Assignment #1

Sandra Thomsen

Name of the Instructor

English

29 January 2020

Assignment #1

Research Statement

Criminal justice is a wide area of study. There are many researchers and academicians who are engaged in exploring these different aspects. Besides providing insights about contemporary topics, these researchers provide in-depth analysis about technical aspects related to criminal justice. There are so many aspects in this subject which remains unexplored or where the research provides narrow insights. One such topic in criminal justice is related to media and its influence over the criminal justice system. This research aims at examining the impact of media portrayal of criminal incidents and relates it to how it impacts the justice system as a whole. In view of the contemporary policies related to media and criminal laws, there remains a need to explore areas where both aspects can relate to each other. The topic remains interesting since the masses get to interact with both frequently.

There remain many reasons, to why one needs to explore this area of study. One such reason is the impact of media over opinion-making. Since the media enjoys a wider reach and has access to a wider audience as well, therefore, it remains impactful in many ways. Those who study the media or criminal justice system may get benefit from this research, as it will have interesting aspects that have not been explored yet, through the academic lens. Some of the following literature provides an insight into the literary aspect of this topic

The book titled Media and Criminal Justice Policy: Recent Research and Social Effectsauthored by R Surette, provide interesting ideas about how media and criminal justice develop social cultures ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"5Gyuw5nf","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Surette)","plainCitation":"(Surette)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":582,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/8reWiRZH/items/TPEKL3FF"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/8reWiRZH/items/TPEKL3FF"],"itemData":{"id":582,"type":"book","publisher":"Brooks/Cole Publishing Company Pacific Grove, CA","source":"Google Scholar","title":"Media, crime, and criminal justice: Images and realities","title-short":"Media, crime, and criminal justice","author":[{"family":"Surette","given":"Ray"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1992"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Surette). Though a little old, Surette’s insights remain worthy with respect to law-making in media and criminal justice and what trends they follow, when it comes to developing a social order.

Similar to this, JS Wright has attempted to explore a judge’s perception of the media portrayal of the judiciary ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"tjNup0dj","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Wright)","plainCitation":"(Wright)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":579,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/8reWiRZH/items/K94LNN9E"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/8reWiRZH/items/K94LNN9E"],"itemData":{"id":579,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"ABAJ","page":"1125","source":"Google Scholar","title":"A Judge's View: The News Media and Criminal Justice","title-short":"A Judge's View","volume":"50","author":[{"family":"Wright","given":"J. Skelly"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1964"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Wright). In his article titled A Judge’s View: the news media and criminal justice Wright opines that media-related incidents are a little critical, and has attempted to broaden the horizon for this research. Some consider Wright’s opinion as the founding element to view the relation between Media and criminal justice policy, but there are some who also believe his view as a little more critical.

P Schlesinger; H Timbers’ book titled Reporting Crime: The Media Politics of Criminal Justice is a worthy read to understand the relational dynamics of media politics and criminal justice ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"albQa96b","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Schlesinger and Tumber)","plainCitation":"(Schlesinger and Tumber)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":587,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/8reWiRZH/items/N9ZZ2WJG"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/8reWiRZH/items/N9ZZ2WJG"],"itemData":{"id":587,"type":"book","publisher":"Clarendon Press Oxford","source":"Google Scholar","title":"Reporting crime: The media politics of criminal justice","title-short":"Reporting crime","author":[{"family":"Schlesinger","given":"Philip"},{"family":"Tumber","given":"Howard"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1994"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Schlesinger and Tumber). The authors have worked over to find about the inherent discord between media and criminal justice and have argued that media held political importance when it comes to relating it to criminal justice.

Billy Henson’s article titled Special Issue Introduction: The Impact of the Media in Criminal Justice is related to introducing the latest trends about the impact of media over the criminal justice system ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"EZBWaI8E","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Henson)","plainCitation":"(Henson)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":589,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/8reWiRZH/items/ITJDLE3N"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/8reWiRZH/items/ITJDLE3N"],"itemData":{"id":589,"type":"article-journal","container-title":"Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice","issue":"4","page":"360–363","source":"Google Scholar","title":"Special Issue Introduction: The Impact of the Media in Criminal Justice","title-short":"Special Issue Introduction","volume":"34","author":[{"family":"Henson","given":"Billy"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Henson). In the article, he has based the arguments over the notion that social dynamics and political dynamics are the building blocks for perception making in media. For him, other social values and societal norms held secondary importance.

Research Questions

Being a broader domain this area can be studied through different manners and by applying different approaches. Considering the primary literature published about this topic, this research will answer two research questions which are as follow

How media influence the perceptions of decision making?

How criminal justice is influenced by the media projection of criminal incidents?

Research design

The proposed research will be qualitative in nature. Research techniques such as analysis, observations and focused group discussion will be used to conduct research.

Works Cited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Henson, Billy. “Special Issue Introduction: The Impact of the Media in Criminal Justice.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, vol. 34, no. 4, 2018, pp. 360–363.

Schlesinger, Philip, and Howard Tumber. Reporting Crime: The Media Politics of Criminal Justice. Clarendon Press Oxford, 1994.

Surette, Ray. Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Images and Realities. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company Pacific Grove, CA, 1992.

Wright, J. Skelly. “A Judge’s View: The News Media and Criminal Justice.” ABAJ, vol. 50, 1964, p. 1125.