CJ & Engl

CRJC210BarkanCh2.pptx

Chapter 2

Public Opinion, News Media and the Crime Problem

(Publisher slides were used as the basis for this document, however, the information has been updated and includes information not in the book.)

Reminders

These slides are like my lecture notes. I will not review every item from the readings. You cannot pass the class with the PP slides only. I will add information in addition to the book to the slides. You will be tested on this information.

You should read and take notes on the book, and then review my slides for additional examples and new information related to the topic of the chapter.

When you highlight information you identify it as important

When you write information in your notes you start to remember it so you can apply it and evaluate it

ALL INFORMATION in the textbook, the slides, and the videos is subject to Reading Quiz and Exam questions.

Introduction

Crime is very real

Individual experiences

News media depictions

TV/Movie portrayals (entertainment media; Forensic Files, etc.)

Crime is actually a very rare event, it does not happen often (see crime rates and victimization reports).

However, we study crime due to the terrible impact is has on people and society when it does happen, so we can try to prevent and control events and offenders

We study crime through the format of social science so we can develop a logical pattern of events and behaviors rather than simply anecdotal personal experience, and then create public policy responses.

Crime does not happen randomly in society. Ch 2-4 help us document this fact. For example, there are geographic crime hot spots, there are variations in victimization rates that are not random (look for age and gender examples in later chanters)

It is important to recognize crime myths (cut and paste link into a browser)

Myths and Realities: Understanding Recent Trends in Violent Crime | Brennan Center for Justice

What did you learn from reviewing this material? This is a great short answer or extra credit question.

Public Opinion About Crime: History is important to studying social phenomena (pg 19)

Media, religious figures, and politicians have always said: There is too much crime, and they typically say that crime is increasing (is crime always rising?)

Salem witch trials

Mob violence (gangs and labor disputes) in the Northeast during the early 1800s

The outlaws in the Old West

High crime rates in the 1920s-30s

Public Opinion and Crime Policy

Democratic theory (Dye; Saward)

This theory proposes that public policy should reflect public opinion

What is the flaw in this position? (hint: mob rule)

What if laws reflect the view of the few – minority rule of politically powerful

Public officials can be influenced by a small, powerful elite

The Golden Rule – “those who have the gold make the rules”

Search current information about marriage equality public opinion vs public policy and Abortion/choice public opinion vs policy

What if we do the greatest good from the greatest number of “people who count”?

Majority opinion may violate principles of fairness, equality, and justice

Consider civil rights and marriage equality – this changed recently, will it change back?

Public opinion is often inaccurate: 1) Is crime increasing, decreasing or stable? 2) Are children more likely to be victimized by strangers? 3) Do the elderly have the highest victimization rates?

Answers: 1) crime decreasing in some areas and slight increases in others, with fairly stable in others (not a return to the highs of the 1990s); 2) non-strangers like family members are more likely to victimize children; 3) young, black males have higher victimization rates than the elderly

Public Opinion and Crime (cont.)

Personal Opinions about criminal justice stem from:

News media and social media (memes)

Politicians on websites, in speeches, on news shows

May differ by a person's race, ethnicity, gender, age, nationality, religion, immigration status,

May differ by personal experiences and experiences of friends

We can use social science surveys to study public opinion – have you ever participated in an opinion survey?

What can social science studies tell us about crime and victimization? Can public opinion studies reveal anti-democratic attitudes like racial prejudice, gender prejudice, anti-Jewish prejudices, etc.

Overdramatization of Crime (pg 20-23)

Does the media depict crime accurately?

Remember the crack baby crisis? Where are these children now? Typically, functioning the same as non-crack babies

It is fetal alcohol syndrome babies that have more long-term deficiencies

Search for information on opioid addicted babies

Crime stories used because they capture viewers/readers attention

Terrorism! We have more domestic terrorist events and prosecutions in the US each year than international terrorism events Check the Southern Poverty Law Center webpage)

Do illegal immigrants commit more crime than native-born Americans? (NO! search in Google Scholar for research)

Most dramatic crime in TV/movies is violent crime

By contrast, most crime is property crime; crime - a way to generate income – theft, stolen cars, robbery, burglary, drug sales, prostitution, white color crime, etc.

Inaccurate information creates flawed public policy.

