Media Coverage on Youth Crime free essay sample

This research study delves looks into the public’s misconception of on the extent and nature and extent of the increased rate of youth crime and the youth justice system per se. Also, and the characteristics of such way such misconception and the adverse impact on youth who commit these crimes. . respond to youthful offending. Overall, umpteenth Various misconceptions have been identified concerning youth crimes in Canada. The media plays a major role in the public’s perception at times distoring actualities and creating an impression that It has been shown that, the public is made to believe that there is a drastic increase on in youth crime. The public’s perception is also justified by the statistics provided by the media. belief of the public has been mainly based on the number of statics availed by the media. Research has proven that The availed official statistics in respect to the extent and nature of youth crime, have shown that the public’s conception about the rapid increase on youth crime is not supported by the available official statistical data. In exploratory research comparing the discrepancies between available statistics and official statistics with regard to the public’s misconceptions, it was decided to unravel the discrepancy which appears to shape the public’s attitude in this myth which seems to deliver negative impacts. Reasons for such kind of discrepancy between the available official statistics and public conceptions with regard to youth crime and the youth justice system have been explored. The key role of the media in the shaping of public attitude has been addressed in this study. The negative effects which arise from public misconceptions with regard to youth crime are explored. Major Among the negative effects of public misconception of youth crime, involve is making of unnecessary changes to existing legislation, on the legislation, public intolerance, and creating unnecessary and making of inappropriate programs for young offenders. The paper makes cConclusive suggestions are provided in the hopes of bridging which are intended to bridge the gaps between the official statistics and the public’s misconception. Included in the recommendations are suggestions Among the recommendations given, it has been suggested that the media should be provided with given accurate proper information and statistics about the youth justice system, and the public be should also be educated enlightened about the criminal justice system. Also, inherent fear associated with youth crimes should be properly identified, acknowledged and addressed in order to curb, if not resolve the myths surrounding youth crimes. It has also been suggested that fears that are associated with youth crime should be acknowledged and adequately addressed. Introduction The Yyoung oOffenders Act of 1984 (YOA)was introduced put in place in order to to reflect reconcile various issues of accountability and responsibility for with regard to the young offenders. According to Gates (2004), the a wide coverage of by the media in this respect with regard to youth crime has led many people to believe and conclude that the applicable policies provided pursuant to the under the Act were are not inefficient, indicating , by showing that youth crimes were are increasing continuously and contiguously day by day both in both in the seriousness of the crimes and the chronological numerical sequence. rime, and in number. This has led to In fact, the issue of youth crime in Canada has led to a growing public concern due to the realization that the number of youth crime is increasing and becoming uncontrollable getting out of control by the youth justice system, with the result that many people are demanding therefore calling for greater penalties and the imposition of more stringent harsher policies to deal with youth crime. This paper considers Tthe degree and the extent in which members of the public feel about the impact of the youth crime problem, and the notion e popularity of the tendency for that criminals should to get a tougher mentality is viewed from the trends emerging. This The paper will also look into the varying trends of youth crime, and the subsequent disposition of cases in youth courts will be examined. Also, it will be clearly demonstrated that It will clearly be shown that, the media reports on the increased number of crimes, and the seriousness of such crime are is not supported by the available official data (Sprott, 2004). The Level of Youth Crime Control Based on Both Medial and Official Statistics Reviewing Looking at the contents and number of media reports regarding with regard to youth crimes, it is evident that is has been shown that the media has made members of the public to believe that youth crimes have increased, both in nature and of IN in the seriousness of the crime. According to Crawford (2005), the media mislead members of the public by reporting for instance a homicide event which occurs once, in an exaggerated manner, such that people are often confused and made to believe that several events of homicide occurred between different youths. From a research study conducted at in the University of Ottawa, it is estimated roughly only one person is who gets charged for homicide cases in a period of ten days. However, , but the regular reports by the media reveals that make most people believe that there is an increase in serious youth crimes. The Statistics According to Howard (2006), trends in the seriousness and frequency of youth crime have been charted from statistics available at the Canadian Center for Justice reports. Such charts are compiled made by looking at the number of young offenders within the age of 12-17 years, who faceing criminal charges. This is also done by looking at the number of cases which may have been processed in the youth court. The available statistics clearly show that there has