Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice

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Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice

• Dr. Matt Robinson
• CJ 3532
• Injustice in America
• Appalachian State University

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What are the Media?

• Wide range of sources of news and entertainment
• Includes TV, radio, newspapers, magazines,
  Internet, etc.
• Mainstream media are easily, inexpensively, and
  simultaneously accessible to large segments of
  the population.
• Even intrusive to our lives??? (consider DC
  sniper stories pp. 131-132)

3
What are the Media?

• Mainstream media are arranged within a hierarchy
  of controlling institutions
• They have an inner ring, middle ring, and an
  outer ring

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What are the Media?

• Inner ring media have the most impact on us
• They are the most watched, heard, read, etc.
• Examples? (see p. 124)

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What are the Media?

• Inner ring media owned by large corporations (see
  pp. 126-127)
• GE owns NBC, CNBC, and part of MSNBC
• AOL/Time Warner owns CNN, Headline News, CNNfn,
  CNNSI
• Walt Disney owns ABC, ESPN, ESPN2
• Viacom owns CBS, MTV, MTV2
• News Corporation owns Fox, Fox News Channel

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What are the Media?

• Why is corporate ownership of the media
  problematic?
• Many viewers are unaware that the crime news
  they see on TV is the version that large
  corporations choose to air. Would it be logical
  to expect these corporations to focus on their
  own acts of deviance ? there is substantial
  evidence that the media tend to ignore corporate
  crimes.

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What are the Media?

• US corporations, through the inner ring of
  media outlets they own and control, define
  problems, identify crises, and thereby determine
  what issues will be brought to the attention of
  political leaders and US citizens.
• the media have a direct impact on policies,
  including criminal justice activity, because they
  set limits on the breadth of ideological views
  that enter the policy-making debate in the United
  States. The media also choose which stories to
  emphasize and which to ignore

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What are the Media?

• This does not mean the media tell us what to
  think!
• Instead, they tell us what to think about!
• Coverage concern
• No coverage no concern

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An Example Drugs in 1980s
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1) The Media Invent Problems

• See p. 125 for example on terrorism

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How Crime Problems Get Created

• Socially constructed (invented)
• From objective facts
• Blown out of proportion to actual threat
• Problem is typified
• Linked to other social problems
• Typically related to powerless groups
• e.g., crack babies
• Policy is created (e.g., law)
• Legitimated through MEDIA

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e.g., Crack Cocaine in 1980s

• NEW YORK TIMES cover story announced arrival in
  Nov. 1985
• NYT crack stories increased from 43 (last 6
  months of 1985) to 92 (first 6 moths of 1986) to
  220 (second 6 months of 1986)
• Significance of NYT?

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New York Times

• Part of the inner ring of media

• inner ring media DETERMINE what is newsworthy

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After NYT

• 1986
• CBS 48 Hours on Crack Street
• NBCs Cocaine Country
• ( 400 other stories on it in 6 months)
• Time and Newsweek ran 5 cover stories
• April 1986 Cocaine The Big Lie (NIDA)
• 13 public service announcements
• Aired between 1,500 and 2,500 times on 75 local
  networks

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After NYT

• July 1986 Big 3 ran 74 stories on nightly news
• Nov. 1986 1,000 stories in papers and magazines
  on crack
• biggest story since Vietnam, plague,
  national epidemic, criminogenic

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After NYT

• Other news agencies PARROT the NYT

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And politicians

• Passed laws as a result
• e.g., Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986
• Created 1001 sentencing disparity (powder v.
  crack)
• Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988
• Created Office of National Drug Control Policy
  (ONDCP)

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Why is crack war problematic?

• Invented
• Media, politicians
• Inaccurate
• Crack use rare, isolated to inner-city
• Cocaine use actually declined during time

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Why is crack war problematic?

• Dishonest (not transparent)
• Pro get tough
• Pro status quo
• Moral panic / Feeding frenzy

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Newsweeks Coke Plague Story(March 17, 1986)
Shocking Numbers and Graphic Accounts Quantified
Images of Drug Problems in the Print Media James
D. Orcutt J. Blake Turner Social Problems,
Vol. 40, No. 2. (May, 1993), pp. 190-206.
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Newsweeks Coke Plague Story(March 17, 1986)

• Panel A actual data (depicts lifetime use not
  current use)

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Newsweeks Coke Plague Story(March 17, 1986)

• Panel B editorial deletions
• Cut out large increases in late 1970s
• Cut out foundation or context of data

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Newsweeks Coke Plague Story(March 17, 1986)

• Panel C tinkering with figure
• Made a finer Y scale (makes increase look
  larger)

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Newsweeks Coke Plague Story(March 17, 1986)

• Panel D more tinkering with figure
• Added depth (3-D) to make look larger
• Called it a plague

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(No Transcript)
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ACTUAL Cocaine Use(MTF, 12th graders)
Current Users
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I CAN DO THIS TOO!!!

• Watch

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Crack Cocaine Use(NHSDU 12 years)
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Crack Cocaine Use(NHSDU 12 years)
RUN!!! SAVE YOUR KIDS!!!
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CRACK BABIES
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CRACK BABIES

• Facts
• Yes, crack is bad for babies
• So is using cigarettes or alcohol
• So is poor health care, bad diet, stress during
  pregnancy, poverty
• Original studies FLAWED and now FALSIFIED

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2) The Media are Inaccurate
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Media Coverage of Crime

• Crime coverage is inaccurate focus is on
• Violent
• Random
• Unusual, bizarre
• If it bleeds, it leads! (see pp. 134-137)

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For example, school violence
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For example, school violence
Source Indicators of School Crime and Violence
2004. http//nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/crime_safe04/fig
ures.asp
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For example, homeless beatings
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For example, homeless beatings
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Media Coverage of Crime

• Far less focus on corporate and white-collar
  crime
• this is problematic because the media serve
  as the major source of information about crime or
  most people

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Media Coverage of Crime

• Also very little context provided
• Consider terrorism (see pp. 140-142)

http//www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/CitizenGuidance
HSAS2.pdf
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Media Coverage of Crime

• Outcomes include increased
• Perceptions of risk
• Fear
• Distrust
• Insecurity

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Media Coverage of Criminal Justice

• Criminal justice coverage is inaccurate
• Most focus is on early steps of CJ process
  (policing)
• Less focus on courts and corrections
• Court coverage implies adjudication occurs
  through formal means (trials)
• Little to no coverage of corrections
• Reinforces support for Crime Control model of
  criminal justice