CYBERCRIME

 Throughout this course we focused alot on the way the media is used to transmit stories of crime to the public. We spent a great deal of time explaining how certain agents of the criminal justice system are displayed in fictional and non-fictional media. We also looked at how offenders and victims are portrayed in the media. We then went on to discuss how certain types of phenomena, namely, moral panics and folk devils, are created by the media. We also discussed law and order commonsense and how law and order politics are utilised mainly around election time in the pursuit of votes by electoral candidates. What I really enjoyed about our final topic was the shift in focus, from the above mentioned, to the way certain crimes arise from the forms of media available to us.

 Over the past two decades the use of the internet has grown exponentially for both private and business activity. There is no doubt that the world wide web has altered the relationship between crime and the media, in that, it opens up opportunities for new and different types of crime. 'Crime via the internet has become known as cybercrime' (Marsh and Melville 2009). This type of crime is particularly atrocious mainly because of two things:

1. The perpetrator can remain relatively 'faceless' or hard to identify

2. The victim can be particularly vulnerable or unknowing.

This is particularly the case when it comes to online paedophilia; children are more vulnerable because of the secrecy of paedophilic networks. Moreover, because of the offender is hidden behind their computer screen, this type of crime is difficult to police. However, the police can catch a break: Earlier this year, there were reports on the news of the bust of a worldwide paedophile ring: 'They were caught as part of Operation Rescue, a global policing operation that began in 2007 and culminated yesterday with the announcement of more than 180 arrests in more than 30 countries' (Welch 2011).

 Wall, an expert in the study of cybercrime, proposes that the policing of cybercrime is based upon self-regulation by users of the internet and Internet Service Providers who have the duty of 'acting responsibly' on the internet. Wall argues that there would be no need for a specialist task force in the policing of cybercrime, instead, building on what is already in place would be a practical way forward.

References

Welch, D 2011, 'Paedophile ring busted and children rescued', Sydney Morning Herald, March 18, accessed 2 June 2011, http://www.smh.com.au/national/paedophile-ring-busted-and-children-rescued-20110317-1bz4v.html

Marsh, I. and Melville, G. (2009). Crime Justice and the Media 1st ed. London: Routledge

Kronic and Planking: Criminal Offences?

 In this weeks blog i just wanted to expand on Hayley's blog about 'planking'.

http://hayleycrim2027.blogspot.com/2011/05/planking-offence.html

'Planking' has drawn much attention over the past week, mainly due to social media sites. The behaviour consists of photographing oneself in a position that resembles a plank of wood - stiff, flat and faced down - in bizarre and funny places and then posting them on facebook. Seems pretty harmless? The news have been all over a man fell to his death off an apartment balcony after pulling a planking stunt. Since then the news have been focusing on the harmful consequences of planking. A few days ago the news reported a woman who sustained head injuries from falling off a 2m wall giving a planking demonstration to her friends. Planking has been widely condemned by authorities, though the act is not illegal. However, a man from Gladstone was found planking on a cop car and was charged with being found on police establishment without lawful excuse.

 Similarly, I was watching the evening news the other night and there was mention of this substance called Kronic. It's not actually an illicit drug and it's sold over the counter at adult shops, tabacconists and herbal shops. However, it mimics the effects of cannabis and can be up to 100 times as strong (key words being: 'can be up to'). Also, 'health experts fear users of the drug...face the same adverse effects of cannabis including heart palpitations, severe hallucinations, delusions and psychosis' (Noone 2011). The substance has been on the market for around four years, but only recently has it been brought into the spotlight because it has been discovered that its use is widespread throughout the mining industry, with several using while on the job.

 The whole thing has reminded me of what we've been discussing in class about moral panics and 'law and order politics'. After the recent attention that's been brought to the substance, apparently, the Intergovernmental Committee on Drugs (IGCD) are now pushing to have the ingredients in Kronic listed as poisons. Moreover, politicians are now looking to ban the substance or regulate its use. The Australian Sex Party's president, Fiona Pattern, has spoken out and believes that these reactions are based on hearsay and without any proof of harmful effects of the substance. Some, people like to smoke the smushy stuff on the inside of banana skins for a mild high, dubbed 'mellow yellow', is our government going to try to ban bananas as well? Which leads to the question: if Kronic is banned then where will it end?

