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ACR 204- CRIME, MEDIA AND JUSTICE

WK 1: The Hydra- Understanding the media

WK 2: The Social Construction of Crime News  

Capability for social constructions to drive social behaviour for good or ill has been long recognised Social constructionism o people create reality (the world they believe exists) based on their personal experiences + from knowledge gained through social interactions o sees reality in a different light and views knowledge as something that’s socially created by people o Focuses on human relationships + way relationships affect how people perceive reality o Shared meanings people hold- ideas, interpretations + knowledge

Sources of Social Knowledge 

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Social constructionists seek to understand the process through which agreement is constructed and forces and conditions that influence when an accepted construction changes – when society’s agreement about its reality shifts Perceptions about social conditions change as social knowledge about these conditions change People acquire social knowledge from 4 sources o Personal experiences- most impactful source o Significant others- peers, family, friends (also called conversational reality) and other social groups o Institutions- schools, unions, churches + gov agencies o Media Social constructionists recognise 3 kinds of reality o Experienced reality o Symbolic reality o Socially constructed reality (1) Experienced reality

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1st source of knowledge- One’s directly experienced world- all events happened to you Knowledge gained from experienced reality is limited but has a powerful influence on individual’s constructed reality Personal victimisation is the most powerful source for defining one’s view of how serious a particular crime is Crime and justice experienced reality isn’t widespread like symbolic reality is

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(2) Symbolic reality o Next 3 sources of knowledge (other people, institutions + media) share their knowledge symbolically + collectively from one’s symbolic reality o All the events you didn’t witness but believe occurred o All the facts about the world you didn’t personally collect but believe to be true o All the things you believe to exist but haven’t seen o Eg. How many serial killers have you personally met? Most of us is none. List some characteristics of serial killers? – response based on symbolic reality knowledge o So much of our social knowledge was gained symbolically from the media

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(3) Socially constructed reality o Knowledge individuals gain from their experience and symbolic reality is mixed together- from the mix we each construct our own “world” o Perceived as the “real” world by each individual- what we individually believe the world to be like o Subjective reality differs to some degree between individuals because their experienced realities differ and what they incorporate from their symbolic realities varies o However, individuals with access to similar knowledge and interact with one another tend to construct similar social realities

Social construction process + the media 

Role social social

of the media in the construction process shows 4 stages of constructionism

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Stage 1: Physical world o Actual physical world we live in o events such as crimes/terrorist acts occur and are noted by individuals + organisations o The properties and conditions of the physical world provide the boundaries that the following stages normally work within o Competing constructions can’t maintain credibility if they run counter to the physical reality of the world o Eg. If Major of the city is forwarding social construction of the community being safe and there is rioting in the streets- her social construction wouldn’t be competitive for long

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Stage 2: Competing social constructions

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Offer differing descriptions of what the physical world is like Often these descriptions are social conditions that have been identified as social problems such as drugs/ crime Constructions offer differing explanations of why the physical world is as it is purported to be

Stage 3: Media as social construction competition area o Media help filter out competing constructions o Persons forwarding constructions compete for media attention o Media tend to favour positions that are dramatic, sponsored by powerful groups + are related to pre-established cultural themes o Media makes it difficult for those outside the mainstream to access the media and promote their constructions o By giving some constructions more credibility and coverage than others, media makes it hard for other constructions to gain legitimacy

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Eg. Disorganised, crime-ridden, poor neighbourhoods find it difficult to get their problems successfully constructed as serious social problems- they’re seen as unimportant + not seen at all

Stage 4: Winning social construction o Represents emergence of a dominant social construction of some part of the world o Due to most of us having very little direct experience with crime and justice reality, so the media’s construction eventually prevails o Winning dominant construction directs public policy

CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM  

Involves set of concepts that detail how social construction competition works Basic to the social construction process are claim makers, who compete with one another and argue for the social acceptance of their specific constructions of reality

Claim Makers + Claims     

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Claim makers are promoters, activists, professional experts and spokesperson involved in forwarding specific claims about a social condition They do more than draw attention to particular social conditions- shape our sense of what the conditions mean + what the social problem is Every social condition can be constructed in many different ways Eg. Crime can be constructed as a social, individual, racial, sexual, economic. Criminal justice or technological problem Each construction implies different policy courses + solutions that are imbedded in the claims made by competing claim makers

