Effects of Media on Fear of Crime, Perception and Reality - Essay Example

?Running Head: Effects of Media on Fear of Crime, Perception, and Reality Effects of Media on Fear of Crime, Perception, and Reality [Institute’s Name] Effects of Media on Fear of Crime, Perception, and Reality Fear of crime is the “fear of being a victim of crime as opposed to the definite possibility of being a victim of crime” (Lee & Farrall, p. 73, 2008). Opinion, belief and behaviours have several negative effects on personal as well as group life. They can erode public wellbeing and emotional health; they can change everyday actions and way of life; they can chip in to a number of places becoming ‘no-go’ regions (Moon, Walker et al, pp. 1-49, 2009) by a withdrawal from society; and they can drain society unity, faith and neighbourhood solidity. However, some level of emotional reaction can be healthy. Psychologists (Gabriel & Greve, pp. 600-614, 2003) have long stressed on how concern can be an investigative action, encouraging care and safety, indicating that one can make a difference between low-level apprehensions that cause carefulness and counter-creative uncertainties that harm safety. Issues controlling the fear of crime consist of the psychology of threat awareness, circulating signs of the threat of oppression, public awareness of neighbourhood constancy and breakdown, and wider issues where concerns about offence convey anxieties regarding the rate as well as course of social alteration. There may as well be a number of broader cultural pressures: a few have argued that current times have left individuals particularly susceptible to concerns of security and uncertainty. The main part of fear of crime is the scope of emotions that is roused in people by the chance of oppression. While usual measures of concern about crime repeatedly prove between 35 percent and 55 percent of the residents of England show some type of apprehension about becoming a victim, surveys tell that a considerable number of individuals in fact worry for their personal wellbeing on a daily basis. Contrary to usual perception, this level of fear has reduced since 1990s according to British Crime Surveys from 40% to 27% in 2003 in the United Kingdom (Simmons & Dodd, pp. 1-189, 2003). As a result, one can differentiate between fear and broader apprehension. Nonetheless, it should come under notice that a number of individuals might be keener to disclose their uncertainties and vulnerabilities as compared to others. Hearing about happenings; identifying others who have been persecuted - these are thought to increase insights of the risk of oppression (Flatley et al, pp. 1-220, 2010). This has been explained as a ‘crime multiplier’, or procedures functioning within the inhabited atmosphere that would reach the impacts of illegal happenings. “Such proof exists that hearing of friends’ or neighbours’ victimisation increases anxiety that indirect experiences of crime may play a stronger role in anxieties about victimisation than direct experience” (McCluskey & Hooper, p. 173, 2001). Nonetheless, there is an advisory note: several inhabitants of a locality merely know of offence indirectly by means of channels that may ‘inflate’, ‘deflate’, or distort the actual picture.’ Public views of the threat of crime are as well shaped strongly by mass media reporting. People pick up from media as well as interpersonal contact spreading representations of the criminal happening - the perpetrators, injured parties, cause, and signs of significant, irrepressible, and sensational crimes. The concept of stimulus likeness may be significant: if the reader of a newspaper categorizes with the portrayed victim, or feels that their personal neighbourhood has similarity to the one explained, then the image of threat may be taken up, individualised and interpreted into personal security concerns. In addition, reports have indicated differences in perceptions of fear based on the type of newspapers read by locals in the United Kingdom (Simmons & Dodd, pp. 1-189, 2003). In a recent study, “subjects who got car collision information and who shared social identity with the victims provided elevates estimates of risk compared to those who had no basis for assumed similarity” (Carrabine, p, 80, 2008). The intricate nature of crime could let the media to exploit public innocence, reporting crime not just selective, but also misrepresenting the daily scene of crime. A few state that the media chip into the environment of fear that is generated, because the real occurrence of oppression is a small part of possible crime. With crime making for up to 31 percent of news reporting, the quality and approach of the