been an increase in the number of youth crime between the period of 1986-1987, and the period between 1992-1993. In the previous period, the number of youth crimes increased to 27% while the later period had youth crimes increase by 32%. These figures were arrived at by looking at the number of cases heard in court. Although Though the media may be correct when reporting youth crime increase, such an increase, the media it fails to consider important factors. Initially, To begin with, it is important to note that the increase in the number of youth crimes may have been influenced by important factors, such as the a general population increase oin the number of youths in Canada. It is also important to note that from the 81% charges in court, 27% consist of administrative offenses such as failure to comply with probation, or failure to appear before the court, or failure to complete the requirement of community service orders within the required time. Such offenses may often represent a quarter of any offenses reported in a certain period of time. Crawford (2005) posited (posted) that while the media comes out to report, they do not provide clear information on the statistics available. Instead, they emphasize that the crimes reported are of serious nature. This is has been a misleading area with the result that causing many of the people are led to believe that youth crime is increasing at a high rate while this is not true. From the available official statistics, while the rate of youth crime was on the increased between 1986-1987, and 1992-1993, the number has not continued increasing since then. The caseload in most courts has generally decreased by 6. 5%. In the recent years, the official statistics show that the general case rate has declined. gone down. On the other hand, the case rate for violent crimes has increased been on the increasing as the statics indicate by 3. 5%. increase, Also, the drug caseload has perhaps been the worst affected with a great increase of 103. % (Fulton Fisher, 2005). Speculating From a speculation done on youth crimes in Toronto, it is noted that has been shown that school crimes are a reflection of the policy on zero tolerance, that is applied on most youth practices in Toronto. It is said that a For instance, any disruptive offenses occurring happening in schools are get reported to the police officers, instead of being dealt with by the school administrators. From t he local studies, no identifiable trend of youth crime rates can clearly be compared to the national statistics. The local studies do not also support the report by the media on the increased rate of youth crime. Conclusions With Regard to Increases in Youth Crimes Reviewing Looking at the reports provided given by the media and comparing them while compared with official statistics, it is evident the media has not been accurate in reporting the increase in on youth crime. The media has failed also not been able to identify show the categoryies of crimes that have increased gone up, and those that have declined. that have reduced. If the media were reporting information accurately to do a good job for instance, they would should have specified that the general numbers of criminal caseloads have reduced, and that the crime category which has been on a high increase in Canada is drug abuse, followed by violent crimes (Collins, 2003). It is also not true For for the media to report that youths in Canada are currently committing more crimes than previously is erroneous. they used to do in the past. The media in both the national and localized levels, has influenced and distorted the growing public’s collection and intolerance differences. The official data available in Canada portrays that the increase in youth crime is tantamount equivalent to the youth population increase on the youth in Canada. The media has failed to show this. Role of the Media in Reporting Youth Crime It has been proven and emphasized by Many scholars studying who study the juvenile justice system that have accepted that the media is largely to be blamedgreatly to blame for the public’s misperception perception regarding criminal justice issues. In a From a research carried out by the Canadian Sentencing Commission, 800 newspapers were studied in Canada, and it was concluded found out that more than fifty percent half of the criminal cases reported there contained criminal elements, while twenty-five per cent a quarter of the cases were on homicide. Owen (2004) asserts that this is a clearly shows that the media over emphasizes represents violent crimes, given that violent crimes comprise only 11% of all crimes in the Canadian Criminal Court of Justice. Studies have also proven shown that, when editors of these newspapers are questioned, they concur agree that they concentrate in reporting crimes that are of serious nature, as opposed to less serious crimes. On rare occasions when that reporters provide give information with regarding to sentencing, no maximum or minimum penalties for specific offenses are have been reported. It appears that Furthermore, the media only reports on cases which appear to have been given lenient punishments, with the deliberate intent of intention of portraying that the Young Offenders Act, (YOA), or that the youth criminal justice system are is inefficient in dealing with youth crime. Generallyl, when dealing with With respect to youth offenders, researchers continue to demonstrate that have shown that the media typically shows that youth activity, of any nature, kind is as negative, and sensationalizes on rare incidents of youth violence by undertaking to report them repeatedly on several occasions. (Owen (2004) took a sample of three newspapers in Toronto and found that wholly 94% of stories reported on youth crime involved violent offenses. In reality, less than 25% of courts dealing with youths in Ontario cases involve violent crimes. On the other hand, the media