More handpicked essays just for you.
Relationship between crime and media
Relationship between crime and media
Relationship between crime and media
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The media has long been tagged as a catalyst that influences the way people act in their daily lives. In the article “Unnatural Killers”, author John Grisham criticizes the movie “Natural Born Killers” as the only influence upon which two youths commit murder. The various types of environments shown on media most certainly influence the thoughts people make towards certain situations. However, the ultimate decision of the actions taken is up to the individual; everyone is responsible for their own actions. Therefore, the defendants in the article should be declared guilty of the crimes done. In the article, it is apparent that Grisham supports the argument that the media is solely accountable for the crimes the defendants committed. He states
The Murderers Are Among Us, directed by Wolfe Gang Staudte, is the first postwar film. The film takes place in Berlin right after the war. Susan Wallner, a young women who has returned from a concentration camp, goes to her old apartment to find Hans Mertens living there. Hans took up there after returning home from war and finding out his house was destroyed. Hans would not leave, even after Susan returned home. Later on in the film we find out Hans was a former surgeon but can no longer deal with human suffering because of his traumatic experience in war. We find out about this traumatic experience when Ferdinand Bruckner comes into the film. Bruckner, Hans’ former captain, was responsible for killing hundreds
Jim Morrison, the lead singer of the music group “The Doors”, once said “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind” (Quotes About Media). After George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, the media decided to exercise that control. The media forced the state of Florida to bring charges against Zimmerman, misrepresent the facts in order to convince the public Zimmerman was guilty, and influence public opinion after the a verdict was reached.
John Grisham uses personal experience and cause and effect strategies for emotional appeals or also known as pathos to show the audience how movies greatly influence people and their decisions.
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
In the book Deadly by Julie Chibbaro there were many themes that were analyzed and illustrated throughout the book. There were only three that catches the eye love can be blind, death can hurt and oppression of women. These themes stood out the most because this book take place in somewhere in the 1900’s because in that era there were many disease taking place in New York. Such as the typhoid, Yellow fever, small pox and other contagious diseases that cause many deaths and also when the Germ theory was just a theory not a law. This book mainly talks about Prudence, Mr. Sopher, and Marm especially but there are others such as Dr. bakers, Jonathan this book talks about how typhoid was carried by an Irish Woman named Mary Mallon and the disease
When families sit down to watch television, they expect to watch family type of shows. Family type shows meaning rated PG or PG13, sitcoms and movies that do not include weapons, killing, foul language, and non-socially accepted actions. When children killing, they start to believe that it is accepted. Do children think that killing and hurting others and themselves have little meaning to the real life, children can become traumatized. Most killers or violators of the law blame their behavior on the media, and the way that television portrays violators. Longitudinal studies tracking viewing habits and behavior patterns of a single individual found that 8-year-old boys, who viewed the most violent programs growing up, were the most likely to engage in aggressive and delinquent behavior by age 18 and serious criminal behavior by age 30 (Eron, 1). Most types of violence that occur today links to what people see on television, act out in video games or cyberspace games, or hear in music. Media adds to the violence that exists today and in the past few decades. It will continue in the future if it is not recognized as a possible threat to our society. When kids go to a movie, watch television, play video games or even surf the web, they become part of what they see and hear. Soaking violence in their heads long enough becomes a part of the way they think, acts, and live. The line between pretend and reality gets blurred.
In the modern world, how people perceive and act in relation to crime and criminals is influenced and shaped by the media. The print media’s representations of certain crimes such as child sexual abuse, and the discourses used in presenting child sexual abusers “work in the background, in [the] unconscious mind” (Trend, p.63) to influence readers to “make subtle changes in [their] attitudes” (Trend, p.63) towards crime and certain criminals. Not only does the media shape the view of crimes and their committers amongst society, but it also leads to criticisms of the legal system’s ability to deal with criminals. The print media also tends to perpetrate a myth of ‘crime wave’ through the, in most cases, false representations of increase in crime and crime rates. Through this, the media gives itself the power to abnormalize and normalize certain acts by declaring offenders as ill persons requiring treatment as well as being the differing ‘others’ who do not comply with certain ‘normalized’ behaviour . Many members of society however do not recognize how media representations and influence can damage and ‘retard’ society’s embedded culture and the perception of justice (Dyer: 2000, p. 84). Through the media’s use of expert opinion on certain crimes, what they present is strongly trusted by society, making the media the most crucial body in spreading knowledge about, misrepresenting and badly deforming the character of crime and criminals (Dyer 2000, p.87).
