imv-
report.org/ [Accessed 31 May 2019].
Makkai, T. and Prenzler, T., 2015. The nature and prevalence of crime. In An Introduction to
Crime and Criminology (4e) (pp. 59-77). Pearson Education Australia.
Marma, M., De Lint, W. and Palmer, D., 2012. Crime and justice: a guide to criminology.
Thomson Reuters (Professional) Australia.
Morgan, R., Maguire, M. and Reiner, R. eds., 2012. The Oxford handbook of criminology.
Oxford University Press.
Townsend, C. (2019). INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE MEDIA AND THE CRIMINAL
JUSTICE SYSTEM. [online] http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/WAJurist/2011/7.pdf.
Available at: http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/WAJurist/2011/7.pdf [Accessed 31 May
2019].