reporting turns out to be a concern. The media shows brutal crime unreasonably for adding sensation, whereas ignoring minor crimes (Victims of Violence, 2011). The summary of criminals in the media is twisted, giving rise to misinterpretation of criminal insulting. However, regardless of a rich narrative on media effects, little effort has been made into how depictions, images and signs of crime flow within society, broadcasted and altered by several actors with a broad range of effects, merely to interpret into personal apprehensions regarding crime (Victims of Violence, 2011). Fear of crime can as well be understood from a public ‘constructionist’ point of view. The expression and idea of fear of crime did not enter the civic or political dictionary until the mid of 1960s. That is not to state that people did not fear crime oppression earlier than this period, obviously they did at a number of points in olden times to different levels. Nonetheless, it shows that fear of crime simply turns out to be part of a political financial system when researchers started to assess and scrutinize it under the auspice of the UK government on law enforcement and the administration of justice (Lee & Farrall, p. 193, 2008). Once fear of crime got a name, it could be positioned as a political approach in a law and order politics. It as well turns into something that general public could consider as an emotional reaction to the risk of oppression. The development of a ‘fear of crime response loop’ then permits additional public to be reviewed as apprehensive, additional politicians to be capable to utilize crime fear as a political topic, security products to be sold in view of crime fear and so on in an “ever rising spiral that popularised crime fear” (Lee & Farrall, p. 193, 2008). In addition, once people were observed as being motivated by apprehensions regarding crime fear of crime could be utilized as a ‘responsibilising’ method to trigger general public to decrease their susceptibility to crime oppression. This approach to knowing fear of crime does not disagree with the experiences of people who fear crime victimisation but recommends that these experiences have to be taken as being closely linked to wider socio-political circumstances. Even though, fear of crime is somewhat familiar in the society, it is considerably more familiar within a number of population groups than others. For instance, females are notably more apt to fear of crime as compared to men (Simmons & Dodd, pp. 1-189, 2003). The big distinction in fear between male and female proves itself not just in self-reports of fear, but as well in the ‘behavioural repertoires of the sexes’. Females, for instance, are far more likely to report that they live at home during night or that they stay away from leaving the residence unaccompanied (Sutton & Farrall, pp. 212-224, 2005). One of the issues that appear to cause the distinctions between the sexes is the extraordinary apprehension that a lot of females feel toward rape. Data shows that rape is feared more than any other offence between the females of less than thirty five years of age, which it is noticed to be more or less as grim a crime as killing, and that rape is a major offense that lurks behind terror of other crimes. So main fear is rape to the threats of females that one is convinced to assume that, for the majority of females, fear of offence is fear of rape (Simmons & Dodd, pp. 1-189, 2003). Fear of crime differs not just by gender, but by age as well. Nonetheless, the proof here is additionally intricate. Early researches reported a plain positive link between age and fear, although more modern, offense related, studies expose that age distinctions in fear are obvious merely for a few offenses, “and that even in those cases, fear is not constantly linked to age in a monotonic fashion” (Biressi, p. 138, 2001). Studies (Simmons & Dodd, pp. 1-189, 2003) all over the world and especially the United Kingdom have demonstrated that crime is usually overrepresented in media reporting, in comparison with real crime rates within society. Coverage of crime generally goes along a particular pattern; in accordance with their findings, the reporting of crime, subjugated by aggressive crime, and has gone up whereas actual crime rates have gone down. From 2000 to 2008, the number of murders, which comprise 3 percent of all arrests, has decreased by more than 27 percent, while its form on the screen rose and “in the end made up more than one quarter of the examined media coverage” (Farrall et al, p. 223, 2009). In contrast, white collar crime like deception is not covered on very frequently. In addition, more crimes that are unusual have