The ambition of the criminal justice system is sometimes 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.
In addition, several law content will be in this essay, for example plea bargaining and the right to counsel. In other words, this essay will interpret why viewers of crime drama through the media fear the justice system. Our society is so caught up with crime
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On a quick synopsis of the movie Training Day we can see how Hollywood uses there magic in manipulating the viewers on how the justice system works. In the movie, a rookie officer is given the opportunity to ride along with an experienced narcotics officer who doesn’t believe in the justice system is working to its full potential. Alonzo(Denzel Washington) who is the experienced officer takes his rookie ride along named Jake, on a patrol to show him on how the streets really work in his point of view. The rookie ride along, through the shift, realizes how much the system is corrupted. Slowly by slowly Alonzo is getting Jake to buy into his way of justifying. In the movie Alonzo had said,“to protect the sheep you gotta catch the wolf, and it takes a wolf to catch a wolf”(Training Day 2001). In translation you gotta act like a criminal to catch a criminal. Furthermore, as the day goes by Jake is starting not to buy into Alonzo's corruptness of policing. Eventually, Jake confronts Alonzo and there is a big confrontation. In conclusion, Training Day opens our eyes into the officers we see into the officers we may or we may not agree with in protecting …show more content…
As it was stated before, media has a major effect on the american public in informing us on the law. But thanks to good literature there are people who write about what the criminal justice system is really about. George F. Cole, one of the authors, of the textbook The American System of Criminal Justice. He co-authored with Christopher smith and Cristina DeJong. American justice is partially different from the rest of the world, in America the accused are innocent until proven guilty. Now you might ask why do the police arrest an innocent person. Author George Cole states,“The American system is a response of crime throughout our societies history,”(1). The reality of crime isn’t just “cops and robbers”. There is a procedure in place to make sure that every person is given equal rights to a fair and speedy
The news reports crime daily. Crime is something that we cannot run from in today’s society; so we depend highly upon the justice system. Criminal Justice is a major concern. Criminal Justice consists of three areas: our police, courts and corrections department. The Criminal Justice system was put in place by these agencies, and established by the governments to help control the crimes and applies penalties to those that violate the law. Many people feel that the criminal justice system is there to protect and serve while others feel that the criminal justice system fails them daily.
The movie-training day is about a veteran officer who takes a rookie on his first day of training with L.A.P.D. Denzel Washington plays the L.A.P.D. detective Alonzo Harris and Ethan Hawke plays the role of rookie officer Jake Hoyte. Hoyte who was once a former security guard applied for a position as an undercover Narcotics officer. In order to be accepted as a Narcotics officer Hoyte must first endure 24 hours of training from veteran officer Alonzo Harris. Officer Harris is known to have a bad reputation on how he enforces the law, he is known for not treating victims very well, abusing suspects, mishandling drugs and other evidence. Throughout the 24-hour training period ethical dilemmas arise and Hoyte begins to question Harris’s methods
The movie, Training Day, demonstrates how some police officers take advantage of their positions which is realistic. Mikkelsen states that, ?The new movie Training Day is an excellent fictional demonstration of how the State, in this case the police, provide a ?legalized channel for crime? (Mikkelsen 1).? It is hard to define the line between doing the right thing and doing the wrong thing to stop a crime. As Mikkelson explains, ?Many of the events are to be expected: violence against suspects, confiscation and use of drugs and especially money, violations of due process, graft (Mikkelsen 1).? At the end of the movie the main character is murdered and the police department makes up a story venerating his death in a positive manner. In all truth Harris was murdered by the Russians because he lost his temper and killed someone who was ?talking trash? about him. This is shown when Mikkelsen says, ?The state must defend cops, when possible, because publicity about ?bad cops? does not reflect well o...
Most people use second hand information as their core source of information about crime, this source of information usually being the media. When carrying out sample research in Birmingham, Susan Smith (1984) discovered that 52% of people obtained most of their information about crime from the media, 36% obtained it from hearsay or alleged experiences of friends and neighbours, 3% from their own experiences, and 1% from the police service themselves (cited in Jones, 2001; 8). However the media tend to exaggerate upon areas of criminal activity causing a moral panic. ‘A moral panic is a semi- spontaneous or media generated mass movement based on the perception that some individual or group, frequently a minority group or subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses menace to society. These panics are generally fuelled by the media, although not always caused by, media coverage of social issues… These panics can sometimes lead to mob violence… (newsfilter.co.uk).