wholly discount or ignores acts of violence committed by adults, which are in fact more frequent than those of the youth. This has led to the show of a chronic youth crime problem, which is exaggerated by the lenient Young Offenders Act as the media portrays it, through the prohibition of identity of the young offenders to the public. According to Carrington (2003) this leaves one with the desire that the public would get good information on issues touching the criminal justice, so that the public can be in a position to recognize when the media is biased and when it is neutral in its reports. In one research study however, the media was referred to as the primary source of information for the criminal justice system among 95% of researchers who were surveying the criminal justice system in Canada. Other studies have also shown that the public rely to a large extent on the information provided by the media in concluding the efficiency or shortcomings of the youth criminal justice system in Canada. The result of such reliance of information by the public on the media for criminal justice information, has been established from polls which test public knowledge of the criminal justice system. From the public response, members of the community consistently do an overestimation of the proportion of crimes which have an element of violence, while compared with all crimes generally. When asked for the minimum or maximum incarceration and sentencing rates for certain offenses, most people responded by stating underestimating both. Finally, public members who gave most inaccurate responses, such as exaggerating violent crimes and underestimating the priority given by the court while deciding on sentencing options, these people mainly rely on the media reports as a means for criminal justice information. Though many people are aware that the media limits its coverage to rare and important events, this however does not adequately influence their perception of youth crime rates. The opinion of the public has over a long period of time been heavily influenced by the media. The media choose to publish those stories which most of the time invoke the feelings of anger and retribution to the members of the public (McDonald, 2003). The consequence is that most legislatives are often tampered with in the attempt to enforce harsher measures of dealing with the youth. In the recent past, the effort by the media to favor youthful offending serves to provide and reinforce added momentum for the implementation of tough measures to deal with the youth. Such measures would in fact serve to cause anger and fear among members of the public, and to discourage their trust in regard to the criminal justice system. Consequences of False Public Perceptions The effects of misleading information by the media may often lead to intolerance resulting s from attitudes on the punitive system. Furthermore,For instance, this may lead to individuals aggregating coming together to form a strong opposition against the criminal justice system, by formation of lobby groups, or other campaign organizations. This also culminates in leads to individuals reaction to the behavior of the youth which is seen as undesirable. Misconception leads to heightened police intervention in to even minor offenses, and escalates leads to increased rates of charges for even those cases which can be resolved through informal means. The false increase of youth crime reported by the media, has fueled anger amongst the public and a calls for immediate intervention/action. In response, most judges have become been more punitive to the youth, and the politicians have been compelled to make unnecessary changes to on youth crime laws. This has resulted in leads to some youths facing unnecessary punitive measures for even minor offenses. The government’s way of responding to public’s misconception is shown through reforms done on to the Youth Offenses Act, recently passed by the federal government. Public misconception can have negative effects on the available programing choices. A public which looks at the justice system as too lenient to deal with the apparent problem, or perceives a great increase on the youth crime, may end up demanding for far tougher measures to deal with young offenders than is actually warranted.. Conclusion and Recommendations. From the above discussions, it is evident that the media has played a the major role in of misleading members of the public on youth crime rates, both on the general increase and an increase in the as to the seriousness of the a crime. Such misconception by the public results in has critical consequences, including the need to keep changing youth crime laws, calling for unnecessary police intervention on youth activities, and the imposition of mor stringent harsh measures to deal while dealing with youth crimes (Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2004). One of the prime tools The major tool through which the to resolving the problem of public misconception is can be solved is through dissemination of accurate crime statistics. Individuals in charge of Persons who deal with such statistics should ensure often make sure that such statistics are presented to the public, reflecting so as to show the public the real figures on crime rates. This will assist help the public’s opinion of the media know when the media when is reporting the correct information, allowing the public to know when information and when it gets biased. The government should also introduce put in place policies and programs to enlighten the public on the role and efficiency of the youth justice system, as well as informing the public about the accurate crime rates to help solve the misconception problem facing the public. It has been shown that, people who are well informed about criminal justice issues have less convictions and more rational perceptions as compared to those who have limited knowledge.