The Public 's Knowledge Of Justice And Crime

It is no secret that the media is able to influence the general public’s opinion on most anything. Whether the subject is fiction or non, movies, documentaries, and the news especially, are capable of swaying the public’s opinions and perceptions one way or the other. Not even the world of law enforcement is safe from the media’s purview (Barlow, M. H. and Barlow, D. E. and Chiricos T. G., 1995), as media portrayals often romanticize law enforcement as a well oiled machine that always gets the bad guy, and has a perfect relationship with the public. On top of this, the media has displayed a poor habit of portraying crime as predominantly violent and racial, rather than showing the whole picture(Gilliam, F. D. and Iyengar, S. and Simon, A. and Wright, O., 1996). In this paper, the motives driving these depictions, as well as the scope and effect of the media’s influence on public perception of law enforcement, will be explored and discussed.

Lack of training and policing standards are closely linked to the myriad problems bedeviling police work, especially in small departments (Brodeur, 2010). All over the country, police departments report cases of officers being caught in uncompromising and unprofessional situations, resulting in disciplinary actions such as redeployment, suspension or sacking. These cases of unprofessionalism have led to questions being asked about policing, occasioned by recurring series of questionable and controversial encounters with police officers (Brodeur, 2010). The consequence of such encounters is increasing public distrust in law enforcement agencies.

If you grew up in an average middle-class town in the United States you were probably raised on the premise that the police were there to protect and fight crime, however, in many of today’s urban centers throughout the country, the tension between the police and the citizens has a very different relationship. The term ‘police’ brings many images to mind, while the objective of the police is to prevent and detect crime, this is far from the way so many Americans feel. Far from the original purpose of the police, the use of brutal and sometimes lethal force has evoked questions regarding the skewed system and the relationship between both in the communities. Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the issue in the article, The Paranoid Style of American Policing, often bringing up complex issues, and effectively brings the issues to life through anecdotes. Coates presents a logical, thought out and well-executed argument surrounding the cracked police system in America. Due to the well-supported thesis, the structure of the argument, and lack of fallacies, Coates position is adequately supported through the use

Media is everywhere nowadays. Whether it’s billboards, radio, commercials, trailers, or product placement, the media has spent the better part of a century perfecting the ability to sway public opinion. How could this not have an impact on the Criminal Justice System? There is an old saying, perception is reality. This clearly applies to the narrative shaping abilities that the media poses. Although not explicitly resulting in an effect on Criminal Justice Policy, Communication Theorist George Gerbner proposed Cultivation Theory, also known as mean world syndrome, which refers to the phenomenon that a viewer experiences when they consume too much violent media content, where in that, they begin to perceive the world as more dangerous than it actually is.

Myths are stories telling a part of the world view of a society or give an explanation of a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon. It is a popular viewpoint, embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society. Although myths are regarded as fictional representations, they often reveal underlying ideals. Myths often tell us more about our social and cultural values than they do about any particular circumstance. While myths seem to explain events, often times they instruct us on integrating an event an individual’s belief system and worldviews. The phrase crime myths does not stray too far from these definitions. These types of myths are usually created in nonscientific forums through the telling of sensational stories. These crime fictions often take on new meanings as they are told and retold, eventually evolving into truth for many people (Kappeler and Potter, 2005). The commonly held belief of the United States’ leniency within the criminal justice system is a crime myth, unfounded, and false.

Criminology is continuously changing and developing. Advances of technology have made media our primary news source for crime. We believe the stories told by our local news media, not doubting a word because these sources are supposedly reliable. Nevertheless, they sometimes do spread false information. It may be intentional or unintentional. According to Cohen, media presence amplifies a problem which did not previously exist (Steeves and Milford, 2015) thus creating a moral panic. As media influence increases, it is necessary for criminologists to study moral panics, such as the Columbine School shootings or the Hurricane Katrina aftermath.

Pop culture media, like Law and Order, has a way of showing people how crime is portrayed. Case (2013), mentions that past studies about the representation of crime in the media has increasingly shown fear to the public and portraying unrealistic standards of how crime is in the real world. Media likes to exaggerate how things truly are in the real world, which is why people believe what the media portrays. People will believe that everything they see in a television show can truly happen in the real world, which certain things can happen but not everything. If people end up believing in how the media portrays crime then people will be living in fear of their society being more violent than it actually is (Case, 2013).

