Summary: The Mythology Of Crime

The Media Portrays a Silent Victim
Kappelar and Potter’s The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice the reader is able to better understand the implications of myth and morals regarding issues that arise within the community. Do the media install politics of fear and moral panics in order to create a safer environment? Or do the media install politics of fear and moral panic to acquire more followers/viewers on the channel. Which people are following these events? Is it mothers who have children and fear for their daily return home? Or is it individual who just want to see the outcome whether it is a lifeless body or a happy child who just ran astray? We will learn to understand why the media produces what they do and why they may do it.
They usually have the hope that they will make the world a better place by fighting crime or investigating it. Though, a stab to the chest comes to them when they learn that there are politics in crime. The best way to portray politics in crime is through the mass media. Understanding who is being targeted when the channel is aired and how the channel is broadcasted is huge in media. This is just the tip of the ice burg when trying to understand and sort through what is important and what is not as a criminal justice student. The media portrays moral panics, politics of fear, and many other manipulative idea’s in the communities head to do what? To install fear to keep the community safe or is it to highlight their channel in order to get more followers? Nonetheless this is a criminal justice student’s insight on the mass media and how they may positively or negatively affect the
If we talk briefly about women we can understand that a maternal instinct for protecting children is adamant. This in turn would help the media expand coverage on a missing child because most women’s maternal instincts fall prey to the loss of an innocent child. Will they find this child healthy or will they find it lifeless? This insures more media exposure which generates more money for the station. Let’s say that a little girl goes missing. How do the media create moral panic? As a criminal justice student the first question may be to ask how long has this child been missing and what are the circumstances and information surrounding the case. Let’s say we know that the little girl got on the bus to come home from school, but when her parents came home she wasn’t there and the babysitter stated that the bus briefly stopped at the house, but the little girl did not get off. The first place the officers would check is with the school, the bus driver, and the teacher to get all of the facts. In contrast the media gets this information and goes wild. Nancy Grace comes on the news and talks about how the little girl has been missing and she did not get off the bus. The entire world knows now that this little girl is missing and they think that potentially the bus driver has abducted the child. Installing moral of panics and politics of fear every parent is fearful of putting their child on a bus now. Finally, local police force finds