Claims come in 2 basic flavours- factual + interpretative Factual claims

Statements that purport to describe the world Statements about what happened + promoted as objective “facts” about the world Interpretative claims o Statements that focus on the meaning of events o They achieve 2 things  Offer an explanation of why a set of factual claims is as described  Offer a course of action eg. Public policy needs to be followed to address the conditions/events described in factual claims Both target the beliefs and attitudes that people hold out about the world Linkage o 1 strategy involving claims often used to get a social construction accepted by the public o Involves association of the subject of the social construction effort with other previously constructed issues o Eg. Drugs are linked to other social problems, such as crime  The strategy of linkage would argue that a drug must be criminalisedlinkage of crime to danger and calamity is also employed in the social construction process and are linked to the endangerment of health, families and communities Claim makers hope to have their claims accepted as the dominant social construction of reality To further enhance the likelihood success of their claims, claim makers make use of pre-established constructions or frames to advance their claims o o

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Frames   

Pre-packaged constructions or frames include factual and interpretative claims and associated policies Frame= fully developed social construction template that allows its users to categorize, label and deal with a wide range of world events Simplify one’s dealing with the world by organising experiences and events into groups and guiding what are seen as appropriate policies and actions

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Certain US crime and justice frames have deep historical roots- criminologist Theodore Sasson describes 5 long-standing frames that compete today (1) Faulty Criminal Justice System frame o Crime results from lack of law and order o People commit crimes knowing they can get away with them because the police are handcuffed by liberal judges and prisons are revolving doors o Only way to ensure public safety is to increase swiftness, certainty + severity of punishment o Loopholes must be eliminated and funding for police, courts and prisons must be increased o Eg. Faulty system frame is symbolically represented by previously convicted, repeat rapist or by image of inmates passing through revolving door

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(2) Blocked Opportunities Frame o Depicts crime as a consequence of inequality and discrimination- especially in unemployment, poverty + education o People commit crimes when they discover that legitimate means for attaining material success are blocked o Ignorance, disease, poor housing contributes to crime waves o To reduce crime, gov must ameliorate (better) social conditions that cause it o Eg. Symbolically portrayed through references to dead-end jobs held by inner city youth such as flipping burgers at Macca’s

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(3) Social Breakdown Frame o Depicts crime as a consequence of family and community disintegration, skyrocketing rates of divorce + out of wedlock births o Has both conservative + liberal versions o Conservative version attributes family and community breakdown to “permissiveness”

which is exemplified by protest movements + government-sponsored welfare Liberal version attributes family and community breakdown to unemployment, racial discrimination and loss of jobs + income 

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(4) Racist System Frame o Focuses on criminal justice system rather than crime o Depicts courts and police as racist agents of oppression o Police resources are seen as dedicated more to protection of white neighbourhoods than reducing crime in minority communities o Minority offenders seen as more likely than whites who commit similar offences to be arrested, convicted, sentenced to prison and be administered death penalty in racist manner o Eg. Symbolised by Trayvon Martin shooting + trial of OJ Simpson

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(5) Violent Media Frame o Depicts crime and social violence as a consequence of violence on television, in movies, popular music + video games o Argued that violence in mass media undermines respect for life o To reduce violence in society this frame directs us to first reduce it in the mass media o Eg. Symbolically reference by violent visual media, musical lyrics + video games o Violent media isn’t seen as the most important source of our cultural violence, but there’s a broad consensus that media is partially responsible for violent crime

How Frames influence crime and justice policy 

Crime and justice claim makers can guarantee level of support if they can fit their social construction within one of these frames

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Tend to favour the faulty system and social breakdown frames over the other three In addition to these fully constructed frames, less comprehensive social construction tools (aka narratives) are also available to claim makers

Narratives 

Less encompassing, pre-established mini-social constructions found through crime and justice media

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Crime and justice portraits that the public already recognises + has embraced Not broad explanations of crime but rather outline recurring crime and justice types + situations that regularly appear in the media Eg. Naïve and innocent person stumbles into victimisation is a common recurring crime narrative Utilised quickly to establish characteristics of a criminal, victim or crime-fighter Often linked to faulty system frame in practice

Symbolic crimes 

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Crimes and other criminal justice events that are selected and highlighted by claim makers as the perfect example of why their crime and justice construction should be accepted Eg. Trial of OJ Simpson seen as well-known symbolic crimes They convince people of the existence of a pressing crime and justice problem + desperate need for policy Forwarded by claim makers as either o Type of crime we can expect to happen more often if we allow these conditions to continue or o An example of what a new criminal justice policy will correct if we implement it

When claim makers win a social construction competition, they gain another benefit- ownership of social problems + issues

Ownership   

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Identification of a particular social condition with a particular set of claim makers who come to dominate social construction of that issue Often claim makers own an issue if they’re sought out by the media and others for their opinion + info Some groups by virtue of their superior power, finances, status, organisation, technology or media access have a greater ability to make their constructions appear legitimate o Make their version of reality stick o Take effective ownership of the issue Eg. Because of their media access and control of crime data, law enforcement agencies have proprietary ownership of crime

