Establishing Exaggeration of Media Reports on Youth Crimes - Case Study Example

Introduction Newspapers, Televisions, Radio Stations and Magazines are media entities that inform the society of current happenings. These media entities are expected to report facts as they are and create unbiased awareness to members of the society. However, some media entities have been blamed for exaggerating incidents and stories to create sensations among their audiences. Exaggeration of media stories and incidences often leave both the reporters and the public confused, uneasy and suspicious. Though media entities work hard to generate interest among its viewers and audiences, it is important that they remain focused and disseminate true stories and incidents to the members of the society. Criminal activities associated with young people (17 years and below) include arson, breach of bail, breach of conditional discharge, and breach of statutory order, criminal damage, death or injury by reckless driving, domestic burglary, drug offences, fraud & forgery, motoring offences Non-domestic burglary, public order, racial aggravated offences, robbery , sexual offences, theft and handling , vehicle theft and violence against person. It is not easy for an average person to know whether the media is exaggerating incidences or not. However, exaggeration of media content can be identified through Stanley Cohen’s five pointers and by comparing official statistics from government agencies to information contained in media reports. Establishing whether youth crimes are spiraling out of control as reported by the media in the United Kingdom Establishing exaggeration of media reports on youth crimes can be difficult for an average person. However, when Official Statistics and Government surveys are compared with media claims, it is possible to determine the degree and level of exaggeration. In addition, according to Goode and Ben-Yehuda (2009), Stanley Cohen made identification, quantification and measurement of a phenomenon possible by identifying five ways that can help to establish whether a phenomenon has been exaggerated or not. Inflation of facts, making false statements, devoting more attention to unserious issues, devoting attention to an issue at a time when it is less serious and devoting attention to occurrences of issues among uncommon groups are five ways that can tell whether a phenomenon has been exaggerated or not. These five pointers based on moral panic concept would be used to establish whether it is true that youth crime is spiraling out of control in the United Kingdom as portrayed by the media. First, it is good to establish whether the media has inflated youth crime rates (statistics). The media has given prominence to youth crime rates over other equally important happenings in Britain. Though youth crimes are only reported as they happen and do not run longer as compared to other stories, they are put as prominent information. Most media in the United Kingdom exaggerates criminal offences perpetuated by young people by putting youth crimes incidences in more prominent parts of the newspaper or the newscasts. In addition, some media uses age to show the magnitude and scope of crime perpetrators. Four year old children were suspected to be involved with arson, assault, burglary and possessing offensive weapons. Reporting children as perpetrators is hard to believe or imagine. Pickard (2008) claimed that Britain have experienced alarming increases in publicized knife crimes since 2008. The knife crime stories about latest victims and perpetrators are placed in front pages of the newspapers and headlines in the newscasts. The media constantly remind members of the society on imminent danger they face each day as they leave their houses as young people embrace knives as latest fashion accessory. Figure 1 is a graph showing the number of young people who got involved in criminal offences between the years 2003 to 2010. According to the graph below, the number of young people who got involved in criminal offences increased steadily from 2003 to 2006. After 2006, the number of young people who committed criminal offence declined gradually to 2010. Figure 1 Source: House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts (2011) Some media entities are reporting that youth crime in the United Kingdom is alarmingly increasing. This is because youth crime events tend to be more interesting to the members of the society as compared to stories of good incidences. Daily Mail and Telegraph, are some of the media entities in Britain that informed the society that crime rates among the youth in Britain are souring. Telegraph warns that young people commit crime after every two minutes. Yet according to House of Commons Committee (2011), the number of young people involved in criminal offences is decreasing since 2006 and reached its lowest point in ten years in 2010. These are facts that have been recorded in the official’s government department such as the Youth Justice Board, which are real and authentic. The number of people involved in criminal activities grew steadily from 2003 to 2006 and began to drop steadily from 2006 to 2010. Furthermore, the number of young people considered first time offenders getting admission to criminal justice system in Britain reduced significantly by 21 percent from 94,666 in 2008 to 74,412 in 2009. Young people in custody have also reduced from 2,625 in March 2009 to 2,209 in March 2010. Second, some media has made false statements. There are some few incidences that show that some media entities have made untrue claims on the number of young people involved in some crime categories in the United Kingdom. According to the Telegraph dated march 6, 2009, the number of motoring offences was 36, 712 in the year 2007. Yet the official statistics from the House of Commons indicated 36, 567 motoring offences in the same year.. Since media obtain information on youth crime from Youth Justice Board information, members of the society