Crime in Contemporary Society - Media Representations of Crime | A-Level Sociology

welcome to this tutorial sociology topic video looking at crime in contemporary society focusing on media representations of crime crime dominates dramatic and true story programming in the media and this fascination with crime as a form of entertainment has become commonplace since the popular forms of media emerged fascination with fictional and real crime influences the public's perception

of the level of crime in society and also their perceptions and representations of victims of crime research into fictional representations of crime comes from two different eras mandel conducted research in the early 1980s found that the public consumed over 10 billion crime thrillers worldwide showing the level of interest in crime reiner in the early 21st century found

that fictional representations of crime over-represent the level of murder violence and sexual crime that occurs which distorts the view of crimes that occur in society felic and haywood have argued the media have utilized the fascination with crime to sell goods to young people crime has credibility and status due to media representations of criminal

activities and this allows companies to capitalize on this credibility by associating their products with criminal activities hayward alongside young later suggested that the commodification of crime has led to crime becoming romanticized and therefore culturally acceptable often through its associations with high-end products media representations of crime are subject to what surreq termed the law of

opposites with violent and sexual crimes being over-represented in the media whilst more common crimes such as property damage are barely represented at all this also extends to representations of criminals as being psychopathic strangers sexual crimes and violent crimes are more often than committed by somebody known to the victim rather than a stranger furthermore in