The media is a powerful institution that can disseminate information to a large group of people. It shapes individuals’ perception of the crime, morals, and what they consider right or wrong. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of how the media portrays crime and how it influences the public perceptions of crime. It also presents an in-depth discussion of racial hoaxes and their effects on the public’s understanding of the concepts of race and crime. Lastly, it elucidates the concept hate crime, its impacts, and its related benefits and harms.
Media Portrayal of Crimes
Although media is considered an essential platform for disseminating information, it can distort the frequency and severity of crimes by overrepresenting certain groups or cases in the media. News producers always make decisions on what events to report and how to convey them. The producers’ primary aim is to relay news in a manner that will invoke emotions or create a public sensation. The frequency and manner in which the media reports these stories will influence the public’s construction of the crime’s social reality.
This culture of filtering information to create newsworthy articles can lead to misrepresentation in crime-related activities. The media can overrepresent certain groups, including people of color and males, as crime perpetrators, creating cultural stereotypes that reinforce the public’s hostility towards such groups. Multiple studies have demonstrated that Asians, Latinos, and Native Americans are seldom the television news’ subjects, while blacks are commonly portrayed as crime perpetrators and violent. According to Dixon (2017), white people are likely to be described as crime victims; this holds true for homicides and other crime types. Depending on the number of times crimes are reported, and how the news is relayed, viewers can identify patterns and form distorted realities of the crime.
Crime depictions in the media rarely reflect the actual crime rate and seldom match the official crime statistics. When the public frequently sees these crimes, it influences their estimates of the real crimes’ frequency. Walter et al. (2017) revealed that the general public believes that violent crimes are more common in property crime when in the real sense, these crimes account for only ten percent of all crimes. Walter and associates attribute this misconception to the media constantly reporting on violent crimes instead of property crimes, which are far more common than violent crimes.
Example of a Story Distorted by the Media
Recently, a man gunned down eight people, six of whom were Asian Americans, in Atlanta. The media reported this attack as an anti-Asian hate crime even though they lacked evidence that the shooting was racially motivated. The Washington Post and The New York Times depicted it as an “anti-Asian white supremacist misogynist hate-based attack” (Wulfsohn, 2021). The media outlets were trying to push the narrative that white supremacists were fueling the anti-Asian hate attacks. In contrast, official reports show that the shooting was an isolated event, and there was no provable link that it was racially motivated. The center for Hate and Extremism reported that eighteen out of twenty hate crimes are committed by Hispanic Americans and Blacks, debunking the myth that whites were fueling the hate crimes in the crime (Wulfsohn, 2021). Andrew Sullivan, a media personality, criticized the media for publicizing this incident to create irrational fear among public members.
This story illustrates how the media can distort the severity and frequency of an account. While the incident was an isolated case, media outlets covered the same narrative a dozen times in different ways to magnify its severity. The Washington Post and the New York Times covered the same incident in more than two dozen stories (Wulfsohn, 2021). Covering this story multiple times created the illusion that anti-Asian attacks were increasing when in a real sense, they were not. Walter et al. (2017) supports this view by arguing that media cases rarely match official reports. While the media blamed white supremacists, police investigations showed that the perpetrator was a sex addict and was triggered when he saw the “sources of temptation.” Seven out of the eight victims that the perpetrator shot were women.
Racial Hoaxes and Their Effects
A racial hoax is an intentional attempt to spread blame, exclusion, fear, or hate by producing and circulating a criminal allegation. Katherine Russel indicates that racial deception occurs “when someone fabricates a crime and blames it on another person because of his race OR when an actual crime has been committed, and the perpetrator falsely blames someone because of his race” (as cited in Walter et al. 2017, p. 40). These people usually aim to create hatred and discontent against an individual or groupings on the grounds of race, religion, or ethnicity.
Racial hoaxes can reinforce or affirm existing narratives and stereotypes, which can be a combustive agent for racial resentments. According to Cerase and Santoro (2018), racial hoaxes are only plausible if they are consistent or support pre-existing discourses. For example, a racial fraud that matches the “criminal-black-man” stereotype will be readily accepted by the public.
However, these hoaxes influence how blacks feel as individuals and also as a group; it creates and perpetuates the existing stereotype about the black man being a criminal. Cerase and Santoro (2018) argue that an indelible imprint is formed in children’s minds when they encounter such racial hoaxes. The image of a black man as a criminal is stamped in the child’s mind and confirmed every time the racial fraud reoccurs. Over time, this mental image of the “criminal-black-man” is reinforced, assimilated, and accepted as the truth rather than an opinion.
The outcome of these biased perceptions, some of which are derived from racial hoaxes, is a racial divide on crime-control policies, alienation, and criminal offending behaviors. A distinct racial divide exists in how the public views the fairness of the criminal justice system. Dominant groups, especially whites, support or endorse the punitive policies, while the minority groups feel prejudiced by such laws. According to Walker et al. (2017), these racialized opinions regarding law policies have bred racial resentments and animosities in their wake. Each racial group feels victimized based on the perception and reality of crime.
