The Fear Factor

SOCI0067: Crime and the Media Lecture 5Dr. L. Cho, PhDE-mail: Lifcho@gmail.com

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

Review of Earlier Lectures

Distinction

Causality X causes Y Exposure to TV violence

actually causes violent behaviour

Correlation Y comes after X and is

possibly connected with it Viewing violence on TV

can and probably does lead to violent behaviour

Trouble Proving

Strong Relationship

Example from previous lecture:Children and Media Violence

17 year study published in Science (March 29, 2002:2)

707 children from adolescence to early adulthood

Young teenagers who watch more than an hour of TV each day are nearly 4 times as likely to commit aggressive acts in later years than those who watch less than an hour

Youth and Media Violence (Note: Not Crime)

3 or more hours of TV Youths who watch 3 or

more hours of TV at age 14

Act in an aggressive manner at 16 or 20 years of age

45.2% of males and 12.7% of females acted aggressively

1 hour or less of TV 8.9% of males and 2.3%

of females acted aggressively

Many Studies, Many Conclusions

Correlation Professor L. Rowell

Huesmann, Univ of Michigan

says 50 years of evidence show “that exposure to media violence causes children to behave more aggressively and affects them as adults later.”

No Correlation Jonathan Freeman, Univ

of Toronto “The scientific evidence

simply does not show that watching violence either produces violence in people, or desensitized them to it.”

Prior to 1970’s

Most research focused on: Connecting media to viewer aggression Note that research is usually into

aggression and violence, not into crime Aggression isn’t necessarily criminal Crime isn’t normally violent

George Gerbner and associates

Connecting media to viewer anxieties

(i.e. viewers as potential victims as oppose to potential offender)

What role do the popular media play in shaping people’s fears and anxieties about Crime?

Fear of Crime Survey

Walking in your area alone after dark is:

Very safe Fairly safe A bit unsafe Very unsafe Don’t know

United Nations International Crime Victim Survey: Crime Victimization in Hong Kong

http://www.hku.hk/socsc/news/press/2006/crime/Press%20Release_20061006.pdf

What Kind of Crimes Do You Fear Most?

Personal Crime Property Crime Consumer Fraud

United Nations International Crime Victim Survey: Crime Victimization in Hong Kong

http://www.hku.hk/socsc/news/press/2006/crime/Press%20Release_20061006.pdf

High Levels of Consumer Fraud

Do You Fear Being a Victim of Crime By:

Juveniles Ages

(ages 10-15) Young People

(ages 16-20) Mainland Illegal

Immigrants Mainland Visitors

Persons Arrested for Crime

Source: http://www.police.gov.hk/hkp-home/english/statistics/compare03.htm

What Percentage of Police Arrests are Mainland

Visitors?

Illegal Immigrants

% of Police Arrests are Mainland Visitor

0-5% 5-10% 10-15% 15-20% 25% or more

% of Police Arrests are Illegal Immigrants

0-5% 5-10% 10-15% 15-20% 25% or more

Police Arrests

Name Calling

Name 7 Chinese phrases that is associated “illegal immigrants” in HK

SCMP 1970’s Freedom-swimmers Refugee tide, flood of refugees Human cargo Intolerable strain “Break the rice bowls” of many HK workers Immigration fight to keep HK ‘clean’ Invisible illegal immigrant puzzle Soaring crime rates Vital to take firm action against illegal immigration Illegals planned career in vice Pressure on HK prison service

SCMP February 2, 1981

Exhausted, cold, hungry Depressed and weary Beggar Stiff penalties facing aider and abettors

of illegal immigrants Deportees

SCMP Dec 13, 1992

Nightmare on HK door step Human cargo Ill problem A very serious problem

SCMP June 1, 2004

Mainland prostitutes Sex workers Disgusted Grinding poverty in China Isolated Insecure Pressure

Where do our Fear of Crime come from? Personal experience Friends and family victims of

crime Politicians Perception/confidence of

Police Victimization Environment/social Disorder Subcultural diversity Social integration Mass media

Bowling for Columbine

Documentary Filmmaker Michael

Moore

Where is Columbine?

Columbine High School

Located in Littleton, Colorado

A suburb of Denver Population 40,340

(2000 census)

Bowling for Columbine

April 20, 1999 Two high school

seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

15 minute shooting spree killed 13 people and wounded 21 others

They were two weeks away from graduation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ13CZ4Hekg&feature=related

Bowling for Columbine Examines the causes of the shooting and the American ethos

that lead to it. Moore suggests that the shootings are part of a larger

American culture of fear that prompts us to act with violence He interviews:

(1) Survivors of the Columbine shooting

(2) Members of the Michigan Militia

(3) Famous and controversial rock star Marilyn Manson

(4) Dick Clark

(5) Officials at K-mart (which sold Harris and Klebold the bullets)

(6) Charlton Heston, president of the National Rifle Association

Issues Address in Bowling for Columbine

Guns Poverty Unemployment Lack of social safety

net Violent history Racism

Violent movies Video games Rock and Roll News media Reality TV Politicians Corporations

News Media Scaring the American People

Children carrying guns, knives, nail clippers

Young people wearing baggy clothes

Crime rate going down, crime reporting going up

Infotainment reality shows like COP - blurring of news media and entertainment

Main Patterns of Crime News

Crime features prominently in the media

Often it feels like more because it is more graphic/more prominent

News value often judged by rarity

Overwhelmingly on serious violent crimes against individual

Proportion of different crimes represented is generally opposite or inverse of official stats

