Media Gender And Fear Of Crime Analysis

THESIS STATEMENT: The world’s media today seem to have more violence than ever. Video games have vivid depictions of accident catastrophes, fighting and murder. Television news programs generally lead with a violent story in order to gain an audience. This is free society people can stay what they want. ‘’ Media violence has many negative effect on youth today to commit crimes in society.’’

Starting with Ken Dowler, Thomas Fleming, and Stephen Muzzatti, the authors of “Constructing Crime: Media, Crime and Popular Culture” (837-839) one can see how they believe the media impacts the view of crime from a public perspective. In Canada, crime is a main segment of the news and while that source would be considered informational, the subject of crime itself can also be for entertainment. Likely, North America favors the subject of crime and this can be prove true based on television content today through shows such as Chicago P.D., Law and Order: SVU, Killer Couples or Rosewood. While these shows and many others manage to hook an audience through intriguing storytelling of crime the lines between the true crime information and creative

In the United States, violent crime has been steadily declining since its peak in the early 1990s (Lott, 2013). Violent crime, as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, includes four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault (FBI, 2012). These crimes are measured by the Justice Department in terms of number reported by victims as well as those tried and convicted in a court of law (FBI, 2012). Despite the steady decrease, the vast majority of Americans admit to possessing a very genuine fear of violent crime both in their local neighborhoods and in the nation at large (Lott, 2013). When surveyed over the last several years, nearly half of the American population consistently believed violent crime had increased from the year prior (Cohn, 2013). In reality, the instances of violent crime had been and continue to be deteriorating at a rapid pace (Cohn, 2013).

Chiricos and his colleagues (1995) found that television news associated with crime was significantly related to higher fear of crime for white women between the ages 30-54 in particular. Other findings of their research, was that the only significant relationship between fear of crime and listening to Radio News is reported for both, white and black women. The TV news effects are found primarily for female, white, and the middle-age audience and those with recent victim experiences, low income, and living in disproportionately black neighborhoods. Regardless of being recent victims of crime or not and living in high income or low income neighborhoods, women showed the most significant television news effect, which concluded that other factors other than resonance was at play. Therefore, their data clearly indicate the relationship between television news and fear of crime is entirely exclusive to white women, despite the fact that they are at low victim risk, according to Chiricos (1995) and his colleagues’

Researchers have conducted studies that have shown how the exposure to violent programming on TV creates a widespread of fear within an individual. Romer has taken a look at local news and television shows to prove whether fear is built or even concern by what people are watching. The results of the report have shown support to cultivation theory's predicted effects of television on the public. (Romer, Jamieson, & Aday, (2013).

However, Gross and Aday were not able to conclude if the fear of crime was cultivated by local television. The authors note that criminal activity tends to be reported more on local television and could be the reason for many individuals perceiving that crime is a problem. Gross and Aday conclude that personal experience of criminal activity does not relate to agenda setting. This is possibly due to the individual already having a negative experience that has potentially influenced their point of view going forward. When it came to how neighborhoods played into this, they were able to conclude that those who live in areas with a higher crime rate were less likely to be fearful. From this, Gross and Aday were able to conclude that the personal experience of an individual plays a more important role into their perception of the reality of crime rates rather than local

Through articles published it is noted that young males are more likely to be victims of crime, it is women who are more likely to report fear of crime. While the articles used in this research agree that women are more fearful of crime than men, men may have several reasons why they are reluctant to seem to be fearful of crime. (Sutton, 2004). For example, the reluctance to report could be the fear of further victimisation from authorities (police), by going over the series of events, (Kidd and Chayet, 1984) or for some men the thought of losing their masculinity as they say, ‘boys don’t cry’ (Goodey, 1997)

In particular, Chataway and Hart (2016) propose a social-psychological model of measuring fear of crime, which will inform the proposed study. Specifically, fear of crime should be operationalized by measuring five key dimensions; worry, victimization, consequences, control, and belief. Moreover, fear of terrorism, defined as ‘fear of an external threat’, will be operationalized in the same way, as both areas of enquiry measure fear (Aly, 2010). Ultimately, fear of crime and terrorism will be measured using a questionnaire survey mailed to participants. The survey will contain items designed to measure all five dimensions of fear of crime and terrorism, as well as demographic characteristics. Essentially, this method is advantageous, as it is capable for collecting a large amount of data and does not require in person interviews, which would not be feasible for the current study. Furthermore, as a quantitative explanatory research design, the study