 

References

Noone, R 2011, 'Call for kronic smokers to be sacked', The Daily Telegraph, 20 May, accessed 28 May, <http://www.news.com.au/national/fake-pot-known-as-kronic-is-a-very-chronic-concern/story-e6frfkvr-1226059326932>

Missing Children and the Media

 With the recent media focus on Kiesha Abrahams and considering that our most recent topic examined victims in the media, I decided to discuss this in my blog this week. In our examination of the hierarchy of deserving and undeserving victims it is clear that the elderly and children are definetly at the top, being the 'ideal' victim: defenceless, unkowing and worthy of sympathy. Whilst at the very other end of the spectrum, youths, say, that are injured in drunken brawls, tend to have less focus on their victim status in the media. Depending on what role the person plays in their own victimsation will directly effect how the crime and the people involved are portrayed in the media.

 Which brings me to missing children and their representation in the media. When these stories are reported in the news the child and their family is always foregrounded. Wardle notes 'a change from photographs of the offender being the most regularly used images in the media to photographs of the victim and victims' families being most common' (Wardle 2007 cited in Marsh and Melville 2009, p. 106). Children are represented as innocent victims which the image of the 'ideal' victim demands.

 The media can have a particularly positive influence in the cases of missing children. Information about possible suspects can reach the wider public as a consequence of the fact that the media reaches a massive audience on a daily basis. One of the mediums that allows for this is, of course, the internet; being easily accessable and the fastest growing form of media available. The follwoing is a link to a site on which the public can show their support though posting messages or donating funds and giving information that may be relevant in the search for Madeleine.

http://www.findmadeleine.com/home.html

Recently, the investigation into the disappearance of Kiesha Abrahams has reached a fever pitch . Last Friday, the parents of Kiesha were charged with her murder. Since she had been reported missing in August 2010, the police have finally reached the conclusion that the possibility of abduction or that she had wandered off in the middle of the night must be ruled out. The images hundreds of people gathered around candlelight vigils has been popularly expressed in the media over the past couple of weeks. Moreover, the same sort of support has been shown by the public in the construction of a facebook page titled: 'Help Find Kiesha Abrahams'.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Help-Find-Kiesha-Abraham-Organisation/103096633081220

References:
Marsh, I. and Melvelle, G. (2009). Crime, Justice and the Media 1st ed. London: Routledge. p. 106

Detroit 187: Yet another police drama.

 I noticed that this week, in the lectures, readings and tutorials, that we didn't really discuss in much depth the fictional representation of police in the media and that much of the focus was on the representation on police in the news and crime 'faction' programs. So I decided it would be fitting to discuss this in my blog this week. It was also conveniantly coincidental that this week's topic (police and the media) coincided with the debut of they very latest poice drama: Detroit 187. Apparently the show is really popular in the US and was really well received over here too (here comes my cynical side) and why wouldn't it? It's set in a part of the US that has a high rate of violent street crime, creating the perfect arena to watch cops at work; fighting crime and delivering justice for the victims and the communtiy. For those of you who missed out, here's a trailer:





 It's highly typical that the show tracks the investigations made by the city's homicide unit, a team of highly trained professional investigators. 'The fictional presentation of crime control tends to reinforce the stereotype that police work is mainly consumed with investigation, detection and capture of criminals. Downplaying the mundane, less visible aspects of daily work, or ignoring them altogether...' (White and Perrone 2010: 36). We were shown car chases, foot chases, hostage situations and wacky interrogation methods, the works! The cops are portrayed as heros with abilities and powers that normal people don't have. In turn, what is reinforced is that we the public are safe, because these guys are out there catching the baddies and locking them up for good.

 One of the points raised by Strath in the lecture was that the police are often shown as kind and compassionate people. A scene from Detroit 187 showed an investigator holding the hand of the victim's mother whilst they delivered the news that her daughter had been killed. Again, one of the cops delivers a highly emotional speech when diffusing a hostage situation. Clearly portraying that cops are great at their jobs; not only do they have these superhuman qualities that give them the ability to stop criminals dead in their tracks, they also have a very human side that allows for human compassion. The coupling of these characteristic traits conveys a very clear message to the public: the police force are a force to be reckoned with.

