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Chapter 8
Crime Control
Chapter Objectives
After reading Chapter 8, students should:
1. understand the use of the three types of Madison Avenue-style anticrime ads
2. comprehend the increased use of media technology to process criminal cases
3. appreciate the growth of surveillance of public spaces and associated issues and
controversies
Chapter Outline
I. Media and Crime Control
a. Much has been written concerning the media as a cause of crime; this chapter
examines the increasing use of media and media technology to control crime and
to administer justice
i. These efforts are historically rooted in the success of prosocial
entertainment programs and public information campaigns
ii. More recently media technological advances, which allow easy recording,
transmittal, storage, and review of moving images, further spurred
criminal justice interest
iii. Beginning in the 1970s these factors resulted in a number of media-based
anticrime programs and the widespread adoption of media technology in
the criminal justice field
iv. Programs and applications can be divided into three areas
1. Anticrime advertising
2. Case processing using media technology
3. Public surveillance systems
b. Public Service Announcements
i. Media-based anticrime efforts are targeted at three audiences: criminals,
victims, and witnesses
ii. Efforts to use the media to reduce and solve crimes are not new
1. Historical examples:
a. “Wanted Dead or Alive” posters
b. the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list
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2. What is new is the rapid increase in the number of media-based
anticrime efforts since the 1980s
a. Projects to positively influence public attitudes using media
information campaigns took hold in the 1930s
b. In the 1950s, media based campaigns aimed at changing
social practices in health and other areas began to appear
c. In the late 1960s, evaluations of prosocial television
programming, such as Sesame Street, bolstered attempts to
use the media to purposely influence the public
i. Research revealed that programs of various types
(animated, adventure, comedy, and fantasy) all have
the ability to elicit socially valued behaviors from
children and adolescent viewers
d. Newfound enthusiasm for mass media developed in the
1970s with the expectation that media-generated positive
social effects could be gained in a number of social areas—
including crime reduction
3. From this foundation, media-based anticrime programs proliferated
a. All current renditions utilize advertisement-like media
messages and collectively separate into three groups (a/k/a
Madison Avenue style anticrime ads) (See Table. 8.1)
iii. Offender Reduction Ads
1. Both the earliest and some of the most recent mass media efforts to
reduce crime involve media campaigns aimed at drug abusers
a. Antidrug media campaigns have a historical tie to Reefer
Madness and similar films produced by the Federal Bureau
of Narcotics in the 1930s
b. Films and associated media campaigns facilitated the
criminalization of marijuana in the United States
2. Early campaigns seemed able to influence public opinion, but they
did not influence offender behavior
a. The failure to deter was blamed on the inability to make
drug abuse a salient issue for individual drug abusers and
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the irrelevance of the media campaign messages to the
target audience
i. The target audience cannot be simultaneously told
in PSAs that drugs will ruin your life and that they
are funny and harmless
b. Another problem in using the media to deter crime is a type
of anticipatory reaction, termed an announcement effect
i. Occurs when media publicity causes offender
behavior changes in anticipation of a new criminal
justice policy or program that has been heavily
publicized
ii. This media-induced behavior effect will occur with
or without an actual criminal justice change
iii. However, such announcement effects decline and
dissipate over time
3. More recent media antidrug campaigns are better designed and
marketed
a. Evaluations indicate that well designed media campaigns
can significantly affect attitudes toward drugs among
preteens, teenagers, and adults (whether behavioral changes
and reduced drug use follow as a result has not been
substantiated)
b. Antidrug media messages are more likely to affect the
attitudes of non-drug users than the behaviors of drug
abusers
c. The media appear best able to deter offenders involved in
victimless crimes such as drug abuse by increasing their
fear of health and social consequences rather than through
increasing their fear of punishment
4. Separating the media announcement effects from those of the
criminal justice programs is difficult
a. The entrenchment of an ineffective criminal justice
program or policy can result
b. Eventually offenders may realize that a new policy or
program is not meaningful and resume their offending
iv. Victimization Reduction Ads
1. Programs aimed at reducing victimization, usually by teaching and
encouraging crime prevention techniques
2. Victimization reduction campaigns strive to increase the use of
personal crime prevention techniques by citizens
a. Identified as key for triggering self-protective behaviors
are:
i. people’s beliefs about their likelihood of being
