The model answer I used for the Unit 1 Controlled Assessment in the AC1.4 section that achieved me an A* (UMS 100).
Colour-coded to help break down marks of expertly written paragraphs on describing media representations of crimes.
WARNING: you may be disqualified from the exam for plagiarism if ...
Newspapers mainly focus on violent and sexual crimes. ⅔ of newspaper articles feature
violence and a ⅓ of crime stories are homicide, even though the vast majority of crimes
recorded are minor property crimes. The newspaper represents victims and offenders in the
press to be older and higher status, and they over-represent children, women, middle-class,
white and older people as victims. The only way the newspapers agree with the official
statistics is that both see the typical offender as male, which 95% of prison population are
male in the UK. Crime is over-represented.
An example of this is in August 2017, the Barcelona terrorist attacks story spread in
newspapers all across the world. The Times, which is a broadsheet newspaper meaning it is
more factual, had the headline “Evil Strikes Again”. Meanwhile The Sun, which is a tabloid
and therefore more sensationalised, reported the headline “Barcelona Bastards”.
Television
In television, the portrayal of news is similar to newspapers as there is a strong focus on
violent crimes. They portray victims and offenders as older and more middle-class. ⅔ of US
crimes consists of murder, assault and armed robbery in crime fiction shows. Sex offenders
are shown to be psyhcotics strangers, which does not represent the cirme well as more sex
offenders are known to the victims. Property crimes are shown as more serious and tightly
planned, accompanied with violence while official statistics show these as minor.
An example of this is the copycat killing committed by Mark Twitchell, who targeted married
men who committed adultery on the spouse, following the fictional serial killer of Dexter form
the show Dexter. He followed his murder style and killed many victims, one including a name
of John Bryan.
Film
Crime in film is shown as more extreme and violent over time. ⅕ of cinema movies are crime
films while a ½ of cinema films have significant crime content. Property crimes are
under-represented in film compared to official stats. Crime in film is over-represented and
glamorized. An example of this is Wolf of Wall Street, who Jordan Belford committed stock
market manipulation and fraud.
An example of this is the copycat killer done by Thierry Jaradin, who wore a ghostface mask
and stabbed a 15-year old to death with a kitchen knife, modelled after the popular Scream
Franchise in the late 1990s.
Electronic Gaming
Electronic games have created “shoot-em-up” games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty
that gamers engage in simulated violence and murder. This glamorizes crime and
over-represents crime in general. By playing games with violence in it, people are worried
gamers will be desensitised to violence and may perform ‘copycat’ crimes. However, little
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