Media's Role in Shaping Crime Perception: A Comprehensive Discussion

This discussion post explores the complex relationship between media and crime, focusing on how media coverage shapes public perception and understanding of criminal justice. The assignment analyzes the impact of media representations, including the OJ Simpson case, on societal views and the potential for these representations to influence fear of crime and racial bias. It delves into the portrayal of offenders, victims, and the police, and discusses the role of programs like Crimewatch in shaping public opinion. The post highlights the potential for media to distort the picture of crime, potentially amplifying public fear and influencing the justice system.

Running head: MEDIA AND CRIME
MEDIA AND CRIME
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1MEDIA AND CRIME
The representation of the media coverage regarding the crime makes some of the groups or
people vulnerable to the crime. There are certain things like neglecting the reason of committing the
crime shows the relationship between the criminal and the social group from which he belongs. This
indirectly sends the message to the viewers that the social group the culprit belongs from represents the
crime. This makes the people from that particular group vulnerable to crime (Greer & Reiner, 2015). The
fear or the hostility can be directed to a certain minority group. One of the major drawback with the
crime representation of media is to show the large number of black offenders, and small numbers of
black victims.
OJ Simpson case is the trial of the murder case held at the court of Los Angeles. It was a notable
case in the history of USA. OJ Simpsons a former footballer was accused of murdering his wife. The
person was representing the Afro-American community (Surette, 2015). The trials of that case got the
full attention of media as well as the people. It was suspected that OJ Simpson had killed his wife.
However, due to the lack of evidence the judge declare him not guilty.
The verdict of this case has certain impact on the people of California. The survey was
conducted regarding the result of this case (Hawkins, 2017). It has been seen that the people from the
Afro- American community though that the justice was served by declaring OJ Simpson not guilty.
OJ Simpson case has redefined the impact on the media regarding the cases. The case has a long
impact on the media as well as on the jury system and people on long run (Werner, 2015). LAPD was
accused of framing OJ Simpson regarding the murder and this factor influences the racial discrimination.
The case was significant for other reasons also. One of the reason was that the Judge Lance Ito has made
a decision to let the media cameras enter into the courtroom to cover the trial. Considering the verdict
and all the other factors it can be said this case has significant impact on law system as well as from the
socio-economic aspects of the state at that time.

2MEDIA AND CRIME
References
Greer, C., & Reiner, R. (2015). Mediated Mayhem: Media, crime and criminal justice.
Hawkins, B. (2017). The dominant images of black men in America: The representation of OJ Simpson.
In African Americans in sports (pp. 39-52). Routledge.
Surette, R. (2015). Performance crime and justice. Current Issues Crim. Just., 27, 195.
Werner, E. (2015). Media Effects on Attitudes Towards the Criminal Justice System.