Today the media has become one of the most influential communications vice in the society. Majority of individuals tend to believe and support the media reports. Moreover, even when the media focuses on criticizing people and their actions the community people follow them. This has been the case when it comes to reporting the decisions of the criminal justice systems. In most cases, the law enforcement has been found to be influenced by social factors such as ethnicity and race in the decision making (Jewkes, 2015). The media on the other has been bent on exposing these factors to the society. The media has been able to report many cases that they term as wrongful convictions through newspapers and social networks (Stevens, 2010). A case for …show more content…
The media tries to portray the fact that the two convicted men were African-Americans is the main reason for their judgment being harsh and a long term in prison. The media makes it seem like if it were a case of other people such a full American citizen then the punishment would have been fair and a short sentence in prison. In another case, the nation reports of a man accused of killing a police officer, and it refers to the man as an innocent person. The media criticizes the actions of the law. They portray the law enforcement as the ones that are wrong of wanting to imprison an innocent man just because the person he has killed is a fellow lawman. The media fails to recognize the fact that these accused men could in a way be guilty of what they are being accused of. However what the media tries to place its focus on is the difference in the social environment of the convicted men and the criminal justice. The media continues t report more cases n the unfair treatment of criminals by the criminal justice system as a result of social factors that influence their decisions. At times the media is right about wrongful convictions on the accused persons as a result of specific populations. However, in other instances, their reports are biased since they tend to focus on the wrongs of the justice system rather than the wrongs of both the criminals and the
The aspect of wrongful conviction is established within law to protect the innocent from being abused by the law. Nevertheless, the real issue of concern is the fact of whether wrongful conviction actually helps those who cannot help themselves. With that said, another important underlying factor is whether the criminal justice system has restrictions set up to help those from being innocently convicted and those who have been convicted and later was found to be innocent. By looking at the case of Guy Paul Morin, one will see how the police, courts, and criminal justice system failed in aiding the innocent and bringing justice in society, as well as showing that the system has failed in helping its people, and what must be done to aid those who have been wrongfully convicted.
Gender and Race play the most prominent role in the criminal justice system. As seen in the movie Central Park 5, five African American boys were charged with the rape of the a white women. In class decision we’ve discussed how the media explodes when it reports cross-racial crimes. The Central Park 5 were known everywhere and even terms were being made up during the process such as wilding. Also, during one of the class discussions it was brought up that victims of crime are of the same race of the perpetrator. However, the media likes to sensationalize crime of the victim being of a different race, because it makes for a good story. By doing this, the media does create more of a division of race. As seen in the video Donald Trump was trying
The social construction of myths of crime and criminal justice seems to follow a series of recurrent patterns. These patterns allow for an unprecedented amount of social attention to be focused upon a few isolated criminal events or issues. This attention is promoted by intense, but often brief, mass media coverage of a select problem. Intense social concern of an issue is achieved by a variety of means from the mass media, government, law enforcement officials, interpersonal communications, and the interests of reform groups whom all play major roles in focusing the publics attention on select so...
The general public of Australia has a common aspect when associated with their sources of knowledge of crime. Many would agree the media, especially newspapers and television, are their most frequent and well known source of crime activity. The media updates society with data about the extent, frequency and types of crimes committed (Moston and Coventry, 2011, p.53). Studies highlight our grasp of crime is majorly derived from the media, with a lack of exposure to police statistics or victimisation surveys. There is a concern in correlation to this fact since the media has inconsistency and inaccuracy in reporting crime. Due to this, the media can misrepresent victims and perpetrators, downsizing them to recognisable stereotypes (Moston and
Convictions. Now Juries Expect the Same Thing – and That's a Big Problem.” U.S. News
Fairchild, H. & Cowan, G (1997). Journal of Social Issues. The O.J. Simpson Trial: Challenges to Science and Society.
1. In Chapter 3, Surette explains the link between the media and criminal behavior. According to Surette, there have been several difficulties in examining the relationship between the media and criminal behavior. (Surette, 2011) Surette explains that they are several ways in which media influences crime.
The mass media is a vehicle for delivering information and to entertain. But implications that the media do more harm than good concerning its practices and its effects on the public. The two main categories of mass media are print media and electronic media. Although they overlap in some areas, they differ mostly in the subject matter they cover and in their delivery methods. Research had been conducted in using both these forms to gauge the impact that each one has on the public. Print media tends to be more factual based whereas electronic media tend to focus more on visual aids to help relay the information. The public’s fear of crime has an impact on the public agenda of policy makers. Fear of crime not only affects individual but may also have an impact on the laws that affect crime control and prevention.
Research also suggests that the media is a major decider in what crime cases get chosen to air on the news. While it was previously thought that what went on the news was arbitrarily picked or based on the most interesting cases, it turns out that it is not quite the case. J...
to them. This we notice in all the cases that the media jumps to wrongful
Throughout society there are both individuals and groups of people with a wide range of perceptions about crime and justice. These perceptions are influenced by the media and what the media presents. Media presents crime stories in ways that selectively distort and manipulate public perception, thus creating a false picture of crime. Therefore the media provides us with perceptions and social constructions about our world. Firstly I will be discussing the role of the media in constructing knowledge about crime. I will begin by explaining why the media is important, and go further to explain that media representations construct knowledge of crime and since knowledge about crime is constructed it does not necessarily capture reality in fact crime stories are often sensationalised. I will then link this to my central argument that the media shapes people’s perceptions of crime and how this is important as it can lead to changes in the law. I will then explain what it is that the public or society needs to be aware of when reading and watching media reports about crime. We need to be aware of bias and moral panics that are created by the media and how the media shapes or influence’s public perception through this, it is important for us to be aware of misleading or false crime stories so that we are not swayed by the media in believing what they want us to believe.
unclear. Balancing the interests and focusing on accuracy and truth are two very distinct things of the legal system. Public knowledge of crime and justice is mostly derived from the media. This essay examines the influence of the media on the fear of the police and the legal authorities in the justice system. Also, this study furnishes the attitude, of how the media influences the relationship between the media and the police.
The media is the publics most influential and primary source of information on crime and criminal activities in the community. Therefore, the way crime is reported can alter society’s view of it altogether. However, the media often presents inaccurate information about frequently occurring crimes based on what is deemed as ‘newsworthy’ (Hayes & Prenzler, 2014, pg. 8). This is where crime is reported selectively and consists of certain ‘news values’.
The research indicates that the public obtains its knowledge of the crime problem and the justice system primarily from the media (Roberts & Dobb, 1990, Surette, 1998), and the media tends to overemphasise crimes of violence, such as murder and robbery, and property crimes are rarely reported to the public (Surette, 1998). The crimes presented by the media are portrayed to the public as being more typical and more of a threat to society, when in fact, some crimes have decreased and others have remained stable (Indermaur & Roberts, 2005). The misrepresentation of information by the media influences the public’s perception of the crime problem in society, and by overemphasising violent crimes, the media perpetuates the myth that most crime in society is violent in
Watching the news or reading the newspaper is how we stay in touch with what is going on in the world around us. We believe what we read and hear and form opinions based on this information. Media inaccurately represents crime. For example, journalists and editors speculate what their audiences would find interesting. They only write about these things limiting the knowledge of their community.