Analysis Of Spotlight

This essay will examine the social and cultural conditions, within the macro-diachronic and micro-synchronic theoretical models , that intensify or perpetuate sexual assault. I have chosen only one concept from each model because these are the only concepts that I feel that I can use to most accurately and comprehensively depict causes and reasons for why sexual assault is deeply entrenched in our social structure. I will thus explore, from these ideological viewpoints, some of the motivations and circumstances which lead offenders to sexual assault. I will also fuse some of the historical attitudes from which today's concepts have evolved to our contemporary understanding of this social

The Movie I chose to reflect on is Spotlight, which follows a group of journalist as they try to prove the cover up of sexual abuse involving the Catholic Church and their priest. The spotlight team from the Boston Globe was faced with multiple ethical issues, however, I feel SPJ Code of Ethics in section seek truth and report it stating, “Recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and government. Seek to ensure that the public’s business is conducted in the open, and that public records are open to all.” is the most prevalent throughout the movie. The team works effortlessly in trying to bring the scandal to light by finding reliable witnesses, as well as getting legal documents unsealed which ended up proving

The focus of this paper will be on two contemporary criminological theories and their application to the crime film, Eastern Promises. The two theories to be discussed, and subsequently applied to the film, are labelling theory and differential association theory. Labelling theory falls under the symbolic interactionist approach, and the primary level of analysis of this theory is micro, as it tends to focus on the effect of labels on an individual’s sense of “self”. The basis of labelling theory is that no act is inherently deviant; it is only when the act is labelled deviant that it becomes so. When someone is labelled as deviant, they begin to see themselves as the label they have been assigned. This can cause the behaviour to happen more frequently, as the individual who has been labelled begins to see themselves as they label they have been given. A criticism of labelling theory is that it lacks empirical validity, and is deterministic. There is no way to effectively test this theory, so there is no way to know for sure how accurate the concept of labelling is and the effect it has on an individual and their propensity towards criminality. This and other aspects of labelling theory will be broken down and discussed later on in the paper.

Throughout the ages, media and society have been concerned over children. Instead of youth as folk devils, children nowadays serve as the victims of folk devils (Critcher, 2002, p.532). With these trigger events popping up, stereotypes are gradually formed. In recent British history, Paedophile had become one of the most terrifying folk-devils (Jenkins, 1992, p.99). Paedophile behaviour is a moral panic one legal case and the panic is generally fuelled by the sensationalism of media in

In this essay, I shall try to illustrate whether analysing the movie Rear Window as a classical example of the Freudian concept of voyeurism, is appropriate. Voyeurism is defined in The Penguin dictionary of psychology as:

There have been many federal acts passed in correspondence with sex offenses that illicit feat with the public. There are many different types of ways in which Levenson & colleagues’ (2007) describes the perceptions that the public has based on certain factors. For instance, in relation to the perception about the sex offender notification system, a survey produced results of around 80 percent in favor of these registries, because these individuals felt safer in their communities knowing who was in their neighborhood. Further, due to this fear that resonated in the early 1990’s communities do have tools such as residential restrictions, civil commitment, notification procedures, etc. that aid in the protection. However, there are myths associated with sex offenders, for example legislation often states that the reasoning for new laws and regulations is due to the high recidivism rates. However, sex offenders have significantly lower recidivism rates than believed. Also, there are countless people who do not believe that sex offenders can be assisted with techniques from a psychological standpoint. Most people think that these offenders cannot be treated, however, there is research being conducted that is promising. Finally, there is a common misconception that sex offenders kill their victims, especially children more often than other killers, however this is not true.

Since the early-2010s, debate around the sexualisation of children has instigated much social alarm. A number of media articles (Cameron 2010; Critchley 2009; Doherty 2011; Kermond 2012, Jones & Cuneo 2009; Snow 2013; Tuohy 2012) have depicted the sexualisation of children as a prevailing social matter which accentuate concepts represented in moral panic discourse. In everyday practices of reporting public and social events, moral panic frequently becomes elicited by society’s mass mediated exaggeration of certain social events. What becomes apparent from Critcher’s work (2003), is how understandings of public incidents become portrayed as concerning through socially constructed and distorted notions of panic which become widely adopted views. As Cohen (1972) suggests, moral panic becomes a state of panic through the encouragement of important social agents which believe that an ideological perspective is threatened or endangered by a particular view. Thereby to accentuate these notions using moral panic discourse, this essay will investigate whether representations of sexualised children constitute a moral panic contrived by mediated distortions or is truly a concerning societal issue through an analysis of the processual and attributional model (Critcher 2003). Drawing on both discursive models of moral panic will allow a thorough investigation of the catalysts for moral panic involving the sexualisation of children. This paper will demonstrate how moral panic discourse

The issue of opportunity is a major factor in the sex offenses in Churches. In churches, opportunities for abuse are in activities such as taking children home after an activity or youth group, giving individual attention to a child, and being alone with children in summer camps. These opportunities allow priests to be alone with children without other adults being suspicious or concerned. Another factor in explaining the opportunity for abuse is the power and influence that clergy have. Since in the church, priests or ministers are influential in defining what is right and wrong, they may have the power to show abusive behavior as normal. Children are in a position that church workers can use their authority within the church to persuade a child to comply with sexual acts (Farrell & Taylor 2000). When authority is misused in this way it adds trauma to the abuse. The betrayal of trust involved is enormous, and for some victims it causes the difficulty to trust authority again.

In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenage girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug when he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White). As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected they can become from their children in a social media world.

In this essay, I shall try to illustrate whether analysing the movie Rear Window as a classical example of the Freudian concept of voyeurism, is appropriate. Voyeurism is defined in The Penguin dictionary of psychology as:

In this paper I will discuss the typical profiling of sex offenders and how one cannot simply point them out in a crowd. I will discuss why sex offenders do not stand out from “normal” people. I will discuss a little bit of why these people do the things they do and what kind of cure there is for these crimes, if any. It is important to know why we cannot assume one is bad news, such as a sex offender and to find out for sure. The true meaning of “you cannot judge a book by its cover” will be revealed in this paper with many examples.

This essay will look at how various forms of media examine female and child offenders, and how these same criminals can also be viewed as being victims. The media is able to shape the way the public perceive a certain criminal through aspects such as personal information, history of violence and appearance (Fries, 1820). Therefore, creating the opportunity to generate a media story in which the ideal criminal is involved. Included within the essay will be how the medias fixation with gendered and social norms can cause a female or child offender to be considered as being depraved. Also, this essay will demonstrate how today’s media supports the now discredited theory of criminologist, Cesare Lombroso, that asserted physical attributes

In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenaged girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug while he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White) As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for the today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected parents become from their children in a social media world.

Sex offenses receive an inordinate amount of special attention from the public as well as the criminal justice system. Is this because our system is a static reflection of the society/community they answer to? Sexual offense stories infiltrate every membrane of our society, from legal mores to norms, from social media to religion. Our system of justice can’t help but deliver attention to this area. Justice demands it and society needs it for interpersonal validation. The Criminal Justice system has given humans a scale to rate what is normal and what is deviant. Our text (Okada. p.182) shares that

Central Idea (Thesis Statement): Most people fear the fact’s of child molestation, but the truth is there is a very distinct definition to child molestation, severe effects to the child in the aftermath, and a long road to a successful recovery.