In John Grisham’s essay “Unnatural Killers” he weaves a story of two love-struck teens (Sarah Edmondson and Benjamin Darras) on a killing spree that claimed the lives of one of Grisham’s close personal friends (Bill Savage) and the mobility of another woman (Patsy Byers). Grisham claims that these teens were influenced by Oliver Stone’s film Natural Born Killers and that “there exists a direct causal link between the movie Natural Born Killers and the death of Bill Savage”(577). Even though I must concede some of Grisham’s points, I still think that, whether the movie (Natural Born Killers) had an influence on the two teens or not it’s still their personal choices to shoot those people. The blame should be laid on Darras and Edmondson because of their decisions, not Oliver Stone because of his movie’s possible influence.
Evidence of professionalism on the part of the two killers, Al and Max, is that they both wear a uniform? They wear overcoats. that are too tight for them, gloves to prevent finger prints, and Derby hats. This might be for intimidation, to suggest they are. gangsters or something similar, or it could be that they are not so.
Therefore, using this theory, some groups in society should not be exposed to certain media texts as they will reenact what they observe, essentially, violent representations. These groups in society include, children, mentally ill people, those with naturally higher aggression levels than others and media illiterates. Media illiterates who are not familiar between distinguishing reality from fiction that the media portrays, may believe easily anything and everything they see or hear. For example, excessive violence that they observe through media sources may eventually become a norm to them and they develop an immunity towards the guilt of watching people get hurt or hurting people and in some cases, they may e...
Television violence, and media violence in general, has been a controversial topic for several years. The argument is whether young children are brainwashed into committing violent real-world crimes because of violent and pugnacious behavior exposed in mass media. In his article “No Real Evidence for TV Violence Causing Real Violence”, Jonathan Freedman, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and author of “Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence”, discusses how television violence, claimed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), does not cause real-world aggression among adolescents. The FCC determined to restrict violent television programming to late night hours only because their “scientific research” proves of increasing aggression among young viewers (Freedman Par. 2). Freedman goes on to explain that the FCC has no substantial scientific evidence stating that there is a correlation between fictional violence and real-world aggression among young audiences. He has completed research in 1984 and 2002 on the relationship between media violence to actual acts of violence on the street. Because he has completed research projects related to this topic, Freedman’s statistical evidence shows that there is a reduction in youth violence and it essentially does not cause real-world crimes (Freedman Par. 1). The FCC continues to claim that exposure to media violence does in fact increase aggression, and yet their readers continue to believe their fabrications. Freedman argues that people who research media violence tend to disregard and omit the opposing facts. No one type of violence is more effective on aggression than another type. There is no evidence showi...
A widely accepted cause of the murders committed by children is violence in the media. The parents of three students killed at a high school in Padukah, Kentucky filed a $130 million lawsuit against the entertainment industry because they believe that violence in the media inspired the boy, Michael Carneal, who killed their children ("Media"). To some extent, these parents are correct in their assumption. On average, children watch television 16 to 17 hours per week, beginning as early as age 2 (Strasburger 129). Furthermore, when video games are added, some teenagers may spend as many as 35 to 55 hours per week in front of the television set (Straburger 129). Within these many hours of television viewing, there are many violent scenes. The National Television Viole...
Judith Wright's poem `The Killer' explores the relationship between Humans and Nature, and provides an insight into the primitive instincts which characterize both the speaker and the subject. These aspects of the poem find expression in the irony of the title and are also underlined by the various technical devices employed by the poet.
...ovie Natural Born Killers by announcing “If ever a film deserved to be banned, this is it”, causing a level of hysteria around a film not seen since Kubrick’s controversial classic A Clockwork Orange was released in 1971. The movie is still cited in murder cases as the trigger for teenage killing sprees, and is mentioned in dispatches whenever Hollywood is criticized for its levels of violence. However, it is unfair to place blame any one individual or movie. If taken the time to look into human development, it is clear that such ruthless and inhuman acts of murder cannot be gained by watching one movie. A viewing of such entertainment could trigger acts, but definitely not initiate them. If the society wants to make a difference and change the perception of the youth, then better education should be promoted and moral-life lessons should be taught to youth as well.
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses” (Thinkexist, 2010). The mass media, including news, movies, magazines, music, or other entertainment source has become a part of daily life for many people. As the quote mentions mass media and its power are capable of influencing people’s mind and behavior. Contents in the media introduced to young people make it difficult for them to distinguish between what is real and what is not, as a result stimulating confusion and blind imitation. The mass media plays an important role in the increase of violence, sexual activity, and risky behaviors among teenagers.