References

White, R. and Perrone, S. (2010). Crime, Criminality and Criminal Justice Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

SPECIAL EDITION blog post: The NSW State Election.

 I'm not going to lie. I'm a little bit late with this blog post and it would have probably been far more effective to write about the NSW State Election and the 'law and order campaigns' involved before everyone had voted last Saturday. Nonetheless, the issues surrounding elections concerning the crime, media and politics relationship can still be discussed as they will be relevant for many elections to come.

 It's accepted that most of the public are avid consumers of crime news and has been found that roughly 76% of people form their opinions about crime from what they see and read in news media (Marsh and Melville 2009: 1). So if millions of people are watching and forming opinions about crime from what they see in the media, it would make sense that politicians (especially around election time) would also use the media to present their solutions to our country's crime problems. This is what 'law and order politics' basically is.

 Much of the debate around crime and the assurances made by politicians to solve crime problems play on our ideas of what is needed to deter people from committing crime, dubbed 'law and order commonsense'. Some of the main themes of law and order commonsense include: 'soaring crime rates, "it is worse than ever": law and order nostalgia [and that] the criminal justice system is "soft on crime" and does not protect citizens'. (Hogg and Brown 1998: 21). This was one of the ways the political candidates running in the State Election tried to win votes, so to speak.

Let us take a look at what both parties had to offer - in relation to crime policy - in the weeks leading up to the election. The Liberals we offering a plethora of improvements to crime policy including: more police powers, a three-strike system for problem venues (goodbye Friday nights at the Railway Hotel) and a graffiti hotline and crackdown, to only name a few. The ALP on the other hand, did not provide as many answers to crime problems, but in what they had shared very similar premises with those offered by the Libs. So we can see that law and order campaigns are a very popular angle to take.

 Finally, I found this significant to note here: tonight as I watched the evening news I saw that Barry O'Farrell is claimed to have said that he intends to follow through with ALL of the policies put forward in the Liberals' electoral campaign despite having found a 4.5 billion black hole in the state's budget. This raises another question:

How much should we take at face value?



References:

Marsh, I. and Melvelle, G. (2009). Crime, Justice and the Media 1st ed. London: Routledge. p. 1

Hogg, R. and Brown, D. (1998). Rethinking Law and Order. New South Wales: Pluto Press. p. 21

i tweet, therefore i am.

 I think my consumption of crime and media news is relatively typical for a person my age studying Criminology. In so, I have pricked up my ears to crime-related news in the media a considerable amount since the beginning of the course. In our day and age the world has moved on in terms of media consumption, and because crime stories dominate the media, more crime-related news is being consumed in turn.

 I like to think that I'm an old-fashioned kind of gal; I still buy CD's and I don't even own an iPhone; but why not take advantage of a world that allows us to have a whole cyber world of information at our fingertips, quite literally (excuse the bad pun). I can't remember the last time I bought an actual, tangible newspaper. I'm pretty sure it was around the time that the Starbucks in my area closed down, where you could pick up The Herald for fifty cents with your latte. Now it seems far more conveniant (and cheaper) to browse through the seeminlgy endless amount of news content online. When Alyce told us in the lecture on Monday that there is the possibility that press companies might start charging us to view their online news I felt my heart break a little on the inside.

 I don't watch alot of TV, I prefer TV on DVD and go through phases of watching an assortment of shows, none of which have been crime fiction shows. If there's nothing much on TV I tend to go with watching the crime 'faction' shows such as Border Security and RBT. I hate to admit that I don't hate the reality shows. However, I do make an effort to watch the evening news and even more so when a major event is taking place, such as the upcoming state election.

 On the flipside, I find that it is sometimes hard to avoid the news when particular incident has been blown up by the media. The face of football player Benji Marshall has been plastered all over the news since he was charged with assault last Saturday. It's only natural to assume the excessive media coverage of this story is due to the celebrity status of Marshall. Stories of violent crimes such as this one, are difficult to avoid in the news.

 Moreover, social networking sites, such as facebook and twitter, which are used widely amongst the general public, provide a platform for personal opinion on such matters of crime. I find that even on these sites, news of current crime events is prominent. Only today did I see someone post:

' So are the police going to charge the 'victim' of Benji Marshall's punch for racial vilification? I don't agree with violence but what would you do?'

 This was one of the more nicely-put personal opinions.

  




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