News Making Process

Unusualness: Man Bits Dog

Severity of Event Emotional element High Status or Celebrity Timliness: how well it fits

into news cycle Consonance: ties in with

prior news themes and established themes

Routinization

News agencies have to plan, be aware of timing, distribute resources

Balancing against unpredictable environment

Reporter’s interest Quality of information Willingness of the source

Motivating Force of Crime Stories

Individual victims Their sufferings Focus on the

criminal incident rather than analysis of crime patterns or possible causes of criminal incidents

Focus on Criminal Incidents Few details or background

material on social context Rarely put crime into larger

perspective Few analytical

comprehension of crime Lack of sustained coverage Example: Virginia Tech

Coverage – only 10 homicides annually on college campus vs 1,000 suicides

Virginia Tech Shooting April 16, 2007 Shooter Seung-Hui Cho took 33

lives, including his own Most heavily covered single story of

the year 51% of total news coverage during

week of April 15-20 One week after, from April 22-27, the

story nosedived down to 7%. By April 29-May 4, the story had

virtually disappeared from the news, generating less than 1% of the total coverage.

It never again reached more than 1% of the newshole in any week in the second quarter.

Virginia Tech Students Write: “Media Stay Away”

Exhausted by both the trauma and the press attention

Some member of the student body posted this sign

“VT stay strong. Media stay away.”

Source: http://www.journalism.org/node/7072

Assessment of U.S. News Media Crime Coverage (2007)

Over Covered Tales of missing white

women Supposed increase of

domestic violence around holiday periods

Sex offenders Drugs, prostitution

roundup, senior citizen crime victims

Under-covered ID theft White collar crime Juvenile crime and

punishment Expanding prsion

populations Non-white crime victims

Source: http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/cmcj/pdfs/CJJ_crimecoverage_2007.pdf

Gap Between Media Representation and Reality (Official Crime Stats)

Consequences and Problems

“Cultivate” Misleading View of the World (Gerbner, et al)

Exposure to television, over time, subtly "cultivates" viewers' perceptions of reality

Not direct effect but cumulative impact

Cultivation Analysis

Looked at how people responded to questions based on content of programmes

How much TV they watched

Cultivation Theory

Media found to exaggerate probability and severity of danger

This is said to “cultivate” image of world that is scary and mean

Leading to unnecessary anxiety about risk of violent crime

Cultivation Analysis (Gerbner)

Content analysis of US prime time TV violence compared to real world crime (official stats)

Media images found to exaggerate the probability and severity of danger

Message System Analysis

TV programmes convey certain messages by counting characteristics of crime on TV

Example: Young people

disproportionately represented as violent criminals on TV

Young people are criminals

Message: we should fear them

Cultivation Theory

Greater difference between TV portrayal and real life

Greater the cultivation potential of TV

More TV watching means more like to absorb TV’s symbolic messages

Least TV watching, least influenced

Cultivation Differential (process of social learning)

Heavy (4+hrs) and light viewers (<2 hrs) differ in how much they accept TV’s message

Heavy viewing is associated with fear of victimization

Fear of Victimization & Excessive Anxiety

Distrust of other Difficult to form

social relations Disproportionate

reaction to actual risk (e.g. not venturing out at night, hiking in parks)

Effects of Fear of Crime Ruins the sense of community Creates “no-go” areas. Rich people protecting themselves or moving from the area Lead to crime being displaced onto those already suffering. Distrust of the criminal justice system, creating sense of

helplessness Creation of vigilante groups or even lynch mobs. Change habits due to fear. Stay at home more. Avoid

“dangerous” activities: like taking public transport, walking down a certain road, being near certain “types of people” etc.

Increase Political Support for Authoritarian Solutions More police, more jails,

tougher crime laws People more fearful and

become more dependent

Easily manipulated and controlled

Susceptible to simple, tough measures to crime (e.g. Three strikes and you are out!)

Threat to Democracy

Welcome more social control and repression

Seeks to relieve anxieties and fears

Controversy Around Gerbner’s Long Term Study

Once take into account other control variables (class, race, gender, place of residence, age, actual experience with crime)

How much of the association between measures of exposure to the media and of fearfulness exists

Opposite Causal Process

Do more fearful viewers watch more TV rather than vice versa?

Locus of Control

Some researchers stress the importance of Locus of Control

Refers to the extent that the individual feels in control of his own destiny rather than pulled by some force

Other Studies: Location of Crime

Media exposure account for less in the people’s fear of crime

Greater importance given to location of crime

Location: Fear of Crime

At Home One southern US city

study Elderly black people fear

of crime at home associated with lower education achievements, loneliness, feelings neighbors to be untrustworthy and personal victimization

Media not important

Outside of Home Greater fear of crime

outside the home associated with loneliness, personally know of victims of crime, lived in high rises, watched TV a lot

Media have some influence

Other Study

Media does not cultivate fear of crime in relation to one’s immediate neighborhood

Cultivate fear of crime in society at large, distant places

Too much NYPD Blues, No NY

Study on Urban vs Neighborhood Fear Fear of crime related to

setting presented on TV Higher level of urban

fear related to watching more TV and watching more crime drama

Fear of neighborhood crime unrelated to amount and type of TV viewing

Newspapers Findings

Different pattern than TV

Public’s fear of fear higher when there is high coverage of local crime news

Local news in papers conducive to greater fear of crime

Perceived Reality of TV a Better Predictor of Cultivation Effect

Cultivation effect depends on sophistication of viewers

Those who doubt reality of TV portrayals less susceptible to cultivation effect

Susceptibility depends more on if viewers see TV as accurate representation of real life.

Are they critical of TV, identify with certain characters on TV

In Sum

Evidence show that media cultivates fear of crime

However, in minor and limited way