CRIM 2652 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Public Inquiry, Morality Play, Precedent
14 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
September 20
Misperceptions & Origins and Overview of Criminal Justice
1. Public (mis)perceptions about criminal justice
2. Crime trends
3. Origins and overview of criminal justice
4. Media analysis guidelines
- Public inquiries are rolled for and paid by the government
- Cultural and criminal representations are important in context of law and order
- Pop culture plays a role in dehumanizing individuals we refer to as criminals
- Cultural representation of crime and criminals: Death Row Marv
o Catches an idea of dehumanization
Social Production of Moral Indifference
- The production of indifference facilitated by gender, racial and class divides
Politics, Crime, and the Media
Media Coverage:
- Says a lot about public perceptions because of the way media covers crime and the stories
(cases)
o Journalists go straight to primary sources; judges, victims, lawyers
o They never really have the entire details tho
o They do’t hae uh koledge o the iial justie syste hee he they
publish their stories, they tend to focus solely on the offence and the sentence because
they know that chaos and crime is soiety’s ig appetite.
- Tends to focus on sensational, violent crimes
- Brief stories
- Focus on offence
- Few details about the case
- If you give public more info about case and offender, public becomes more lenient on their view
of sentencing.
o They question the judge’s deisio of the setee gie athe tha uestioig the
easo of the judge’s deisio
Crime Rate (Trends)
- Puli thiks ie ates ae isig he they’e eally ot
o Violent crimes are decreasing, property crimes are increasing
▪ People becoming sneakier
o Oly iolet ies ae eally potayed o the es, popety ies eally ae’t.
- Measured overall volume of crime in 2011 dropped 6% from 2010
o It’s ot at its loest poit sie 97
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