the bigger possibility to be reported by the media, such as strangers commit the majority of shown homicides, even though in actuality the sufferer knows its murderer (Victims of Violence, 2011). Domestic offence as well as child abuse is barely reported. Reports in the media pursue conventional samples, like rapes by strangers, outside in the night, someone waiting in the scrub against the guiltless, meek injured party. Everyone knows that that is not the fact. For the most part, rapes are done by known individuals. Females are more likely to get harshly maltreated within their residences. Quite a number of studies (Dennis, n.d) have exposed that the vast preponderance of the public relies on the media for news regarding crime, and that they shape their judgment about crime in accordance with what they see or read in the media (Dennis, n.d). The public’s view usually is that aggressive crime is rising more quickly as compared to white collar crime, but as a matter of fact, it is the other way around. The exception is awareness about people’s personal regions, where they are more expected to have direct information than to have their views formed by the media. People are coping with the media’s preconceived notion as a result of their experience in life. However, the understanding of the lie relies on the enlightening level as well. Editors, press officers, and social scientists are more expected to understand the media’s prejudice. Intense exposure to media content over a longer time period could progressively apply feelings in its viewers that are steadier with the world of TV telecasts in comparison with the daily world (McNeely, pp. 1-20, 1995). Even though only a marginal population is drawn in aggressive crimes, individuals with no or modest direct experience with aggressive crime think that the world is more hazardous and mean than it actually is, and are usually more anxious of becoming a victim than they should be. Additional research has shown that the media are just one of several variables that have a control on people’s feelings. It is constantly various variables within the social sciences; all the inconsequential functions jointly build a most important function. The media are only single source; they have an effect, but it is insignificant. Studies have specified that facts and figures have no power on the public’s awareness of offence. An individual’s character or socialization - what he or she taught from parents, acquaintances, relatives - are variables that are required to be taken into consideration as well. People have always considered since the start of time, that crime is rising (Dennis, n.d), especially on national level (Moon, Walker et al, pp. 1-49, 2009). Individuals can either recognize themselves with or distinguish themselves from the injured party. They can do so in an ‘upwards direction’, indicating that they aloof themselves from the injured party to arrive at a higher point towards the victim’s place, or in a ‘downwards direction’, where individuals arrive at the similar or a lower level as the injured party. For instance, individuals inclining to recognize themselves with an injured party in an ‘upward direction’ achieve a sense of rule over their actions within a particular state of affairs; they believe they can tackle with such a condition better than the injured party did. An additional contributing aspect of one’s behaviour to the fear of being victimized is the way a person assesses its capability to master participation during a violent crime. It can happen that even though an individual is very apt to be an injured party of a violent crime, it relies on the way one think he or she can deal with such a condition. Males generally think they can tackle it. Females feel more helpless. However, as a matter of fact, males are more liable to become a sufferer of a crime. In this regard, British Crime Surveys (Moon, Walker et al, pp. 1-49, 2009) have indicated that personal experiences play a considerable role in influencing fear of crime. It might not be absolutely understandable to what level the media contributes to individuals’ fear of becoming a victim. However, the media’s most important role in persuading the strategy making of the government is unquestionable. Overstated public views of crime risks can as well initiate severe misrepresentations in government expenditure precedence as well as policy making. There may as well be a connection between this recognition and the entire crime narrative in the media (Hope & Sparks, p. 163, 2001). Consequently, one should not take too lightly the risk of a possibly huge power of the media than social-pragmatic study is capable of verifying with its