CRM 3317 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Criminal Justice, Voyeurism, Masculinity
12 Oct 2018
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Department
Course
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CRM 3317
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
09/08/17
1
(1) ‘Trashy Knowledge’: Culture and Crime
What is culture?
• Culture is the symbolic environment of humans. It is shaped by (and shapes)
social structural forces and is filtered through individuals. People use culture as a
shared mechanism to interpret reality. Culture and society emerges from the ideas
of individuals and groups and determines what people believe and how they act.
While culture is important, we must avoid assuming that our thoughts and
behaviours are solely determined by it. Individual experiences, characteristics,
and attributes also help to shape and to change how we interpret different cultural
ideas and beliefs. Those who deviate from culture are often seen as transgressors
of norms.
• Culture is material production (artefacts, art works). This makes media important
because it is an example of culture. In this way, culture shapes media (the types of
media and the types of stories that are focused on). However, media also shapes
culture since they are forms or means of communication.
Culture and ‘Crime’
• We assume that culture is what gives life meaning and is the lens through which
we see the world. Crime is when people transgress norms and rules. When
looking at culture, we attempt to understand how it produces and reproduces
crime and criminality.
• Crime is a behaviour so labelled – a catorgorization.
• ‘Cultural dynamics carry within them the meaning of crime.’ (Ferrell, Hayward,
Young, 2008)
Criminology as a Social Science
• Systematic study of crime → etiology (cause), extent, nature, prevention.
• Aesthetic of precision.
Orthodox Criminology
• Elimination of first-person; in-text referencing; equations, tables, statistics →
aesthetics of authority/objectivity.
• Little impact on public policy.
Orthodox Criminology’s Vision of the Media
• Fostering crime myths.
• Responsible for moral decay.
• Cultivation of fear.
• Fostering of ‘law and order’ mentality.
09/13/17
1
(2) Monkey See, Monkey Do? Theorizing Crime and Media
• We should not think about media as something that has an inevitable impact on
consumers.
Constructing a Social Reality
• Experienced reality: We each have personal experiences that allow us to
formulate knowledge, and acquire information about people, places, and things.
These experiences will directly influence our sense of what is real and what is not.
• Conversational knowledge (SK): We will interact with others who will tell us
things about ourselves and about the world, indirectly or directly.
• Social groups/institutions (SK): Certain values and norms will be passed down to
us through these social institutions. They exert a socializing force onto us. E.g.
school, family, religion.
• Mass media (SK): This tells us certain things because of the way it frames stories
and ideas. It presents these things in certain ways because there are operational
concerns, advertisers who need to be pleased, etc.
* SK = Symbolic knowledge
Mediated Social Reality
• History is what media defines as significant.
• Potentially significant individuals rely on media to ensure a place in history.
• Essential determinant of contemporary significance.
• Message and images presented within accepted formats.
Media ‘Effects’ Research
• What the media does to people: The effect that the media has on its consumers is
largely negative rather than positive.
• Human nature → unstable (it is not something that is set in stone) and
impressionable (it will impact how people think and how they behave).
Hypodermic Model
• Mechanistic process.
• ‘Inject’ values, ideas, information into passive receivers.
• Produces direct, unmediated ‘effects’.
• This does not account for agency, lived experiences.
‘Media Effects’
• Undermines standards of decency and conventional morality; how people are
supposed to behave and what values they are supposed to hold.
• Undermines civilizing influence of high culture which debases individuals. It will
only appeal to the lowest denominator.
• Manipulates masses. This suggests that mass media is controlled by political elites
(the ruling elite) and it is used to manipulate the conscience of the citizenry. The
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Document Summary
What is culture: culture is the symbolic environment of humans. It is shaped by (and shapes) social structural forces and is filtered through individuals. People use culture as a shared mechanism to interpret reality. Culture and society emerges from the ideas of individuals and groups and determines what people believe and how they act. While culture is important, we must avoid assuming that our thoughts and behaviours are solely determined by it. Individual experiences, characteristics, and attributes also help to shape and to change how we interpret different cultural ideas and beliefs. Those who deviate from culture are often seen as transgressors of norms: culture is material production (artefacts, art works). This makes media important because it is an example of culture. In this way, culture shapes media (the types of media and the types of stories that are focused on). However, media also shapes culture since they are forms or means of communication.
