Possible Final Exam Questions: Crime and Media
Spring 2003
Four of these questions will be on the final the night of the
exam. You can answer any two of the four. 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 and
judges who work within the criminal justice system been depicted by Hollywood?
(b) By the news media? (c) How might more accurate representations be
provided for the public?
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) 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? (c) How might more accurate representations be
provided for the public?
5.
(a) 
