Media and social media have a strong influence on today’s society and the criminal justice system. Is social media so powerful that it could effect the U.S. criminal justice environment? The answer is yes, the world revolves around media and social media. People are using it for recreation and entertainment purposes. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube have such a high impact on today’s society and has transformed how people understand crime and the criminal justice system. Meanwhile, media has it advantages and disadvantages dealing with criminal cases, but it also effects the way the criminal justice system is viewed. On the other hand, interaction with social media allows opportunities to solve crimes, creates more ways to commit crimes, and create bias within our American society. In general, the word …show more content…
The public has a fascination and obsession over crime and criminals, but people want to know how those crimes are dealt with in the criminal justice system, in court and on the streets. “Now that the penal system has forsworn the former, and confined the latter within prison walls, the public turns to the news media. Stories relating to criminal justice are never far from the front pages and from the collective consciousness” (Roberts 99). We as American citizens have no choice but to watch the news or read the daily newspaper and get the latest crime right across the headlines. Learning about the new political and economic burning topics of the day seem to be at the majority of peoples interest. This can be a positive update given to the world that can lead individuals to have a certain opinion, or bias against the criminal justice system. In some cases this may become a problem when exploiting or convicting someone before a trial has even started. For example John Cloud, writer of the “How the Casey Anthony Murder Case Became the Social-Media Case of the
Grimes, J. N. (2010 January-December). The social construction of social problems: "Three Strikes and You 're Out" in the mass media. Journal of Criminal Justice and Law, 2(1-2), 39-56. doi:Ebscohost database
Social Media has become a huge part of our lives. It is a way to connect to those far away, or to share things that we find interesting or exciting and can be a very personal presentation of who we are. But in both positive and negative ways we can share our opinions and our view on certain events in the world. These can lead to rallies, protests, uprisings or in some cases revolution, the internet has become one of the most influential forces in this world and a large part of that is due to social media. In the case of the Michael Brown shooting, social media focused on the positive and negative relationships between minorities and cops in the United States of America. Sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Vine were all used to show
The news media has a habit of showing only the sensational crime stories, to draw the public to view, listen, or read their articles (Bohm & Haley, 2011). The unbalanced media coverage causes the criminal justice system a rough time while investigating, prosecuting, and convicting the subjects/defendants of their crimes, by only talking to victims or lay people willing to tell their story whether right or wrong.
The media can be an effective tool for exposing injustices in the application of criminal law, however it can also be used to create unfair bias against the alleged offender therefore, causing an imbalance between the rights of the accused and society. The media attempted to vilify Loveridge to create prejudice
For the past 50 years, America’s criminal justice system has encountered several significant changes dealing with courts and policing. According to Marion and Oliver (2006), the historical Supreme Court rulings like Mapp v. Ohio and Miranda v. Arizona mold the way courts and law enforcement handle individuals charged with committing crimes. This paper will discuss the evolution of courts and law enforcement reflects the diverse and changing need for today’s population which is first importance, the urgency for cooperation and communication among criminal justice agencies and law enforcement within the country. Individuals must
When using social media, the police department can target, hundreds to thousands of people, to letting them know of what is going on. For example, in my university an email was sent to every person from the school to make sure everyone was aware of a sex offender that was kicked off the campus. Hashtags on Facebook, Twitter, etc. are also used on social media to make people aware of a certain person or crime that has happened or is about to happen. The more people that know of a specific criminal the less, he or she will want to do because everyone has eyes on them. That will cause the criminal to not commit the crime which keeps communities safe. Pictures of criminals with their information given on social media can help the community a lot to identify the person when the police are not around. Many people today will have access to social media which makes it more fast and convenient for people that rather be on social media than read a newspaper. Another example of social media taking part in lowering crime is being able to spread the word on the steps of what the people should be aware of, such as, laws and procedures, that are needed to be known to everyone. Pictures, articles, etc. can be shared person to person spreading the word from city to city. In a matter of seconds a post can go viral and will keep
Examples, among others, may include: Courtroom misconduct, tampering or destroying of evidence, records or case files, failing to present evidence proving innocence, threatening witnesses, presenting misleading or false evidence, selective or spiteful prosecution. When it comes to the media and prosecutorial misconduct this is the age where 72 percent of adults have at least one social media account. Facebook alone has “1.23 billion active monthly users.” Society today is a society in which 500 million tweets are processed a day and text messaging on cellphones has become a trend (Browning 2014). With the different types of media available today do prosecutors with easy access to the variety of media options increase the prevalence of prosecutorial misconduct?
