Crime and media is what is going to be discussed in this post.
We are going to introduce a synthesis of media review teamwork and different aspects of social construction such as media itself, moral entrepreneurship and interests group. All of our articles are well defined with the following concepts: Differential association theory, rational choice theory and acquisitive crime. These three concepts are the one that best explain the articles that we found.
First of all, the differential association theory is the theory that is explained by the fact that people learn through contact with people who defined criminal acts in a favorable way. When people see other people acting in a certain way, they might act the same way as other people do. We can take for example the articles found by Kevin that talk about Mafia. Mafia is good example of this theory because the child are raised in Mafia’s families where everybody are involved in criminal acts and since it is the way they are raised, they tend to think that it is the right way of living. They then become members of the Mafia and participate in criminal activities because it is what has been shown to them.
The theory of rational Choice theory is about evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of making crimes. If there are more advantages than disadvantages, it is assumed that people will get involved in crimes. Risks of apprehension, seriousness of punishments, value of criminal activities, are some components that are evaluated. In most of our articles we found that there are a lot of big criminal organizations, and that even if they are caught the group will still be, the organization will not stop. Only a few members might me seriously caught and maybe send to prison, but nothing too serious about the whole gang.
Acquisitive crime is a concept that is defined by the will of gain property from criminal activities. In mostly of our articles the authors talks about criminal organisations implicated in criminal actions such as money laundering, political interferences, drugs trafficking, etc. Organized crime such as Mafia and bikers are two groups that are highly involved in criminal activities where their goal is actually to gain property. For example, Biker gang such as Hell’s Angels are parts of gambling groups, drugs trafficking, and much more. Their goal is simple as the fact that they want to make profit out of their criminal involvement.
These are concepts that were relevant and that were related to the articles we reviewed.
To continue in different social construction aspects, Media feels that criminals are only a problem in the society among others; they don’t have a real hatred toward them. They mention how the government reacts toward the actions of the criminals and comment its. They act as intermediaries between general population and the law enforcement. They inform the population of what is going on with organized crime; they give a true image of what is going on, without necessarily explaining the reasons due to the large spectrum of theories that could explain crime. Medias seem to be objective toward organized crime, they only focus on giving the information as they get it, and they don’t really give their opinion, nothing too significant. Few of them are more subjective, they tend more to give their opinion instead of only presenting the information to the population.
Moral entrepreneurs are there to identify social problem by using legitimate organs of regulation to try to fix. Moral entrepreneurs are represented by law enforcement that identified organized crime as a social problem. They use the government as a legitimate organ of regulation to try to fix the problem.
Law enforcement is in a position of power as to say they have the power and the obligation to make everything they can to protect society from criminals.
Law enforcement represents authority, safety and protection. They are seen as people of morality and that everything that they do is for the good of society. Therefore they have a lot of influence on society’s view.
In conclusion, we found three relevant social concepts that well explain the social issue that we are studying, which is organized crime. These concepts were relevant to the articles that we reviewed. About social entrepreneurship, we associated law enforcement as moral entrepreneurs. Moral entrepreneurs are using government as a legitimate organ of regulation. We think that the media depiction on organized crime seems to be like one problem among others.
