criminal law

Guest post by- Ms. Fatima Sufiyaan

The term ‘criminology’ is not used in everyday parlance. As a law student, when the subject was first introduced to us, even I was confused as to what is meant by the term. Therefore, before starting off with the article, let us discuss the term ‘criminology’.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Criminology is the scientific study of the non legal aspects of crime and delinquency, including it’s causes, correction and prevention.”

We understand that crime is viewed from a legal perspective; in the sense that a crime is committed through individual actions and the societal response to those actions are punishments. However, while studying criminology, criminologists do not look at the legal perspective; instead, they focus on the broader aspects of crime and criminologists.

Now that the meaning of Criminology is clear, let us understand the term ‘Mass media’. Generally speaking mass media is technology that is intended to reach mass audience. It is the primary means of communication used to reach the vast majority of the general public.

When we co-relate the two terms, mass media and criminology, we get to understand how the media influences the study of crime and punishment.

As we already are aware of, that the relationship between the criminal justice system and the media, primarily has been the subject of research, speculation, and commentary throughout the twentieth century. The media always has had a profound effect on how the public perceives and understands the criminal justice system. Aside from the massive interest that the general public has with crime and criminals, people also want to know how those crimes are discovered and dealt with by the system.

Mass media plays a fundamental role in public policy making and the media coverage of crime news, stories helps to set the agenda and reinforce support for penal policies.

The greatest example of the same could be news channels and newspapers. People dedicate their time in watching the 9’o clock news to understand what is going on in the world and in the justice system, after which they form feedbacks, which is kept in high regard by the Courts and the Parliament all around the world. Therefore, we can safely say that to a large extent, the media shapes the working of the justice system.

The media has without second-guessing, an important role as it primarily acts as the ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ of the public. The relationship between crime and mass media’s insight about it is crucial to formulate the criminal justice system.

There is a long history of moral panics about the effects of experience to popular media and cultural forms. Stanley Cohen gave the term ‘Moral Panic’. It can be defined as a public mass movement, based on false or exaggerated perceptions or information that exceeds the actual threat the society is facing. It is said, that typically a moral panic is most likely to be perpetrated by the news media.

There are two perceptions about the moral panics constructed by media; for conservative, the media glamourizes the crime and underestimates public insecurities, whereas for liberals, the media overstates the crime and produces moral panics to justify an authoritarian crime control policy.

The media defines the public image of police, prosecutors, courts and corrective measures by acting as gatekeepers of crime coverage. The mass media’s capacity to reach vast audiences of citizens and policymakers also positions it as an essential resource for the criminal justice system and all of its attendant judicial and law enforcement organisations.

For the criminal justice system to operate effectively, it must have the authority that derives from people’s willingness to grant it legitimacy, and media storytelling can profoundly affect this process.

Bronislaw Malinowski believed that all legal institutions are platforms for controlling illegal affairs, and for venting the feelings of oppression and injustice unleashed against the individuals. Michel Foucault (1979) points out that by the eighteenth century the masses could sympathise with the accused and ‘the people never felt closer to those who paid the penalty than in those rituals intended to show the horror of the crime and the invincibility of power exercised without moderation or restraint.’

However, there are certain downsides as well, when it comes to mass media’s role in criminal justice system.

Agenda-setting theory (Maxwell McCombs and Donald L. Shaw) is concerned with how the media constructs depictions the world and in turn how this influences the people in looking at the world.

Mainstream media draws attention to certain aspects of politics at the expense of other issues by reporting news about one issue, while ignoring other issues. The legitimacy of governance depends on the consensus of rulers, and it is generally believed that policy makers should not assume policies outside the boundaries they provide. Therefore, public opinion is a legitimate consideration for policy makers when making decisions.

In his book Crime, Culture and the Media, Eamonn Carrabine states that reporting crime 24/7 contributes to the cultural climate of horror. Media representation can adversely affect the perception of crime-related topics and impair the implementation of security measures.

Danilo Y (2001) states: “The depiction of violent crime by the media deepens our understanding of crime and justice and is reflected in public policy.”

According to Hayward and Young (2007), the media and the general public are always obsessed with crime and criminals. Crime news coverage has created an ambitious audience and has been a consistent theme of popular culture throughout the 20th century.

Further development of public policy begins with the recognition that problems exist. The pre-political stages are: topic formation, political demands and agenda formation. The media increases newspaper sales by entertaining people about crime, but ultimately distorts the public’s understanding of crime as a serious social problem. According to Leishman P. and Mason P. (2002), news media, like the entertainment industry, targets criminal articles, as does reality television and other forms of infotainment.

Crime stories and illustrations are an important part of all mass media content.

Media acts as an investigation, such as a pretrial investigation by state law enforcement agencies. It reveals political corruption, fraud, and many criminal cases in society. Therefore, although it is an important source of information, it serves as a source of information and thus supports the national criminal justice system. This is possible because the press is not subject to prior restrictions, but ultimately civil and criminal liability for the disclosure of information and news of false, profane, obscene, or inciting in nature, might be asked.

In India, there are many cases in which law enforcement authorities have been violently awakened from sleep and further urged to take action against the accused. In the Shakti Mills Gang Rape case, a photojournalist was gangraped by five men at Shakti Mills in Mumbai. In this case, timely media intervention facilitated the criminal procedure and urged another 18-year-old switchboard operator to report being raped at the same location in July 2013 in accordance with 2013 law. In this case, the media undoubtedly played an important role in promoting the criminal justice system.

In State v. Ram Singh and Another (SC No 114/2013), also known as the Nirbhaya Incident, on December 16, 2012, five men and a young man raped an emergency medical student on a moving bus, then cruelly attacked her and caused her severe injuries. The Indian media reported extensively daily on the incident, which shook the country’s collective consciousness due to the complete fall of crime. The media reported the incident immediately and helped generate strong public opinion. Thorough follow-up did not subside or extinguish the awakening of the masses. On September 13, 2013, the court sentenced the defendant to death. On March 13, 2014, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty.

In conclusion, media activists are the most welcome attitude, the calm attitude between the two extreme situations of media exaggeration and media lethargy.

But such activism should be countered by a bit of restraint so that the danger of developing into a media tyranny cannot be ruled out. The media is the fourth pillar of a democratic nation. When public opinion is the lifeline of a country, the press is the body and means to carry it, nurture it, preserve it, and give it a concrete and concrete form. Criminal investigations and court proceedings relate to the issue of freedom of life and dignity. Criminal consequences can have serious consequences for people’s minds and bodies. The work of the media and the media must not undermine or deviate from the notions of life, freedom and dignity of an individual. If innocent people are convicted and punished, it’s certainly a shame, not because of what they did, but because of misery and media fantasies. A person will not be punished for a crime in India unless it is proved beyond reasonable doubt. But if a person is punished for media interference, but there is a suspicion that the person may be innocent, in the case of media interference, the real sinner is the media. Media ethics must be recognized, learned and practiced by the media in order to maintain the most trusted social system in the democratic world.

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Yours truly, LawyerStrange

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