LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION
In this lecture:
- Social Construction of Crime
o Constructivist criminology – Crime, Power, Media
- Theories on Crime and the Media
o Overview of theories and approaches in the study of crime and
the media
- Challenging assumptions
o How to approach the relationship between crime, power and
the media
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF CRIME
Definition of crime differs in time and place
What is Crime and who is Criminal?
- 1964: Jacobellis v. Ohio
o “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of
material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand
description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly
doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture
involved in this case is not that.”
(Concurring opinion Justice Potter Steward)
Idea that we cannot put our fingers on it, but we know it
when we see it
Crime as a construct?
- Mainstream and traditional views or crime
- Criminal law – strict definition and criteria of what is a criminal act
and what behavioral components are prerequisite to define a
criminal
- Legal dogma dominated – “fetishization of facts” and “scientific
truth”
o Attached, no argument
- BUT law itself is a societal construct
o Rape within marriage was no crime
- Critical and Cultural Criminology – beyond the law
- Subjective experiences, socioeconomic and historical context
- CRIME and DEVIANCE as a SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
[Constructivist approach]
THEORIES ON CRIME IN THE MEDIA
- News Media
o Print media (newspaper), broadcast news (television, radio,
internet)
- New Media
o Social media, blogs, forums (digital)
Interaction
- Popular Media
, o Movies, film, music, podcasts, books
Sometimes fiction, stories
Theorizing crime in the media
- Crime as a topic or genre remains vastly popular
- Media as a source of information and entertainment
- Continued debate on the effects of media portrayals of crime and
our perceptions of crime and criminality
- Does the media affect us – or do we affect the media?
Mass Society Theory
- Late 19th and early 20th century – positivism and behaviorism and
bio-psychological approaches in social sciences
- Behavior is a response to external stimuli, which can be predicted
(biological/psychological level) or conditioned (learned and
reinforced)
- Biology, psychology, medicine
o Medicine also tried to explain human behavior
- Scientific research, trials seeking to find cause and effect
- Policies in the prediction and prevention of crime
- The media as influencing the masses
- Proposes a “cause and effect” relationship between media and mass
society – a stimulus that evokes a reaction
- Mass media injects society with values, morals, and information that
affects behavior and thought [Hypodermic syringe model]
- Portrayals of crime and violence in the media may also inject fear,
anxiety, and motivates deviant or criminal behavior
- [Moral panics] [Folk devils]
o Media creates a fear of something
Satanic Panic (1970-1980)
- Games, music etc. that would be a gateway to join a satanic cult
- (Satanic) Panic (today)
o ‘China virus’ Chinese customers rejected because of Corona
Virus
Strain and Anomie Theory
- Emile Durkheim (1895) [Anomie] a breakdown of the “moral
authority of collective consciousness” where society cannot regulate
the “appetites of individual conscience” leading to mass non-
conformity and crime (Lanier and Henry, 2010)
o If society loses its morals state of anomie
o Anomie = uncontrollable state, being lost
- Robert Merton (1938) [Strain theory] “appetites” are not natural
human characteristics but created by cultural influences. Individuals
are pushed to achieve culturally defined goals (success, money,
beauty). This inability to do so creates “strain” which lead to criminal
behavior
, o Individuals aren’t born with deviance or something culture
creates images of what success looks like
House, car, job, beauty, access to things
o Crime and nonconformed deviant behavior is a result from
strain
People don’t have the right tools, aren’t in the state
where they have access to these successful and good
things in society
- Anomie and strain are created by the mass media, affecting those
that are isolated from the society
- Builds on the “hypodermic syringe model” – that values and images
of success are “injected” into society
- ……….
