A Justice Site
Media, Crime and Criminal Justice Preparations
Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP - Archives
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: July 27, 2003
Latest Update: April 15, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
CRMJ 490-01: Media, Crime, and Criminal JusticeYou will be held accountable for purposes of grading for the readings and exercises listed here. There will be no "testing." That means that you will not have to live in anxious anticipation of what we will ask and how much you will have to know. Instead, we will provide weekly discussion questions, lectures, essays, and concepts we feel that you should know as a result of having taken this course. You will assure us of that learning and receive your grade for the questions and concepts about which you choose to write and talk with us. In addition you will find detailed explanations and examples on our grading policies in the first week's reading.* * * * * Week 14: Week of April 18, 2004
Topic: Media as a Cure for Crime
Preparatory Readings:
- Surette. Media, crime, and criminal justice. -- Chapter 6.
- Merlo and Benekos. What's wrong with the criminal justice system: Ideology, Politics and the Media. -- no chapter readings this week.
- Potter and Kappeler. Constructing crime. -- no chapter readings this week.
Lecture related links:
--- Sociology of Knowledge Files . --- Check out this link -- Ray Surette's website ( found by Bettie Poole).
Concepts to be covered:
- anticrime efforts
- media-based anticrime efforts
- offender deterrence programs
- victimization reduction programs
- media technology and the criminal justice system
Discussion Questions:
- Are the media more effective as a cure for crime or more damaging as a cause of crime? Why. (S:193)
- Do you think the media are more effective at influencing offenders or victims of crime? Why. (S:193)
- Discuss ways in which people are under surveillance in their daily lives due to media technology. (S:193)
- What do you see as the impact of declining face-to-face interactions in the criminal justice system? Why. (S:193)
Suggested Creative Activities:
- Trace a recent example of a media-based anticrime effort. How successful was this effort? Why.
- Explore which of the three basic types of media-based anticrime programs is the most successful? the least successful? Why.
- Research CrimeStoppers International and other comparable programs. How successful are such programs? Why.
- Explore what media technologies your local criminal justice system is using.
- View and critique the film, "Reefer Madness." How does this film relate to "media as a cure for crime?" Why.
Recommended Readings:
- Ray Surette. Justice and the Media.
- Ray Surette. The Media and Criminal Justice Policy.
- G. O'Keefe. Taking the Bite Out of Crime: The impact of a mass media crime prevention campaign.
- D. Rosenbaum et al. Crime Stoppers: A National Evaluation of Program Operations and Effects.
Media Sources:
Left/Right Perspectives - Cursor - New York Times
Arts and Letters Daily - The Economist - The Guardian
Wall Street Journal -The Weekly Standard - The Nation
Los Angeles Times - Chicago Tribune - The Washington Post
Cursor's Al Jazeera Archive - Ha'aretz - Palestine Monitor
Indymedia - BBC News - New Profile - Progressive Sociologists Network