harmed
ii. the likely severity of an injury or illness
iii. the efficacy of recommended precautions
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iv. the costs of taking action when compared with
inaction
b. Persuading people to adopt more self-protective behaviors
is difficult because of the complex interactions among these
four factors
i. Programs advocating the adoption of behaviors to
prevent possible unpleasant future events, such as
crime, tend to be less successful than those that
encourage actions with an immediate recognizable
reward
ii. In general, unless individuals are recent victims of
crime, they:
1. do not see crime as a likely event
2. do not feel that they will be injured
3. see precautions as not particularly useful
4. see better uses for their time and money
a. In addition, perceptions of the
importance of crime and the
effectiveness of preventive behavior
vary considerably among groups
i. messages must be carefully
matched to target populations
to have any impact
3. Adding to the difficulty of determining which campaigns actually
work, victimization reduction programs have rarely been
adequately evaluated
a. The McGruff “Crime Dog” campaigns in the U.S. have
received the most extensive study
4. Victimization reduction campaigns are considered useful means of
disseminating anticrime information to the public and sometimes
influencing related attitudes, but they appear to affect behavior
only marginally
a. People will change how they feel about crime prevention
and more will see it as a good thing, but few will actually
begin to take additional precautions
b. To be effective, programs should:
i. tailor their message to their audience
ii. focus their efforts on visual media
iii. present simple messages
iv. directly and clearly instruct audiences on crime
prevention behavior
c. Most important, additional local community follow-up and
the creation of community support organizations such as
citizen crime watch groups are necessary to achieve lasting
effects
v. Citizen Cooperation Ads
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1. Citizen cooperation ads aim to increase the level of crime-related
information made available to law enforcement by the public
a. Use reenactments of crimes to obtain information (tips)
through anonymous phone calls and reward money
b. Getting images and descriptions of wanted suspects and
unsolved crimes out to as many people as possible and
enticing reluctant citizens with monetary rewards increases
the prospects for solving crimes and apprehending suspects
2. The innovation is using contemporary media to distribute
electronic wanted posters, thereby enormously increasing the
audience
3. Development of these efforts raises a number of issues
a. The first and most obvious is the effectiveness of these
programs—do they result in more arrests and solutions of
crimes and are they an efficient means of gathering
information?
i. No one knows if citizen cooperation programs
affect the crime rate—the number of cases cleared
is not great enough to expect an effect on the overall
crime rate in a community
1. Anecdotal evidence does suggest that the
programs solve felony cases that are
unlikely to be solved otherwise
2. Appear to be especially effective in solving
cases involving:
a. fugitives
b. bank robberies
c. narcotics
d. terrorism
3. Attract secondary tips for unadvertised
crimes
ii. Bolstered by supportive court rulings and by low
operational costs, these programs are generally
viewed as cost-effective and their continuance
currently assured
iii. Despite their support and successes, critics argue
that their gains against crime are outweighed by
other negative social effects
1. Paying for information from anonymous
sources is the crux of the uneasiness felt
toward these programs
a. The fear is that paying rewards and
providing anonymity for informants
will reduce voluntary citizen
cooperation and encourage malicious
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retributive snitching by citizens on
their neighbors, family, and friends
b. Second is the question of the image of criminality that such
programs project—do they perpetuate stereotypes of
criminals, victims, and crime?
i. Because citizen-cooperation ads are presented as
representative of real crime in a community, the
image they portray has great potential to influence
the social construction of criminality
ii. Presented in news-like segments akin to reality
programming, these anticrime ads focus on
unsolved cases in the community committed by
dangerous-looking suspects
1. The image of criminality shown in these ads
is similar to that portrayed in the general
entertainment media—that of a dangerous,
crime-ridden world where violent attacks are
common
2. In addition, these ads are often produced in
infotainment programming styles, with
mood music, voice-overs, and heightened
dramatic elements
iii. By emphasizing predatory violent crimes that
appear to be due to greed or irrationality, individual
explanations for crime and crime control based
punitive crime-and-justice policies are emphasized
while broader structural, social, and economic
factors are downplayed
c. Third, what is the proper role of the media in law
enforcement efforts—Should the media restrict themselves
to basic reporting of events of become involved in their
resolution?