Different forms of media, such as television, films, books, and newspapers, have similar ways of portraying the criminal justice system. The media constructs representations of crime and justice and in doing this, it presents an often dramatized representation of the criminal justice system; and this does not just influence on the public’s lay view of crime but also for criminal justice experts (Marsh, 2014). In the media it is commonly known that they are a business, and businesses need to make a profit. Because of this, the media’s portrayal of the criminal justice system has been very negative. With the news, their main purpose is to produce what sells. So many of them would edit the information they have gathered and make a story that will sell. Also the media does not show the full process of the criminal justice as a quick process, while in fact it is not. For example, last year, Netflix released a short series called “Making A Murderer”. Most people claimed that they feel like they can solve a crime when they finished watching a series. While that series is very factual, it does not hit every single step of the criminal justice process.
Criminal justice has garnered massive national attention in the past few years in America. Multiple police shootings, the Black Lives Matter movement, and other hot-button issues have occupied the media on a daily basis. This attention has led many Americans to question the integrity and efficacy of the government institution that was designed to uphold the law and seek justice for its people. However, this system is severely damaged and its definition of justice has been perverted and contorted beyond recognition, resulting in unfair and discriminatory treatment of the people it has been sworn to protect.
Chavis, Benjamin F., Jr. "U.S. Criminal Justice System Needs Urgent Reform." Washington Informer, Mar 2015, pp. 24-24,41, Global News stream; ProQuest Central, http://ezproxy.gsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.gsu.edu/docview/1669733723?accountid=11226.
The popular microblogging platform Twitter has had a major impact on society and the manner in which people interact with each other. It has grown from a social networking site to a potential emergency alert system as well as a platform to quickly disperse links to breaking news stories and videos, and, finally, as a way to document court proceedings (Pocklington). Twitter has been used as a news dispersal method in many major trials since its creation in 2006, including but not limited to: Jodi Arias’ murder trial, Casey Anthony’s trial, and George Zimmerman’s murder trial. While a journalist’s job description includes the obligation to report findings in an unbiased manner, the increased use of Twitter may not allow for such neutrality.
There is much controversy over whether or not the risks of social media outweigh the benefits. While it can be used for numerous types of criminal activity, it can also be used to stop these crimes and other criminals. Just a few examples of occurrences that can negatively affect or even inflict physical harm on people through social media usage include things such as cyberbullying, sexual predation, robbery, etc. These things can permanently affect people’s lives or even, in some cases, kill them. Given these risks, there are also many strategies the police utilize to catch criminals, which would not be possible without social media. So, which is it? Does the amount of predators or cyberbullies online and on social media give ample enough reason to consider social media more help than harm, or are there enough good things that result from social media usage to consider social media a valuable asset? Social media can be used as a tool in law enforcement, but there are too many negative factors, like crime and cyberbullying, that were directly caused by social media to consider it much of an asset.
In tune with the worldwide development and popularity of Hip Hop music, “a symbiotic relationship between culture and law”1 has emerged. “Culture shapes the law, and law is a product of culture”.2 Our society is reminded and alerted to daily neighborhood, state and national crimes via not only online and television news forums, but the various social platforms now heavily relied on: YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. However, it can be argued that these new advances in technology and
Social media is especially useful when it comes to investigations. Police officers have learned that, in using social networks to spread certain cases to the public, more information is retrieved. For instance, sending out an image of the criminal to news stations that later display it to the public often leads to feedback about the whereabouts of the criminal as seen by a citizen. Likewise, through social media accounts, we are more capable of seeing things such as who the criminal associates themselves with, as well as their whereabouts, or places they are likely to go through photo geotagging.
Social media can be seen from completely different aspects and points of views. A major role in these different opinions plays mostly the age of the beholder, because social media made an enormous change in the last 50 years. One very important aspect in our today’s society is to get as many information as possible in a very short time period ("Impacts of social media”) Through social media and especially social networks such as twitter and Facebook, the information gets spread extremely fast. There are for example reporters who search on those networks to get information for their news and articles. (“Impacts