5 pages including the Executive summary page changes for proposal essay

Race and Crime

Why Racialization of Crime in the United States News Media is Dangerous and should be stopped

Introduction and Current Failings

The United States news media plays a massive role in informing and educating the public not only on political issues but also on social issues like crime. Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump in 2016, he has succeeded in using fear as his political weapon (Evers, Fisher & Schaaf, 2019). One of the things that stand out in his presidency is the dishonest claim that the rates of crime have gone up, despite the national trends on violent crimes going down significantly. Trump’s fear-mongering, which seems to be working, has permitted the news media with the Center for American Progress and GBA Strategies reporting that 88 percent of Americans regard crime on the national level as a major issue and that of immediate crisis (Adamson, 2017).

Whether through well-intended intentions or not, the news media are amplifying the national-level fear through constant reporting on Donald Trump, crime and how it has been racialized. Since the perception of national crime is an abstract concept to the ordinary citizens, the news media has likely been playing an out sized role in shaping the imagination of the public (Douai & Perry, 2018). Needless to say, the news media not only contributes towards the overestimation of crime statistics by members of the public through its reporting on the president’s fear-mongering and controversies but it also over reports on violent crimes, which feed destructive ethnic and racial biases about the people responsible.

African American men are often over-represented as the major perpetrators of violent crimes in the United States media (Zack, 2015). For instance, one survey of late-night news outlets in the city of New York established in 2014 that the media reported on violent crimes like assault, theft and murder in which black men and women were suspects at a rate that was far higher than the actual arrest rates for the same mentioned crimes (Adamson, 2017). The study also found out that black people are vilified by the news media by presenting black crime suspects as more dangerous and threatening than those from other dominant races like the whites.

The vilification is done by displaying the mug shots of African American suspects more frequently than those from the white community; depicting African American suspects in police cells more frequently; and paying deeper attention to criminal cases where the victims are strangers (Zack, 2015). Further, the news media has also played a part in worsening the racial differences and tensions between the white people and the blacks by particularly perpetuating and spreading a narrative of white victimization (Leopold & Bell, 2017). Homicide is a largely interracial crime, but it is often over-reported by the news media in cases where the blacks are involved as perpetrators and not victims.

In addition to African Americans, the Latinos have also been maligned greatly in the mainstream news media especially on immigration. The Latinos have always been presented as criminals and outsiders who come into the United States to break the law and wreak havoc (Barber, 2018). Donald Trump has said several times how Latinos are “bad people” who are likely to peddle drugs, break the law and cause problems in the United States if allowed to come into the country (Burnside & Fletcher, 2017).

Proposed Changes

Firstly, there is a need to address the racialization of crime in institutions in the United States. Most importantly, the American criminal justice system should be cleansed from racialization of crime because its failings are being reflected in the news media and opinions of the people. Policy changes should start from the criminal justice system in the United States. Secondly, there should be policy formulation which limits the news media on coverage of crime news especially when racial issues are involved. The American news media should be sensitive to the mood of the country.

Continuing to highlight certain minority groups as being “more criminal” or more likely to execute criminal activities does not help in addressing the issue of racial profiling at it relates to criminal activities. The media should help reduce the problems of racial profiling and stereotyping based on crime by reporting factually and not based on institutional biases that have affected the country for the longest time.

Thirdly, there is a need to address the structural barriers to success that minority communities face as a way of reducing instances of crime and associating race with it. Studies have shown that black people, for instance, are likely to have more structural barriers to success than their white counterparts and hence can easily be linked to the crime.

Justification for the Proposed Changes

Biased perceptions of crime based on race have also stemmed from the criminal justice system. It has been shown that African American suspects or defendants are 3.9 times more likely to be handed the death penalty than defendants from other communities who may have committed the same murders (Egharevba, 2016). The racialized perceptions of crime have played out in several American courts too. For instance, for similar crimes, male African Americans are likely to receive sentences or punishment, on average, which are 19.1 percent more severe or longer than offenders from the white community (Okada, Maguire & Sardina, 2018).

It, therefore, shows that the racialization that has been perpetuated by the news media comes from the institutions and systems that Americans have fought so hard for so long to perfect. Reducing biases and prejudices in the criminal justice system will ensure that all races are treated equally in courts and the correctional facilities (Okada, Maguire & Sardina, 2018). When the news media cover stories of how the criminal justice system treats people equally regardless of race and ethnic group, the racialization of crime will eventually go down and people will start looking at each case independently and factually.

The news media should not be controlled or ganged in its reporting. However, policies should be put in place to ensure that all races are covered equally especially on issues that touch on crime (Zack, 2015). The same way a mug shot of a black man would be displayed during 9 o’clock news should apply to people from other races. The news media shapes and affects public opinion. According to a study by the National Hispanic Media Coalition, negative media portrayals fuel stereotypes about Latinos, immigrants and other minority ethnic groups (King, Schneer & White, 2017).

The study established that people who consume just 60 seconds of negative entertainment or news on Latinos or other minority groups are much more likely to hate these ethnic groups. Similar studies have shown that people who view Fox News and similar other conservative talk shows are more likely to hate or have negative views of these minority ethnic groups, especially the Latinos. The outcome is the criminalization of minority communities and negative views on immigration that has contributed to the common zero-tolerance policies that have not only proved to be ineffective but also disastrous. There is a need to re-look at the country’s immigration policy and how issues of crime are handled in the news media.

Conclusion

The US news media plays an important role in educating people and shaping public opinion. Purposefully or not, the media has found itself in an unfortunate situation where it often spreads both racial and fears prejudice, which has been used by politicians and policymakers to push through agendas that harm minority ethnic groups like the blacks and Latinos. Under the current administration, it is particularly significant that the news media look past its internal biases and prejudices and stay away from giving unnecessary publicity to unfounded claims. It is only when institutions, policymakers and Americans have correct and accurate information on a crime that the country can work towards instituting fair policies in the criminal justice system to reduce and prevent crime.

References

Adamson, B. (2017). Reconsidering Pre-Indictment Publicity: Racialized Crime News, Grand Juries and Tamir Rice. Ala. CR & CLL Rev., 8, 1.

Barber, J. (2018). The Racialized Stereotype of a Criminal as presented within Television Newscasts.

Burnside, R., & Fletcher, M. (2017, November). We've Been Trumped!: Donald Trump and the Return of Racism in Post-Racial America. In 2018 National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) Annual Meeting.

Douai, A., & Perry, B. (2018). A Different Lens? How Ethnic Minority Media Cover Crime. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 60(1), 96-121.

Egharevba, S. (Ed.). (2016). Police Brutality, Racial Profiling, and Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System. IGI Global.

Evers, M. M., Fisher, A., & Schaaf, S. D. (2019). Is There a Trump Effect? An Experiment on Political Polarization and Audience Costs. Perspectives on Politics, 17(2), 433-452.

King, G., Schneer, B., & White, A. (2017). How the news media activate public expression and influence national agendas. Science, 358(6364), 776-780.

Leopold, J., & Bell, M. P. (2017). News media and the racialization of protest: an analysis of Black Lives Matter articles. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 36(8), 720-735.

Okada, D., Maguire, M., & Sardina, A. (Eds.). (2019). Critical Issues in Crime and Justice: Thought, Policy, and Practice. SAGE Publications.

Zack, N. (2015). White Privilege and black rights: The injustice of us police racial profiling and homicide. Rowman & Littlefield.