i. Citizen cooperation ads shift the media from their
traditional roles as watchdog observers and
reporters to active infotainment participants in
investigating crimes and hunting fugitives
1. Some argue that the media should cooperate
because it is their civic duty
2. Many news media agencies do not
cooperate, however, apparently because they
perceive involvement as contrary to the
philosophy of separation of press and
government
vi. Collectively, PSAs, victimization ads, and citizen cooperation ads:
1. Are popular
2. Have demonstrated some positive effects
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3. Have encountered unanticipated problems
vii. All of these efforts aim for behavioral changes in the audience to reduce
crime, but most are actually designed to influence attitudes and
perceptions about the reality of crime under the belief that attitude changes
will subsequently lead to changes in behavior
1. All three of these media campaign types accordingly rest on a
questionable premise, and they have not been able to produce
hoped-for crime reductions
II. Case Processing Using Media Technology
a. In general, the ultimate goal in using media technology in criminal justice case
processing is to simulate a traditional, live face-to-face proceeding
i. Unlike face-to-face encounters, however, participants in media
technology–rendered proceedings must interact through the equipment,
often testifying directly into a camera or participating by watching a
television screen
ii. In contrast to the use of media equipment in news coverage, here the
technology has changed from a tangential, temporary visitor to an
unavoidable, permanent judicial tool
iii. New technology has introduced:
1. ‘wired courtrooms’ with eye tracking cameras
2. witness stands with smart monitors
3. other new media based capabilities
iv. Media technology has been embraced as a means to efficiently process
cases, and cost and speed are the usual factors considered in these
applications
v. Though the use of media technology has come to be widely accepted in
the presentation of physical evidence and testimony, using the technology
to create permanent records and conduct live proceedings currently enjoys
only limited support
1. Expanded applications such as prerecording entire trials have been
experimented with but generally have been rejected
2. The acceptability of media technology in the courtroom seems to
rest on how much the media-constructed judicial reality is seen as
different from the traditional judicial reality
a. For preliminary and short procedural steps, most
participants, including defendants, appear to feel that the
integrity of the process is unaffected
b. With regard to longer, more significant, and more symbolic
steps such as trials, concerns and resistance rise
b. Judicial System Use
i. In the judicial system, visual records of arraignments, first appearances,
and pleas have proven inexpensive and useful
1. Once instituted these systems gain support from both crime control
and due process advocates
a. Advantages:
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i. Crime control proponents like the savings of time
and money
ii. Due process adherents feel the knowledge that a
permanent record is being created makes law
enforcement and judicial personnel more
conscientious in following due process rules
iii. Judges and attorneys can now be in a courtroom,
defendants in a jail, and witnesses in another state,
all simultaneously participating in a live hearing
b. Disadvantages
i. Digital manipulation of visual images: the same
tools that can be used to crop, retouch, and edit
images can be used just as easily to distort, alter,
and fabricate them
1. Undermines the previously unquestioned
validity that pictures enjoyed as evidence
ii. The uncertain validity of visual images has
implications for the evaluation of visual evidence in
the criminal justice system
1. Ironically, technological advances may
ultimately result in questioning all
technologically processed information so
that eyewitness and human testimony may
again dominate the criminal justice process
ii. The alteration of the reality of the judicial system is connected to three
concerns
1. The effect of media technology on working relationships among
courtroom personnel
a. Comments from attorneys (especially public defenders) and
judges indicate that the relationships among courtroom
personnel can be upset by the introduction of media
equipment between participants
b. Unanswered questions concern:
i. whether attorneys deliver equivalent representation
if they feel legally and organizationally
disadvantaged in media constructed proceedings
ii. if morale suffers, do their subsequent effort on
behalf of clients also suffer
2. Concerns about depersonalization of the criminal justice system
a. Adjudication within the criminal justice system is based on
face-to-face interaction, particularly that the accused are
entitled to face their accusers
b. Extended use of media technology, however, will reduce
live, face-to-face encounters between witnesses and
defendants, police and the public, attorneys and clients,
judges and defendants, and jurors
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c. Technological advances that make this equipment more
economical are likely to speed the process while advances
that make the encounters more like live meetings will
lessen the depersonalization
3. The impact of media technology on the legitimacy of the judicial
system
a. The judicial system and its personnel have a symbolic
value; loss of these symbolic qualities diminish the aura of
legitimacy sustaining the entire criminal justice system
b. How the system is seen as treating individuals is crucial
i. If people become alienated from the system or if
they feel intimidated or dehumanized by it, the
benefits from using media technologies in the
courtroom will cancel out
ii. Technologies could ultimately result in the further
isolation and separation of the police from the
policed and the courts from the public