Dominant Ideology Approach
- Mid-20th century – critique of capitalism
- Karl Marx – society is controlled by the elite, which exploit the lower
classes
- Antionio Gramsci – control is kept by the upper classes by producing
hegemonic cultures – the propagation of the values and norms
that uphold the power of the elites, and are accepted as “common
sense”
- Radical and critical criminology – crime and criminal are labels
attached to people or behavior by powerful classes – top down
o Dominant powerful classes defined what is undesirable and
not accepted, they put a label on the lower classes
- [Labelling theory] [Stereotyping]
- ‘Radical’/critical/new criminology: importance of structural
inequalities in determining crime and criminality
o “Media representations may support or (more rarely)
challenge the dominant definitions of a situation, and they can
extend, legitimize, celebrate or criticize the prevailing
discourses at any given time” (Jewkes, 2004 pp. 16)
- The “media” is owned by corporations and organizations media
representations (of crime) reproduce interests and ideologies of
powerful actors
- [Hierarchy of credibility] [Propaganda model]
Pluralism
- 1980s – 1990s
- Counter argument for the dominant ideology approach
- Free market plurality of sources and channels forum for all
views
- Information overload – sensationalism
o Information and sensation merge
- “Fast-info”, superficial, dumbing down, TLDR
- [Soundbite journalism] [Infotainment]
Postmodernism, Cultural Criminology
, - From mid 1990s
- The audience has agency to choose what to consume and what to
ignore
- Excess of information goal becomes to attract attention
- Media dominates to extent that the “real” and the “image” can no
longer be divided
- Audience gratification
- Reinforce “fantasies” – the atypical as typical
- [Hyperreality] [Carnival of crime] [Voyeurism]
ASSUMPTIONS IN THE ANALYSIS OF CRIME IN THE
MEDIA
Assumption
- Directions of causality
- Audience homogeneity
o Individuals experienced different things, different ways of
behaving
- Erroneous conclusions about “public” perceptions
- Medialization
- Contextual aspects
- Subjective and cultural experience of crime in the media
- Negotiated meaning active participation in interpretation
o Active interpreting, not passively
- Civilians as sources of information
LECTURE 2: LABELLING, MORAL PANIC(S) AND
THE INTERACTIVE CONSTRUCTION OF THE
DEVIANT FIGURE
In this lecture
- Becker’s Outsiders: labelling and the master status
- Exploring moral panics and the media
- Exemplifying the connections and complexities
PART 1: CONSTRUCTING THE OUTSIDERS
Labelling
- Becker how society constructs the outsider
- Assumptions about rule-breaking
o There is something inherently deviant about acts that break
the ‘rules’
o Deviant acts occur because of a characteristic of the rule-
breaker that compels him to break rules (the law)
Ideas of rules is undefined
o Unquestioned acceptance of the values of the group passing
the judgment
Idea of moral judgement
In this lecture:
- Social Construction of Crime
o Constructivist criminology – Crime, Power, Media
- Theories on Crime and the Media
o Overview of theories and approaches in the study of crime and
the media
- Challenging assumptions
o How to approach the relationship between crime, power and
the media
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF CRIME
Definition of crime differs in time and place
What is Crime and who is Criminal?
- 1964: Jacobellis v. Ohio
o “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of
material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand
description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly
doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture
involved in this case is not that.”
(Concurring opinion Justice Potter Steward)
Idea that we cannot put our fingers on it, but we know it
when we see it
Crime as a construct?
- Mainstream and traditional views or crime
- Criminal law – strict definition and criteria of what is a criminal act
and what behavioral components are prerequisite to define a
criminal
- Legal dogma dominated – “fetishization of facts” and “scientific
truth”
o Attached, no argument
- BUT law itself is a societal construct
o Rape within marriage was no crime
- Critical and Cultural Criminology – beyond the law
- Subjective experiences, socioeconomic and historical context
- CRIME and DEVIANCE as a SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
[Constructivist approach]
THEORIES ON CRIME IN THE MEDIA
- News Media
o Print media (newspaper), broadcast news (television, radio,
internet)
- New Media
o Social media, blogs, forums (digital)
Interaction
- Popular Media
, o Movies, film, music, podcasts, books
Sometimes fiction, stories
Theorizing crime in the media
- Crime as a topic or genre remains vastly popular
- Media as a source of information and entertainment
- Continued debate on the effects of media portrayals of crime and
our perceptions of crime and criminality
- Does the media affect us – or do we affect the media?