The media plays the role as entertaining and a source of information to its viewers, however, with the current crime trends, most viewers have the perceptions that our criminal justice system is lacking in areas of proper sentencing and protecting the viewers. All this is based upon what we see in the media is the information reliable or not? I say this because of hearing about news personality lying about their experience only to booster the networks rating. When the criminal justice system has contact with the media, most will withhold information or give misleading information to justify the capture or conviction of a criminal. So not only are we questioning the efficacy of the criminal justice system but the media as well.

This research paper aims to answer the question: Does legal cynicism truly have an impact on crime rates? While legal cynicism is not a term that is often discussed in the media or the news, it is a concept that is quite relevant to the lives of many Americans. This is quite relevant in society today, as there is a great deal of conflict between police officers and the public in many communities across the country. This is essentially what legal cynicism is about. It is defined as the “widespread view that law enforcement is unresponsive, illegitimate, and ill equipped to ensure public safety” (King 2016). Unfortunately, there are many, many stories about conflicts between police officers and the general public seen on the news daily. While this is not a new concept to the people in the United States, legal cynicism is an important concept to be understood. Legal cynicism is an important facet of community violence. Because cynicism greatly affects an individual’s views towards law enforcement and authority, it is likely that legal cynicism will contribute to deviant and possibly unlawful behavior in communities throughout the country.

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.

The unfortunate reality of society relying on the media for information regarding criminal events, subjects the public to the misrepresentation and manipulation on the validity of crime in the community. Steven Chermak was one of few to examine into detail the various factors of a crime that affect the amount of attention and space a media source (in this case newspapers) awards to the crime story. In his article, Predicting Crime Story Salience: The Effects of Crime, Victim, and Defendant Characteristics, as the title implies, the components investigated incorporate the differing variables from the circumstances of a crime and the characteristics of both the offender(s) and the victim(s) (Chermak, 1998, p.61). Chermak remarks on the medias manipulation, and presentation methods of crime stories and it’s effects on the public perception of crime. More recent publications in the world of criminology, including “The Criminal Event: An Introduction to Criminology in Canada by L.W Kennedy and V.F Sacco, and Study Guide: Introduction to Criminology by B. Cartwright have similar and differing views to Chermak. This essay will address and summarize Chermak’s article, state his findings, and relate them to the information stated in the works of Cartwright, and Kennedy and Sacco.

Martin Luther King Jr., an American Baptist minister, African-American civil rights activist, and non-violent protest leader, once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (Ali-Dinar 1963 p.1). Such an iconic and fearless leader recognized the unjust behavior within society as a result of racially motivated police brutality and societal discrimination. Though his efforts were not in vain, today’s media representation of law enforcement impacts the societal cultivation of police officers in a negative way. Media outlets, in the forms of television, radio, or social websites, create a cynical view of police officers, which influences societal beliefs and creates negative connotations.

There are two demanding issues within the fields of policing, one is amassed inhabitant trust in the constabularies and fostering United States conglomerates amid constabularies and areas they serve. Civivillians in the United States in general to have sympathetic views of constabularies, conversely the less contact individuals have with constabularies, the more likely they are to have optimistic slants of the constabularies. Given the impression that run-ins with the constabularies interpose towards discouraging views of them and critiques of their services. On behalf of the constables procedural justice, which emphasis on the nature of the relations of constabularies and the communities, has caught the interest from scholars and specialists. “”The procedural justice approach holds that citizens’ perceived fairness in interactions with police is positive and related to favorable attitudes.”” (Gau, 2010; Harvell, 2008; Resig at al., 2007; Tyler, 2006 and Huo, 2002). Not amazed by how many numerous findings that show procedural justice influences civilians discernment about the constabularies but not only inclination to liaise with them. Its universally accepted that the irrefutable attitudes regarding disposition to help in the law-enforcement investigation and have a wide-range implications for the legitimacy of constabularies and communal control. “” According to Tyler (1997) the primary impact of experience on views about the overall legitimacy of authorities innovative judgements about how one is treated. People value a respectful treatment by authorities and view those authorities who treat them with respect as more entitled to be obeyed.”” (pp.

ideas on what exactly crime is, how it is represented by the media, and how

Chapter 3 discuss the images the media portrays on crime and criminality. The first one Surette (2015) mention is criminials. He stated "The tendency of the media to portray crime and justice opposite that of crime and justice realityis termed the "backwards law" of media, crime, and justice" (Surette, 2015, p. 59). The image of criminals in the news can be the same as to those that are shown in entertainment. Criminals can be seen as violent predators or professional businessmen in the news media (Surette, 2015). The media gives different types of criminals to the public, but the one the public takes away as the image of criminality is violent and predatory criminals. The media creates a predatory criminality. Which are criminals that are