Media representations of violence
The article "Violence to a T" (Ogg 1997, p. 3) is typical of the style and content of crime news reporting found in the mass media. That is, most crime news stories reported in the media misrepresent the "crime problem" by focussing only on certain types of crimes. Those crimes are usually bizarre or unusual events, such as murder or kidnapping. This focus presents the public with the image that the majority of crime involves personal violence. Added to this, the style of presentation adopted by the media serves to enhance the nature of the crime in the readers mind, reinforcing the theme than most crime is violent in nature. Moreover, the article "Violence to a T", like many other crime news stories, is presented without any discussion of possible causes. In contrast to the media's assessment and representation of crime, the field of criminology offers a wider examination of crime. It also attempts to account for why crimes occur through the application of various theories aimed at uncovering the cause of crime. Two such theories are classical theory and strain theory. When each theory is applied to a crime its strengths and weaknesses can be examined. The theory most appropriate to the particular crime can then be
Daly, K. 1995, 'Celebrated Crime Cases and the Public's Imagination: From Bad Press to Bad Policy?', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, pp. 6-22. In its application, the premise of classical theory that individual members of the 5T gang acted purely out of self-interest is supported by the articles description of the members as "...driving flash cars and dripping in gold...". In addition, the view that people became members of the 5T gang to make "easy money" gives further weight to the argument asserting that the self-interested nature of the gang members influenced them to commit crime. References
Some common words found in the essay are:
White Haines, Mueller Laufer, Violence Ogg, United Kingdom, Williams Dickinson, Journal Criminology, white haines, white haines 1996, haines 1996, Social Justice, strain theory, classical theory, criminal behaviour, adler mueller, Adler Mueller, adler mueller laufer, laufer 1995, mueller laufer, mueller laufer 1995, 5t gang, Sutherland Cressy, norms values, Daily Telegraph, assessment representation crime, media's assessment representation,
Approximate Word count = 2295
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
