Media Representation of Criminal Justice in Boston - Essay Example

This is the reason why the information that they give is always vital for news agencies to make up their stories using catchy headlines that attract people to read. The media is therefore a very essential tool for the provision of information to people at any point in time.

The Boston bombings happened to shake the American government and the whole world at large, after the incident, security agencies launched an immediate hunt for the suspects in order to bring them to justice. The media played a central role in giving coverage of the news and forward updates about development in the entire process of establishing the real criminals and bringing them to justice. A news article from Indo – Asian news service followed up on the story and identified DzhokharTsarnaev, as the only culprit that had survived the police hunt after the bombing of the marathon course in Boston. The citizenship of this victim, according to the news article was Kyrgyzstan (Indo-Asian News Service, 2013, p 1). It is believed that the bombing acts had been done by this victim alongside his brother who is believed to have died after being shot by the police in a car chase.

The news agency posted that brothers were Russian citizens but had moved to the United States when the boys were only seven years old. The brothers had been radicalized while in the United States and this is the time they are believed to have matured fully into criminal activities to be able to commit such atrocities on a major world event like the Boston marathon. News from a different news agency; ABC news explained that the family life of the two victims was much interwoven for one to comprehend it effectively. It said that a young couple had decided to leave Kyrgyzstan, carrying with themselves two bouncing baby boys after the Soviet Union had collapsed. As the boys grew, the couple divorced but later reconciled, the father of the boys was beaten up at one point by Russian athletes after he decided to defend a person they were fighting, although he later died. It is believed that life’s hard situations forced boys into radicalization and criminal activities that led them to the acts which they committed (Radia, 2013, p 1).

The strain theory explains that strain in certain aspects of life provides the much-needed incentives to the criminals to engage in criminal activities in a way to react to the strain. According to this theory, the strain which individuals experience in life leads to negative outcomes, some of which may include delinquency or extremism behavior (Agnew, 1985 p, 152; Agnew, 1992, p, 50). There are a number of strains experienced by the criminals which contribute to the criminal activities in by them, some of them include, the inability to achieve certain goals in life like wealth or a certain status, the loss of certain factors that are perceived with some kind of value by victims, this includes loved ones like parents and experiences with stimuli that causes negative feelings like physical abuse.

Using this analysis; it is possible that the boys went into radicalization from the loss of their father and the hard life that they grew up from in the United States and Russia. Agnews(1985, p.151) explains that strain which appears to be unjust and bearing the greatest magnitude is highly linked to motivations for involvement in criminal activities and other acts of violence. The victims who are involved in these straining behaviors develop serious anger and hunger for revenge. It is in these conditions that they are pleased to engage in activities that are seen as possible revenge missions which now become criminal activities according to the harm that they cause to people and property in general. These analyses provide the real picture of the life that characterized the victims that were involved in the Boston bombings. When children grow up in a practically torturous upbringing, they are likely to remain in that anger while looking for possible opportunities when they can take revenge for the challenges experienced (Crosby,1976, p.81-100).

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