Mass Society Theory
- Late 19th and early 20th century – positivism and behaviorism and
bio-psychological approaches in social sciences
- Behavior is a response to external stimuli, which can be predicted
(biological/psychological level) or conditioned (learned and
reinforced)
- Biology, psychology, medicine
o Medicine also tried to explain human behavior
- Scientific research, trials seeking to find cause and effect
- Policies in the prediction and prevention of crime
- The media as influencing the masses
- Proposes a “cause and effect” relationship between media and mass
society – a stimulus that evokes a reaction
- Mass media injects society with values, morals, and information that
affects behavior and thought [Hypodermic syringe model]
- Portrayals of crime and violence in the media may also inject fear,
anxiety, and motivates deviant or criminal behavior
- [Moral panics] [Folk devils]
o Media creates a fear of something
Satanic Panic (1970-1980)
- Games, music etc. that would be a gateway to join a satanic cult
- (Satanic) Panic (today)
o ‘China virus’ Chinese customers rejected because of Corona
Virus
Strain and Anomie Theory
- Emile Durkheim (1895) [Anomie] a breakdown of the “moral
authority of collective consciousness” where society cannot regulate
the “appetites of individual conscience” leading to mass non-
conformity and crime (Lanier and Henry, 2010)
o If society loses its morals state of anomie
o Anomie = uncontrollable state, being lost
- Robert Merton (1938) [Strain theory] “appetites” are not natural
human characteristics but created by cultural influences. Individuals
are pushed to achieve culturally defined goals (success, money,
beauty). This inability to do so creates “strain” which lead to criminal
behavior
, o Individuals aren’t born with deviance or something culture
creates images of what success looks like
House, car, job, beauty, access to things
o Crime and nonconformed deviant behavior is a result from
strain
People don’t have the right tools, aren’t in the state
where they have access to these successful and good
things in society
- Anomie and strain are created by the mass media, affecting those
that are isolated from the society
- Builds on the “hypodermic syringe model” – that values and images
of success are “injected” into society
- ……….
Dominant Ideology Approach
- Mid-20th century – critique of capitalism
- Karl Marx – society is controlled by the elite, which exploit the lower
classes
- Antionio Gramsci – control is kept by the upper classes by producing
hegemonic cultures – the propagation of the values and norms
that uphold the power of the elites, and are accepted as “common
sense”
- Radical and critical criminology – crime and criminal are labels
attached to people or behavior by powerful classes – top down
o Dominant powerful classes defined what is undesirable and
not accepted, they put a label on the lower classes
- [Labelling theory] [Stereotyping]
- ‘Radical’/critical/new criminology: importance of structural
inequalities in determining crime and criminality
o “Media representations may support or (more rarely)
challenge the dominant definitions of a situation, and they can
extend, legitimize, celebrate or criticize the prevailing
discourses at any given time” (Jewkes, 2004 pp. 16)
- The “media” is owned by corporations and organizations media
representations (of crime) reproduce interests and ideologies of
powerful actors
- [Hierarchy of credibility] [Propaganda model]
Pluralism
- 1980s – 1990s
- Counter argument for the dominant ideology approach
- Free market plurality of sources and channels forum for all
views
- Information overload – sensationalism
o Information and sensation merge
- “Fast-info”, superficial, dumbing down, TLDR
- [Soundbite journalism] [Infotainment]
Postmodernism, Cultural Criminology
, - From mid 1990s
- The audience has agency to choose what to consume and what to
ignore
- Excess of information goal becomes to attract attention
- Media dominates to extent that the “real” and the “image” can no
longer be divided
- Audience gratification
- Reinforce “fantasies” – the atypical as typical
- [Hyperreality] [Carnival of crime] [Voyeurism]
ASSUMPTIONS IN THE ANALYSIS OF CRIME IN THE
MEDIA
Assumption
- Directions of causality
- Audience homogeneity
o Individuals experienced different things, different ways of
behaving
- Erroneous conclusions about “public” perceptions
- Medialization
- Contextual aspects
- Subjective and cultural experience of crime in the media
- Negotiated meaning active participation in interpretation
o Active interpreting, not passively
- Civilians as sources of information
LECTURE 2: LABELLING, MORAL PANIC(S) AND
THE INTERACTIVE CONSTRUCTION OF THE
DEVIANT FIGURE
In this lecture
- Becker’s Outsiders: labelling and the master status
- Exploring moral panics and the media
- Exemplifying the connections and complexities
PART 1: CONSTRUCTING THE OUTSIDERS
Labelling
- Becker how society constructs the outsider
- Assumptions about rule-breaking
o There is something inherently deviant about acts that break
the ‘rules’
o Deviant acts occur because of a characteristic of the rule-
breaker that compels him to break rules (the law)
Ideas of rules is undefined
o Unquestioned acceptance of the values of the group passing
the judgment
Idea of moral judgement