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 criminal justice system is a group of institutions that work together to protect a society, prevent and control crime, and maintain justice; enforcing the laws regulated by society. As the years have gone by and society has evolved; so have the criminal justice system and its methods to accomplish its role in society. This short analysis will evaluate the main facts that have been affecting the criminal justice system for decades and have influenced the evolution the justice system is enduring in a changing society (Muraski, 2009). Amongst the changes in the system, we will discuss the effect the changes have had on the citizens and how their perceptions have evolved as well.
“Training Day” displays a different level on how we view law enforcement. We are introduced to two different characters. Jake Hoyt, at first glance a calm, is introduced as a family man who has only a greater sense of justice. We see him excited to attempt is first introduction to the narcotics unit. He meets up with Alonzo the detective who’s going to chaperone him and to see if he’s qualified for the job. Alonzo is no nonsense detective, and we see this guy and already know that he is a man that does not follow the rules. This is the bases of the movie, a no nonsense cop with a rookie who follows the rules.
The media, both in the mainstream and alternative sources, determine how the community view crime and how it represents the victims of crime, criminals and law enforcement officials. Media organisations have arguably become the main source of news, entertainment, recreation, and product information in society. For many people, media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, social media and television broadcasts informs viewers about events that affect their everyday lives. This essay it will explore the many variations of how crime is mispresented to society through mass media organisations.
Public criminology takes information, research and education to the next level, as discovered through this essay. It doesn’t just include lab work, research and discoveries, it involves community based teaching in a way that the public can be informed and educated through upfront communication. Throughout this essay, the broad definition of public criminology will be discussed as well as its relevance to society. As with anything, there are challenges and promises that accompany public criminology and those will be stated in this essay. Examples will be given to help you learn the different concepts of public criminology and how it relates to our modern society. Given as a starting point, according to Larson (2012), public criminology involves:
Many of the citizens never had a one on one altercation with the law they only base their opinions on experiences with the police influence from other citizens, and that where they get their general image of the police. Many study indicates that police courteousness/friendliness in the direction of the citizen in a recent contact with police exerts the most powerful influence on the citizen’s general assessment of the police. However more studies have indicated that people’s previous overall views of police have sturdier influence on their evaluation of a succeeding specific contact than their evaluation of a specific contact has on subsequent overall views of police. The majority of the American public has not had face-to-face contact with a police officer. Most people respect the mass media as their primary source of information about the many crimes that go on around them, and crime news is the background for most mass media interpretations of police work. The implied message of much crime news is the lack of ability to catch offenders. A trend that is rising in a major way is in the news media. They are using it to focus their attention on a few
Media portrayal of crime and criminal justice has become incredibly widespread in the last decade, with crime often considered both a source of news and entertainment. As a source of entertainment, crime and criminal justice have emerged as central themes across various sources of media. Most individuals do not have any direct experience with the criminal justice system, so their only source of information on this topic is the media. Particularly in television shows, portrayals of crime and criminal justice can be seen in everything from courtroom dramas to nightly news programs. Indeed, the popularity of crime shows has lead to some of television’s most enduring series, such as Law and Order and CSI. Because of this, fictional
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.
The media today is often taken for granted; as people don’t realize the dominance the media source holds in the modern world. Through media sources such as newspaper, TV and social media crime could be easily spread through out the world within seconds. As a result of this, humans understanding of crime and crime control are largely relied upon the media as evidently most people will not be in those serious criminal situations. The media however takes advantage of this situation by exaggerating crime scenes and focusing on particular crimes to make the public fear. Particular groups in the media are stereotyped to an extent where the public foresees then as ‘dangerous’. As a consequence, a change in the public’s perception of crime has forced
Taking the paper to another perspective public fear of crime might influence individual behaviors. The fear of crime is a psychology of risk perception, and this is due to impersonal communication and the media. Therefore, the fear of crime is only the fear of becoming a victim to a crime. Moreover, this very well may be the reason for the public fear on crime, and it does affect their behaviors. Females are in fear of crime, and becoming a victim.
However in this essay, I am going to analyse what is the enduring appeal of crime drama for a television audience through a close analysis of crime theory, the narrative as well as the gender of the crime drama genre. I will illustrate my analysis with three detailed examples of Oz (1997-2003), 24 (2001-2010) and The Bill (1983-2010).