may believe stories and incidences reported by the media on youth crime in Britain. This is because most media especially in the developed world have respectable editors and usually report unbiased information on incidences. Generally, the media in the United Kingdom has exaggerated youth crimes happening therein. Most media also inflated incidences of some youth crimes. According to Rutherford (2010), media placed conspicuous and alarming headlines. The eye catching headlines on youth crime include “shame of our child criminal suspects”, which appeared on Belfast telegraph, “Decade of delinquency: teen robberies, violence and drug crime sour to record levels”, which appeared on Daily Mail dated March 6, 2009 and “a crime is committed every two minutes by British youth”, which appeared on Telegraph. Above headlines are examples of information inflation. Some statements made by media are true and are substantiated by government agencies. For example, it is an open secret that knife crimes perpetuated by the youth in the United Kingdom have increased and police departments have admitted that knife crime is among the biggest security threats in the United Kingdom and comes second after terrorism. According to youth Justice Board (YJB), about half of the boys in Britain admitted to have carried a weapon within the year. Therefore, some media entities have been correct in statement that the government agencies have failed to control specific kind of crimes such as knife crimes that have increased over time in the United Kingdom. Third, the media has not devoted more attention to unserious issues. Youth crime is a serious issue and should be treated as such even though it was reported modestly by most media entities in the United Kingdom. Fourth, the media did not devote attention to criminal offences carried out by young people at a time when it was less serious. Most crimes committed by young people were reported when the impact of occurrence was huge and devastating. Only fatal knife crimes were reported as they happened in Britain. Fifth, the media devoted attention to occurrences of issues among uncommon groups. Not all young people’s crime was reported. There are over ten criminal offences (see table 1 in the appendices) that young people committed in Britain. However, only few criminal offences that editors felt will make good headlines were reported. Some media houses also stressed upon crime perpetuated by children under the age of five even though children associated crimes were of very small proportion. This indicates exaggeration of some sort. Conclusion Based on the above facts and explanations, media has exaggerated the level of youth crime in the United Kingdom. Daily Mail and Telegraph are examples media entities that indicated that crime committed by young people in Britain are souring even though facts from Youth Justice Department indicated declining trends in crime rates committed by young people. The other reason that makes the society know that media exaggerates incidents is the use of strong and catchy words in headlines associated with youth crimes in Britain. From the stated facts, it is evident that the media has not distanced itself from biasness and conflict of interest as usual. This is because media used sensory manipulations, story lines, rhetoric and simulations intended to grab and hold its audiences as they report crimes perpetuated by young people. Bibliography ‘One crime committed every two minutes by British youths’, Telegraph n.d., viewed 2 March 2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/4946255/One-crime-committed-every-two-minutes-by-British-youths.html Goode, E & Ben-Yehuda, N 2009, Moral panics: the social construction of deviance, 2nd edn, John Wiley and Sons, London. Hope, K & Whitehall (Ed) 2009, ‘violent attacks by children rise by third under Labour’, Telegraph 16 March, viewed 2 March 2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/4995471/Violent-attacks-by-children-rise-by-third-under-Labour.html House of Commons 2011, The youth justice system in England and Wales: Reducing offending by young people. Twenty-first Report of Session 2010, The Stationery Office Limited, London, viewed 2 March 2011 . Natale, L 2010, FACTSHEET- Youth Crime in England and Wales, CIVITAS Institute for the Study of Civil Society. London. Pickard, J 2008, The UK Epidemic of Youth Knife Crime, viewed 2 March 2011, http://jamespickard.co.uk/2008/07/14/the-uk-epidemic-of-youth-knife-crime/ Rutherford, A 2010, ‘Revealed: shame of our child criminal suspects’, Belfast Telegraph n.d., viewed 2 March 2011, http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/revealed-shame-of-our-child-criminal-suspects-15023066.html Slack, n.d., ‘A decade of delinquency: Teen robberies, violence and drug crime soar to record levels’ Daily Mail, n.d., viewed 2 March 2011, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1159834/A-decade-delinquency-Teen-robberies-violence-drug-crime-soar-record-levels.html Appendices Table 1- Table showing the number of young people involved in crime between 2003 and 2010. Offence type 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Breach of Statutory Order 8,256 11,175 13,378 15,484 15,910 16,751 15,877 12,544 Criminal Damage 27,516 31,097 34,511 39,028 40,944 38,524 32,328 23,611 Burglary 13,418 12,868 12,357 13,309 13,241 11,800 10,401 9,328 Drugs Offences 13,414 13,522 11,879 12,794 11,220 13,268 14,435 13,461 Motoring Offences 61,734 66,305 55,296 47,047 36,567 26,225 20,515 14,992 Public Order 17,790 20,529 21,850 22,496 24,046 24,045 20,965 16,886 Robbery 4,737 4,740 5,185 5,607 6,855 6,699 6,079 5,384 Theft and Handling 47,892 48,602 50,996 55,907 56,603 54,802 49,183 41,702 Violence against a person 34,896 40,473 44,988 54,661 56,226 53,930 47,490 38,744 Others 38,827 38,572 36,573 35,527 33,517 31,942 27,310 21,797 Total 268,480 287,883 287,013 301,860 295,129 277,986 244,583 198,449 Source: House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts (2011) Read More