relatively restricted research approaches. Firsthand experience may control the respondents’ approach towards crime issues and law enforcement reaction in the neighbourhood. The media may generate belief that neighbourhoods are filled with crimes or unsafe. For example, local news transmission may concentrate on very sensational, aggressive, and upsetting crime that took place within the neighbourhood. It may be feasible that media production will have an effect on the views about the neighbourhood. It is a consideration that the mainstream of the public’s awareness about crime and justice is shaped by media use (Flatley et al, pp. 1-220, 2010). Accordingly, it is very important that people recognize the way media manipulates public views. Even though there are restrictions within the information set and the results are feeble, habitual viewing of crime related programs is linked to fear of crime. Nonetheless, crime show viewing is not linked to retaliatory feelings or recognized law enforcement efficiency, whereas hours of TV viewing and basis of crime reports are not linked to fear of crime, retaliatory behaviours or apparent law enforcement efficiency. Nonetheless, additional study is considered necessary to find out the link between media use and behaviors toward crime as well as justice. Research (Budd & Sims, pp. 1-6, 2001) shows that people in high crime metropolitan regions who extensively watch television are more expected to be troubled by crime. Another vital issue is whether spectators have firsthand victim experience or share features that make them crime susceptible. Study signifies that media sources will be extra consequential when firsthand knowledge is missing. TV news use is considerably linked to fear just for females who are in the age bracket of 16 years to 24 years (Budd & Sims, pp. 1-6, 2001). Researchers (McNeely, pp. 1-20, 1995) argue that public fear as well as apprehension is inextricably linked with civic demands for answers to crime issues. A number of studies (Flatley et al, pp. 1-220, 2010) concentrate on whether media’s representations of crime manipulate public behaviour regarding criminal justice strategy. They discover that representations of crime news raise civic demands for additionally successful policy making. Threat of victimization and threat of victimization associated with real life happenings did not have a reconciling effect on the link between media and fear of crime. References Biressi, A. 2001. Crime, Fear and the Law in True Crime Stories. Palgrave Macmillan. Byron, Carole (Ed.). 2001. “Antisocial behaviour and disorder.” Findings. Home Office. Carrabine, E. 2008. Crime, Culture and the Media. Polity. Dennis, Norman. N.d. “Public concern about crime.” CIVITAS. Retrieved on August 24, 2011: http://www.civitas.org.uk/pubs/concernAboutCrime.php Farrall, S. D. Jackson, J. and Gray, E. 2009. Social Order and the Fear of Crime in Contemporary Times. OUP. Flatley, John, Kershaw, Chris, Smith, Kevin, Chaplin, Rupert, and Moon, Debbie (Ed). 2010. “Crime in England and Wales 2009/10.” Home Office Statistical Bulletin. Third Edition, pp. 1-220. Retrieved on August 24, 2011: http://uk.sitestat.com/homeoffice/rds/s?rds.hosb1210pdf&ns_type=pdf&ns_url=%5bhttp://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/hosb1210.pdf%5d Gabriel, U., Greve, W. 2003. “The Psychology of Fear of Crime.” British Journal of Criminology. Volume 43, Issue 3, pp. 600-614. Hope, T. and Sparks, R. 2001. Crime, Risk and Insecurity: Law and Order in Everyday Life and Political Discourse. Routledge. Lee, M. and Farrall, S. 2008. Fear of Crime: Critical Voices in an Age of Anxiety. Routledge-Cavendish. McCluskey, U. & Hooper, C. 2001. Psychodynamic Perspectives on Abuse: The Cost of Fear. Taylor & Francis Group. McNeely, Connie L. 1995. “Perceptions of the Criminal Justice System.” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture. Volume 3, Issue 1, pp. 1-20. Retrieved on August 24, 2011: http://www.albany.edu/scj/jcjpc/vol3is1/perceptions.html Moon, D., Walker, Alison et al. 2009. “Perceptions of crime and anti-social behaviour.” Home Office Statistical Bulletin. Volume 1, pp. 1-49. Simmons, Jon and Dodd, Tricia. 2003. “Crime in England and Wales 2002/2003.” Home Office Statistical Bulletin. Volume of July 2003, pp. 1-189. Sutton, R., Farrall, S. 2005. “Gender, socially desirable responding and the fear of crime.” British Journal of Criminology. Volume 45, pp. 212-224. Victims of Violence. 2011. Research – Media and the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved on August 24, 2011: http://www.victimsofviolence.on.ca/rev2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=352&Itemid=42 Read More