c. In addition, the visuals created by this technology are
frequently used in news reports, contributing directly to the
social construction of the public’s image of justice
i. The criminal justice system will become, for good
or ill, a less arcane, more open system as its
procedures become more visible
iii. The main concern remains whether this new reality of justice comes to be
seen as impersonal, unfair, and unacceptable
iv. The greatest concerns with the use of media technology are not associated
with its use in case processing, however
1. The greatest concerns revolve around the law enforcement use of
media technology and the enhancement of law enforcement
surveillance capabilities
c. Law Enforcement Use
i. After the development and widespread acceptance of videotaped evidence
and testimony in the 1970s, videotaped interrogations were one of the first
expanded uses of video technology into law enforcement practices
1. A videotape record is felt to provide:
a. more objective, fuller accounts of interactions between
police, witnesses, and suspects
b. evidence regarding the voluntariness of statements
c. evidence regarding suspects’ understanding of their rights
d. evidence regarding police coercion and interrogation
practices
e. evidence regarding the physical and mental condition of
suspects
2. Police, prosecutors, and defense counsel all came to support
continuation and expansion of a pilot project—
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a. videotaping police interrogations showed that the expected
advantages of protection against unwarranted allegations
of misconduct, the introduction of accountability in
interrogation procedures, and the reduction in challenges
to the admissibility of suspect statements were all realized
b. police were supportive because it relieves them of the need
to take written notes during interrogations and reduces their
court appearances
c. prosecutors were supportive because it usually disposes of
all legal questions surrounding the police-suspect interview
d. defense counsel were supportive because it ensures that
police more strictly follow legal procedures and because
the defense often can use the tapes to demonstrate their
client’s intent and remorse for sentencing purposes
ii. An increasing number of police departments also use media technology to
record the booking of their arrests
1. Video mug shots:
a. provide a pictorial record of arrestees
b. include voice and accent
c. include continuous front-to-profile views
iii. In a media lineup, a crime witness is shown a series of video bookings
selected for their similarity
1. The individuals in video lineups more closely resemble one
another than the groups usually assembled for a live lineup
2. In media mug books, a computer program searches a pictorial data
file for specific characteristics (for example, tattoo, bald, heavy,
white, and male) and displays matching images
III. Surveillance
a. “You watched TV. Now it watches you”
b. The police surveillance stakeout has a long history and has traditionally been an
accepted part of police investigations
i. Surveillance cameras historically and more recently can be found in:
1. banks
2. subways
3. department stores
4. public schools
5. airports
6. highway toll booths
7. other locales
c. The police have also traditionally used temporary camera surveillance of specific
locations after obtaining a court order
d. While not a mass media in that there is no public audience that receives the
images, the increase in surveillance is considered a media effect because the
current pervasiveness of surveillance is due to:
i. advances in media technology, especially in visual communication
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ii. the use of the surveillance images in news and infotainment content and
the images that result contribute to the total portrait of crime and justice
that the public holds
e. Strong impetus for surveillance systems due to:
i. Enhanced visual media and communication capabilities
ii. Reduced equipment costs
iii. Concerns about terrorism
iv. Contemporary media technology has also changed the nature of
surveillance from on-scene, limited human observers and whatever notes
they might produce to the automated technological interception, recording,
and transmittal of immense amounts of information
f. Surveillance systems may:
i. enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to “police–at-a-distance”
ii. increase academic interest in the effects of broad scale surveillance
g. Contemporary media technology has also changed the nature of surveillance from
on-scene, limited human observers and whatever notes they might produce to the
automated technological interception, recording, and transmittal of immense
amounts of information
i. Drone based cameras are expanding the surveillance capability to the
entire outdoor environment
ii. Body worn cameras are extending it to all police-citizen encounters
h. In the U.S., surveillance camera systems have increased exponentially since the
2001 terrorist attacks
i. Surveillance effect: the psychological effect of fearing that you might be
under observation
1. Surveillance programs have expanded the traditional police use of
the stakeout and hidden camera to encompass general public space
applications
ii. The new surveillance programs use media technology in large public areas
such as:
1. outdoor malls
2. downtown centers
3. parks
4. residential streets
iii. Today the prime justifications for public surveillance systems are couched
in broad-scale public safety and antiterrorism goals
1. Not surprisingly, the use of this powerful and intrusive technology
has raised fears concerning its impact on society
iv. Contemporary surveillance projects aim to provide:
1. retrospective scene analysis following crimes
2. deterrence of future crimes
3. facilitation of real-time intervention
i. History and Issues
i. A surveillance effect that has raised concern involves the increase in
surveillance based on new media technology and an accompanying loss of
privacy