NEW MEDIA + SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION

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Simplest way to perceive new media and understand their effects on social construction process is to describe how it differs from old media Old or “legacy media” composed of dominant 20th century traditional media forms of new broadcasts, newspapers, magazines, television, film, radio + music New media has all these older forms and their content into a new high speed, digital + personalised delivery platforms Key different between old and new media is NOT in terms of content BUT in access, distribution + creation of content

Legacy + New Media Differences  

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Most important change between old and new media lies in the relationship found between creators of media content and the consumers of the content Legacy Media world o Media content was created and distributed by distant others to distant isolated consumers o Feedback loops between audience and creators were weak and slow o Obvious clear distinctions between writers and readers, speakers and listeners, performers and audiences and producers and consumers o Content creation was top-down direction New media o Different creator/consumer relationship o Consumers can also be producers of self-generated mediated content + assume the role of distributors of content o Audience creative participation, peer-to-peer distribution + proliferation of user-generated content

Difference s 1

New Media   

Less emphasis on attracting large, passive, heterogeneous audiences Small homogenous audiences that have a special interest in a narrow type of content are targeted This characteristic was first developed in traditional media of radio by splitting genre of music (Narrowcasting)

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On-demand nature: attendance in new media is easier to achieve Delivery of content is controlled + determined by consumer Except for live media content, little media content must be consumed at a particular time and few social events need to directly attended

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Easy widespread sharing of content Media content distribution is no longer a centralised process but rather a decentralised experience

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Interactivity New media consumer can be an active participant in the development, distribution, social assessment and ultimate social impact of their content Audience moves from passive receptor of pre-determined content to an active participant role in the creation of content In traditional media consumption, the consumer’s only decision was whether to consume the offered content or not

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General effects on society from New Media 

(1) Flow of content + globalisation of information o Audience isn’t isolated and individuals can communicate anonymously but intimately o Internet provides communication in a global scale

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(2) News o Reduced timely interpretation of content o Exposure to discussions of crime has become more narrow then compared to legacy media-based news- if someone is interested in crime news they can watch more but those who aren’t interested can avoid it

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(3) Large knowledge gap o Self-selected consumers know a lot about narrow subjects but little about much else o New media has enormously increased access to large amounts of info and multiple world views, but ironically it has the social effect of decreasing the diversity of content being access and the viewpoints considered

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION PROCESS IN ACTION Social

construction of Road Rage  

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New crime was constructed by the media Media sought to describe but also explain and interpret the problem eg. Highway congestion coupled with the anonymity of the car could trigger these violent outrages in people Media also offered competing interpretative claims for highway violence- interpreted as a faulty system frame problem + more law enforcement was a solution to this problem In this case the media was the primary claims maker in the construction of road rage

Reconstruction of driving under the influence

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Media also influences crime construction process by raising the perception of a crime’s seriousness Eg. public’s evolving beliefs about drinking + driving Driving under the influence (DUI) has been socially constructed as a much more serious crime Drunk driver characterised as a “killer drunk” + one of society’s crime problems Clear shift in media’s construction of drinking and driving and how society reacted to drink driving DUI offenders socially constructed as a menace to society- support grew for stricter DUI laws and their enforcement + prosecution

Competing constructions of the arrest of Rodney King    

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Example of arrest and beating shows the social construction competition process in which different constructed realities strove to become the dominant view 3 different constructions of the cause + meaning of the event competed- each construction suggesting different policies (1) King resisted arrest and the beating was justified by King’s prior actions- no charges were required as police were acting appropriately (2) Beating was unjustified but was an isolated incident of unwarranted police violence carried out by rogue officers o Officers were acting inappropriately but it wasn’t representative of L.A police officers o Implies action of firing the rogue officers and reprimanding officers (3) Beating was unjustified and seen as an example of an ongoing problem of unwarranted and consistent police violence towards minorities o Fitted within racist system frame o Police changes suggest changing administration and training at police department + making extensive organisational changes In the end 2nd Construction was pursued and the rogue police officers were tried and convicted of civil rights violations BUT 3rd Construction eventually won the construction- L.A police chief resigned and new African-American chief was hired

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM AND CRIME + JUSTICE

WK 3: Historical Print and Media

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Due to society being media-saturated, pervasive media makes it seem like there’s more violence when there isn’t

Criminals    

Resulting portrait of criminals in today’s media has almost no correspondence with official statistics of persons arrested for crimes Backwards law- tendency of media to portray crime and j...