For example, law enforcement personalities can be called to protect a white person from a perceived threat – the black man. The incident might arouse sympathy calls for protection of the innocent white man and swift and harsh punishment for the perpetrator. On the other hand, the blacks might feel this is another incident of racial profiling, strengthening each hoax’s strength. The public response to such perception is to either excuse the perpetrator’s behavior or deny racial motives in the incident.
The racial hoaxes enable gang formation and the creation of deviant behaviors. The defiant theory posits that perceptions of an unfair criminal justice system may increase criminal offending (Letteney, 2017). How society responds to criminal behaviors either increases the likelihood of a crime increasing or decreasing. The theory predicts that individuals who believe they have been punished unfairly or that their group members are unjustly treated are more likely to engage in crime (Letteney, 2017). Due to past experiences with the justice system, black people tend to have the conception that the government prejudices them. Racial hoaxes affect people’s understanding of race by reinforcing or affirming existing stereotypes.
Example of Racial Hoax
A famous racial hoax pertains to Susan Smith, a white woman who accused an African American of kidnapping her and her children. Later, Smith confessed to the killings after nearly nine days of the police searching for the perpetrator (Letteney, 2017). Her story sold quickly and was easily believed by the public because she accused someone that fit the stereotypical narrative of black men being criminals.
The Concept of Hate Crimes
A hate crime is often a crime that contains some element of racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual orientation prejudice. The offender is motivated to commit the crime based on his racial, sexual, or religious bigotry. The effects of hate crime are community-wide; individuals belonging to the community feel attacked even if they are not directly affected by the crime. Hate crimes create emotional responses such as anger, anxiety, vulnerability, and intimidation among victims. According to Walker (2017), racially motivated hate crimes breed racial animosities characterized by inter-group violence and social division. Racism can foster violent behavior as a defense mechanism or affected group’s practical solution to the social status and identity. The race debate regarding hate crimes can elicit emotional responses that can facilitate street conflicts among youths.
Hate crime statutes are divided into laws that treat hate crime as an independent criminal offense. The other stipulation provides a penalty enhancement to people committing criminal offenses. The regulations protect individuals from hate crimes by providing criminal penalties and civil remedies to victims. These laws deter violent and racist activities and allow victims to collect compensation for the damages caused by the perpetrator. Other states mandate hate crime reporting, which can create surveillance and community participation in investigating the crimes (Singer, n.d.). Reporting hate crimes and the appropriate response from the police significantly increased collaboration between local, state, and the federal government, which, in turn, led to the development of a permanent multijurisdictional task force.
Negative Effects on the Public’s Understanding of Race and Crime
Hate crime perpetrators found guilty of the crime are usually charged as appropriate by the court. However, an individual can only be convicted of a hate crime if the prosecution always needs to establish a motive for the crime. Simply put, the statutes require the prosecutors to prove that the perpetrator’s conduct was racially motivated. Placing the burden of proof on prosecutors reduces the number of hate crime convictions significantly.
It is difficult-almost impossible to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the perpetrator acted on the grounds of prejudice or bias. The offenders can get away with crime because proving the motive is always impossible. This situation can lead to emotional responses and distorted perceptions of the justice system’s fairness. The public might think the offenders got away with the crime because the system is racially biased when in the real sense, it is the hate crime statutes that are problematic. This misperception can be significant if the offender is white or has substantial resources to benefit from a good lawyer.
Conclusion
The news presented to viewers is usually selected based on their ability to invoke emotional responses or sensation from the public. Crime depictions in the media do not reflect the real-life crime situations. The media distorts the frequency and severity of crimes by overrepresenting certain groups and cases in the media. Racial hoaxes influence people’s understanding of crime by confirming existing stereotypes. Placing the burden of proof on prosecutors has made hate crime statutes ineffective.
References
Cerase, A., & Santoro, C. (2018). From racial hoaxes to media hypes Fake news’ real consequences. In P. Vasterman (Ed.), From media hype to twitter storm: News explosions and their impact on issues, crises and public opinion (pp. 333–354). Amsterdam University Press.
Dixon, T. L. (2017). Good guys are still always in white? Positive change and continued misrepresentation of race and crime on local television news.Communication Research, 44(6), 775–792. Web.
Letteney, K. W. (2017). Defiance theory. In C. J. Shreck, M. Leiber, H. V. Miller, & K. Welch (Eds.), The encyclopedia of juvenile delinquency and justice (pp. 1–9). Willey Blackwell.
Singer, P. (n.d.). Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system: Ethical background. Web.
Walker, S., Spohn, C., & DeLone, M. (2018). The color of justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Wulfsohn, J. (2021). Andrew Sullivan blasts media for “grotesquely” distorting Atlanta shootings to push hate crime “narrative.Fox News. Web.