Posted: June 23rd, 2022

Media Portrayal of Crime

Homework help – Write a 3-5 page essay that has a minimum of 5 outside sources supporting your ideas. The paper requires you to use Help write my thesis – APA style.

Topic: Media portrayal of crime

Despite the fact that many people are in fact affected by crime, the way that crime is portrayed in the media, and the level of fear of crime in society as a whole, is not an accurate reflection of the actual level of crime. As television news devotes a larger proportion of time to covering crime, public fear of crime has increased, even as actual crime rates have fallen. Political campaigns also use fear of crime for their own purposes.

**For this topic, write about how the media effects the perception of crime in our society. How is crime portrayed in the media, which ethnic and racial groups are marginalized based on the perception of “who” commits crime? Assignment help – Discuss the crime rates, are these media ideologies correct
Media Portrayal of Crime
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Media Portrayal of Crime
The media holds great influence over a community’s perception of crime based on what it distributes for consumption. As more people are connected to one form of media or another, it is likely that societies are ever being fed with news that change or contribute to their beliefs. Media houses are said to allocate 30% of news coverage to crime since it captures the attention of viewers, listeners, or readers. However, there are studies that have accused the media of increasing fear of crime within individuals who correlate minorities to violence. Also, crime rates tend to increase or decrease based of the media’s portrayal of crime even though this claim has a weak supporting evidence. Even if the crime rates are dropping, the news tend to show of the insecurities that plague the streets, nation or business worlds. The role media houses play in portrayal of crime may have adverse effects in the community such as increased fear and racialization despite statistical data showing a drop in crime.
Increased exposure to crime is said to elevate the fear of crime among societies. According to Melanie Brown (1996), those who watch crime news fall into two categories. One group is individuals who tend to think they may fall victim to crime related activities while the other group includes those who experience increased aggression. The perception of an increase in crime tends to make society feel the need to protect themselves as they perceive the world to be unsafe. This has relatively gone against the statistical evidence of crime rates which seem to be falling (Mann, 2018). The second group that is influenced by crime includes those who are encouraged by on-screen violence to partake in the same (Brown, 1996). Research has found that exposure to violence contributes to variables inclined towards violent crime.
Political campaigns have used the media as a tool to instill fear among citizens causing dangerous racialization. Research has shown that both social structures and the context of the news are considered before relaying information to the public (Bjornstrom et al., 2010) Donald Trump has been one to use television news as a political weapon while at the same time placing immigrants at the center of the heat. During his 2016 campaign, he vowed to put an end to this carnage which he has tried to do during his term by oppressing minorities. African Americans, especially males, have been exposed to the news as criminals since the media has focused more on crimes perpetuated by people of the same race. Latinos are also experiencing the same treatment whereby they are more likely to appear more on crime news as opposed to positive news coverage. During the years 1995 to 2004, Latinos received more criminal coverage making the society feel insecure about them (Sun, 2018). Sadly, societies have been made to believe that these racial minorities are much more dangerous than their counterparts who commit the same crime.
Crime rates are drastically dropping as seen by the close of 2019, but the media still allocated a large portion of time to crime exposure. During the years 1960 to 1980, there was an increase in murders such that the rates doubled from 5.1 to 10.2 per each 100,000 citizens (Grawert and Kimble, 2019). The year 1990 saw New York experience a total of 2,245 murders which was 30% of each 100,000 population. However, by the start of the 20th century, crime dropped and continued to do so over the years. Fourteen years into the century, the murder rates stood at 4.4 per each 100,000 Americans while New York experienced a 90% drop. The next two years experienced a back and forth rate resulting in a 5.4 per 100,000 in 2016. Despite the increase, the difference was commendable when compared to 1990 (Grawert and Kimble, 2019). By 2018, each state was experiencing a drastic drop in crimes with El Paso, Baltimore, and Philadelphia serving as examples.
Unfortunately, the media’s approaches are unethical as they are not in accordance to statistical facts. It is fair to say that the media has collective influence over societies and their power can be used for good or bad (Mastrorocco and Minale, 2018). Intermediaries such as the internet, newspapers, and television are the tools being used to channel increase of fear among individuals by making them perceive heightened levels of crime which is wrong. Crime is the center focus in most nations as they try to eradicate nationwide insecurity but there is not need to unethically sway the masses for personal gain (Mastrorocco and Minale, 2018). The crime rates are ever decreasing but people will tend to perceive an increase in crime due to what they watch on TV.
In conclusion, crime affects a lot of people but its portrayal on the media may cause adverse effects in society. Even if crime news capture more attention, it is worrying that the perceptions of people are manipulated to consider otherwise about race and crime rates. The ideologies of media to focus more on one side of the story than the other causes changes to individual perceptions. And while the media plays the role of news distribution, it can be used as a weapon by politicians to sway the public to unethical decisions. Media houses should consider more ethical approaches where they show stories from a holistic angle to avoid racialization and increased fear of crime.

References
Brown, M. (1996). The portrayal of violence in the media: Impacts & implications for policy. Australian Institute of Criminology.
Bjornstrom, E. E., Kaufman, R. L., Peterson, R. D., & Slater, M. D. (2010). Race and ethnic representations of lawbreakers and victims in crime news: A national study of television coverage. Social problems, 57(2), 269-293.
Grawert, A., and Kimble, C. (2019). Takeaways from 2019 Crime Data in Major American Cities. Retrieved from https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/takeaways-2019-crime-data-major-american-cities
Mann, S. (2018). Crime and the media in America. Retrieved from https://blog.oup.com/2018/04/crime-news-media-america/
Mastrorocco, N., & Minale, L. (2018). News media and crime perceptions: Evidence from a natural experiment. Journal of Public Economics, 165, 230-255.
Sun, E. (2018). The Dangerous Racialization of Crime in US News Media. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/criminal-justice/news/2018/08/29/455313/dangerous-racialization-crime-u-s-news-media/

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