The Role of Media in Influencing Public Perceptions of Crime

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
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1SOCIOLOGY
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

2SOCIOLOGY
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