Will the drugs that come to the US from Mexico be prevented by the border wall? Or, are most of them coming through the ports, railroad lines, tunnels and trucking industries?

KEY: Social Science based studies reflect more accurate understanding and explanation of crime as a basis for public policy.

Overdramatization of Crime: Media Driven Crime Waves

When the media devotes much attention to small number of crimes

Typically, about violence and drugs

However, when crimes are counted, most common crimes are property crimes - crime is essentially an income generating activity (more in later chapters)

Some stories are reflective of real problems – opioid drug epidemic – but this epidemic did not come out of no where and must be seen in an historical and cultural context

What is the current “crime wave”? (check current events)

Creates false impression that crime is rampant/common

This discussion often occurs even when crime rate is falling

Review Missing children information – stranger vs non-stranger

Other Problems with media Coverage (pg 23-25)

False beliefs about crime (start in chapter 2 and continue with chapters 3 and 4)

People of Color: “Racial/Ethnic minorities are the typical offenders in all violent crime, property crime and drugs”

All racial groups commit these crimes, minorities and males are overrepresented in arrest rates, but they are also overrepresented as victims

Often the typical offender is a white male

Youth commit all of the crime

All of us do crime of some sort in our lives, typically, young people commit more crime than older people, but we typically age out of committing crime by 18 years old.

Young people also have the highest victimization rates

Virtuous victims (review this discussion in the book)

What is this discussion about? Give current examples

Expect a Reading Quiz question

“Crime is rampant and overwhelmingly violent” – not what the data show – the typical crime is property crime – thus, crime is oncome generating activity (seel a service or turn a stolen item into cash.

Additional Problems in Media Coverage (pg 24, highlight box)

Selecting people to interview based on reporter’s point of view

Use of value-laden language

Presenting misleading data

Neglect of white-collar crime

Lack of social/historical context

Be able to explain each issue and why it is a problem and be able to provide examples

Does Fox News interview the same crime experts as MSNBC?

Effects of Media Coverage (pg 25-27)

REVIEW: The media can provide misleading depictions of aspects of crime (amount of crime, type of crime, location of crime, prevalence of crime, types of victims, etc.)

What impact is there on the public understanding of crime?

Example: Violent crimes are overrepresented

However, while most of us experience some type of violence in our lifetime, it is typically a simple assault and committed by a non-stranger

Effects of Flawed Media Coverage

Public ignorance about prevalence of crime victimization

We are all victims at come point in our lives of violence crime and property crime – but not with great frequency and most often of a non-serious nature

Public fear and concern about things that are not realistic

Crime wave by illegal immigrants (research shows less delinquency than native born population)

Obscuring underlying forces (historic and cultural)

Drug war and opioid crisis have economic roots

Diversion of our attention from white-collar crime

Did people lose more money last year to their bank charging inappropriate fees or household burglary?

Racial and ethnic stereotyping of typical offenders can fuel racial/ethnic tensions

Not in the book: Who benefits from flawed news stories?

J. Reiman (The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison) says that a distorted view of crime keeps citizens distracted from larger societal issues such as the impact of state crime, environmental crime, white collar crime, etc.

Are you more worried about getting mugged walking to your car at night or being ripped off by bogus bank charge fees? A higher mortgage fee because of race/gender?

See recent news stories on Wells Fargo fraud charges

Reiman calls this distorted view of crime a carnival mirror. He argues that the Criminal Justice system is designed to fail. We are conditioned to worry more about the poor and black/brown people as criminal offenders rather than bankers and politicians.

Research on Public Beliefs: (pg 27-31): 1a) Fear of Crime

Crime is threatening

Especially if done by strangers

Crime can lead to physical and psychological injury

Elderly victims are rationally fearful about losing money on a fixed income and physical injury that can result in loss of mobility and freedom to live alone

According to the 2021 GSS, 36% of respondents report they are afraid to walk in their neighborhood alone at night

We fear gun crime by strangers, but gun injuries are more likely to occur in the home with a legally obtained weapon, through anger or accident https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1559827610396294

Research on Public Beliefs: 1b) Structural Factors & Fear of Crime

Fear of crime is linked to various community characteristics

Dilapidated living conditions of neighborhood

Broken Windows Theory of social disorganization leading to neighborhood decline has been used to justify to zero tolerance policing and aggressive stop and frisk policies Broken Windows Theory of Policing (Wilson & Kelling ) (simplypsychology.org)