Fear of crime among college students has been examined, throughout various researches in every measure. Men and women both have different outlooks on the way their fear is determined. Woman usually are stalked more by people that they know or usually are harassed, while men are afraid of the lack of protection that they tend to have or therefore not fear but the ability to try and stay strong. The problem is the fact that fears cannot be determined or corrected for that matter. In this study undergraduates from Virginia State University took a survey to measure their perception and fear of crime. Some students may feel like they are protected by campus police on and around campus but most will not be able to trust in campus police. The

But also like the dominant gender ideology, fear of crime is reproduced only in the ways society forces it to be reproduced. Fear of crime if exaggerated for women for all crimes except rape because this is the only crime women are more victimized for (Ferraro 1996). Therefore, even though the fear of rape is reproduced in the video, in that it illustrates to women why they should fear rape, the fear is a very real

Fear of Crime in members of our society today has been widely researched. For the purpose of this essay, fear of crime is used in the context of an individual’s perceived risk of becoming a victim of crime. In this essay it is argued that the elderly and the youngest members of our society are the most fearful of crime and that, of these age groups the elderly have the lowest risk of becoming victims of crime. Firstly, research shows that fear of crime is wide spread and that certain age groups are more fearful of becoming victims than others. Secondly, that the Media’s portrayal of crimes contributes to society’s perceptions of safety and crime itself, increasing fear of crime in these age groups. Thirdly, that the Elderly

Each week, hundreds of thousands of people tune in to watch their favorite television shows. These people sit down with snacks in hand, waiting for new drama to unfold. A 2015 study found that the majority of the viewers are women and some of the most popular television shows are based on crime drama (Parrott 70). It does not matter if the shows are complete fiction or narratives and reenactments of a real crime that has taken place. The gore, violence, and pure disgust keeps these viewers coming back week after week. These crime-based television shows portray women in traditional gender roles, normally a homemaker with no job in the workforce. They also tend to present women as shallow stereotypes, having them be scantily-clad and unable to be successful at both work and home. The shows produced by mass media play a part in how women view themselves and how they believe they should view themselves. The way women are portrayed in fiction based and true-crime television shows hurts their ability to succeed in the real world.

When it comes to issues of crime and criminals, there are numerous potential influences that can shape an individual’s perceptions. Additionally, a major factor of perceptions of crime is the underlying emotional reactions to crime and criminal issues. These emotions about crime are vary from person to person but fear of crime tends to be regarded as the most influential response, as represented by the vast research conducted on the topic of fear of crime and its effects. In this paper, three articles that relate to perceptions about crime and the emotional reactions people have to crime and criminal issues will be examined.

“The worst crime is faking it.” (Kurt Cobain) We use media every day in different forms, younger audience prefers to use social media to stay updated and older audience prefers more reliable sources. Media goes hand in hand with a lot of different issues. It is heavily involved with sexism , objectifying women and also it is closely related to the public 's fear of crime. Miss Representation, the documentary, describes all the ways that media objectifies women. For instance, advertising companies use women’s bodies to sell different kind of products, for example AXE ads where women are practically naked because sex sells. Similarly, media blows details out of proportion resulting in public’s fear of crime. Crime has always been a part of our society, but how is it that it seems to be growing every day. Is crime really increasing or is it that people now are just more aware of it. In addition, does media exaggerate to get its point across and blow little details out of proportion to create public fear of crime? U.S. annual crime report from FBI’s 2014 edition estimated that the number of violent crimes decreased 0.2 percent when compared with data from 2013. Likewise, the number of property crimes decreased 4.3 percent from 2013 as well (2015, September 28). Despite all the statistics, all that media portrays is mass shootings, mass bombings, sexual abuse, murder, rape, kidnapping, child abduction,etc. Why is media and public’s fear of crime so closely tied together? Using

Romer, Daniel, Hall Jamieson, Kathleen & Aday, Sean 2003, ‘Television News and the Cultivation of Fear of Crime’, Journal of communication, vol. 53, pp. 88-104.