Possible Final Exam Questions: Crime and Media
Spring 2001
Six of these questions will be on the final the night of the
exam. You can answer any 3 of the six. Bring a blue book to the exam.
1. Discuss Surette’s findings that the media can be both a "cause of
crime" and a "cure of crime." In your opinion, which is the
better documented theory?
2. (a) How have lawyers who work within the criminal justice
system been depicted by Hollywood? (b) By the news media? (c) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
TV cameras in courtrooms as a solution to stereotypical news media coverage of
trials?
3. (a) Discuss the roles of the police public information
officer and the crime reporter. (b) What rules of law determine the nature of
their interaction. (c) Does a PIO's interaction with the media usually serve to
perpetuate crime myths or dispel them? (d) Do you believe that reporters should
have less or greater access to police information?
4. (a) Why is it so difficult to present criminological research
findings accurately within the context of media formats? Compare newspapers,
tabloids, TV news, TV talk shows, and the Internet; discussing the problems related to each
medium. (b) You have been asked to appear as a guest on a local one hour talk
show to discuss your latest criminological research. How will you attempt to
optimize your presentation so that the audience fully understands what you have
to say.
5. (a) Discuss the history of the way law enforcement has been
portrayed in Hollywood films and TV cop shows. (b) In what ways are such
portrayals inaccurate?
6. (a) Discuss the history of the way prisons (men’s and
women’s) have been portrayed in Hollywood films. (b) In what ways are such
portrayals inaccurate?
7.
(a) Give examples
of Rafter's statement that the criminological theories depicted in crime films
tend to mirror those popular during the era in which they are produced.
(b) Why do so many modern films offer no
explanation for criminal behavior? (c)
In Rafter's opinion, do movies cause crime?
9. Compare the
media-constructed image to the reality we know from criminological research on
each of the following: (a) Satanic crime (b) illegal drug use and its associated
behaviors (c) traditional organized crime (d) the death penalty
10. (a) What
do you believe to be the relationship between media images of crime and
crime itself? Is there a causal relationship? (b) What factors need to be
analyzed to fully understand copycat crime? Copycat crime's relationship to
terrorism? (c) What types of images of crime and violence should the government
censor? Under what conditions?
11. Discuss one movie each
that you think most accurately portrays (a) police work (b) criminal law (c)
corrections. Explain your choices fully. Compare these to one movie each that
you perceive as inaccurate. Why are they inaccurate?
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