Ideology refers to a way of seeing that is expressed in the creation and arrangement of seemingly natural symbols. Moreover, the ideology of crime is one that justifies the criminal justice system through mechanisms of consent and coercion; ultimately shaping the way crime is portrayed in society. Consent frames ideology predominantly through social institutions such as the school and media, perpetuating crime stereotypes and racializing crime through news stories and crime dramas. Melissa Barlow (1998) conducted a study in which she analyzed fifty years of news magazine cover stories, and ultimately found that crime became heavily racialized after the Civil Rights Movement, and consequently characterized African-American activists as violent. As a result, crime news stories often frame “street crime” as an issue heavily associated with racial minorities.
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Crime news reproduces an image of public disorder overwhelmingly based on street crime – especially offenses committed by low-income individuals. Furthermore, crime news creates “moral panics,” or fears that become dramatically out of proportion from the actual threat, and helps to legitimize support for police and other forms of hard control. Experts in news stories are often from the justice department, and as Welch and colleagues found, these experts tend to focus on hard control strategies (as opposed to intellectuals who tend to focus on causes of crime or soft control). Therefore, crime news’ emphasis on street offenses and heavy reliance on state managers as experts perpetuate the ideological portrayal of police officers as superheroes in a battle against villainous
Crime news reproduces an image of public disorder overwhelmingly based on street crime – especially offenses committed by low-income individuals. Furthermore, crime news creates “moral panics,” or fears that become dramatically out of proportion from the actual threat, and helps to legitimize support for police and other forms of hard control. Experts in news stories are often from the justice department, and as Welch and colleagues found, these experts tend to focus on hard control strategies (as opposed to intellectuals who tend to focus on causes of crime or soft control). Therefore, crime news’ emphasis on street offenses and heavy reliance on state managers as experts perpetuate the ideological portrayal of police officers as superheroes in a battle against villainous