Proportion of people of color or another nationality living nearby

The “other” is always feared, this is fueled by racial composition of neighborhoods and population trends of whites no longer majority population Did The U.S. White Population Decline And Shrink? It's Complicated : NPR AND Census: Whites no longer a majority in U.S. by 2043 - CBS News

Full article: Race and Ethnic Differences in Fear of Property, Personal, and Gang Victimization among People Involved in Crime: Testing the Effects of Perceived Neighborhood Characteristics (tandfonline.com)

Urban areas (see Figure 2.1)

Crime rates are often higher in urban areas than in rural areas

Research on Public Beliefs: 1c) Individual Characteristics of Fear and Crime

Higher fear of crime linked to demographic variables:

Elderly more fear than younger people

Females (Figure 2.2) more fear compared to males

Race/ethnicity, especially among African-Americans and Hispanics compared to whites (Figure 2.3)

INTERSECTIONALITY (see Ch 1, Figure 2.4) what should you remember?

Income – lower income more fear

Mixed results on link between prior victimization increasing fear of crime

Victimization- termination link: Some drug offenders stop selling drugs after being the victim of robberies: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2008.00131.x

Consequences: Fear of crime can negatively impact your life

Leads to mistrust of others and change to your work, leisure, church, family activities as a result

Leads to population turnover, move out of certain perceived “bad” neighborhoods, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of bad school, bad parks, etc.

Threatens economic viability of neighborhoods, when people move out, so do businesses, churches, banks, etc.

Additional Research on Public Beliefs about Crime and Punitiveness(31-34)

2) Anger about Crime –

Is anger higher than fear?

More fear if younger, lower income and lower education

What explanation can you offer for these facts? Think logically.

3) Seriousness of Crime – will my opinion lead me to install alarms? cameras? Etc. at my home and business? Support this answer

Research Cont.: What the social science research says about perceptions ot …

Punitiveness

Public perception concerning judgment of appropriate punishment for convicted criminals.

Americans are punitive in relation to crime and criminals

Interactions between opinions and race: What is the significance of racial prejudice and resentment on harsher sentencing of offenders?

Public policy in a democratic society should not be influenced by racial resentment – see democratic theory pg 19

Support for the Death Penalty in murder cases

Those likely to support the death penalty: Men, Caucasians, Older people, less educated individuals, Southerners, political conservatives – what does this mean?

No empirical social science research supports deterrent effect of the death penalty – its purpose is vengeance and/or retaliation There’s no evidence that death penalty is a deterrent against crime (theconversation.com)

What social science research says about perceptions of …. (pg 34-36)

Our Views about the Police

In general, dis-satisfaction with police linked to our interactions with the police – we are happy with them until we interact wit them (1 in 20 people a year interact with police for crime or traffic problem):

Those stopped by police for traffic violations (is this ever fair?) have less satisfaction with police

Young people of color (often profiled and over-enforced; zero-tolerance policing in schools [school to prison pipeline], and stop and frisk)

Those living in high-crime communities (over-policing or under-policing?)

Review and summarize information in these two areas

1) Criminal Injustice

2) Criminal Justice Spending

READ ABOUT THESE ISSUES AND BE PREPARED TO DESCRIBE THEM AND OFFER CURRENT CRITIQUE and CURRENT EXAMPLES

Social Science note

Keep in mind, the statements from the previous slides are empirical patterns observed from social research, police records, victimization surveys, etc.

These patterns emerge from the review of a collection of experiences. Thus, individual personal experience might be different. However, public policy in our democratic society is created to provide the greatest good/benefit the greatness number of people (the principle of utilitarianism), so we need to know reliable patterns to understand, explain, predict and control …

Note, a conflict theorist (check readings to remember this term) would argue that utilitarianism is to be understood with two additional words: government functions to ensure “the greatest good for the greatest number of people” – who count.

Key Takeaways

In what ways was social science and social science research present in this chapter?

Crime is a rare event, but the media makes it seem like a “real” event to us. Media reports often have little context to help us understand numbers and trends.

Crime victimization is not equally occurring across race, gender, age, social status (more on this later in the semester)

CJ & Engl

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