19 Newsmaking and crime

Stuart Hall, John Clarke, Chas. Critcher,

Tony Jeferson and Brian Roberts
There is a powerful common-sense view that the relation between crime and the
news is a
simple one: crime occurs the police act to apprehend the criminals the courts
punish
them: all this is news and gets reported, as accurate information, in the media.
The aim of
this paper is to challenge, and, if possible, to overthrow this viewpoint; for it seems
to us
naive and misleading. There is no consistent relationship between the rates for
diferent
inds of crime in the Criminal Statistics and the relative fre!uenc" with which these
are
reported in the press. The post-war crime wave does not seem to have been
accompanied
b" a ma#or increase in press coverage; but also, the decline in the o$cial rate
between %&'(
and %&'' was not accompanied b" a corresponding decrease in news coverage.
Though the
rates for diferent inds of crime var", the patterns of crime news remain
remarabl" constant.
)ome of the distortions are also striingl" consistent. *or instance, more serious
crime
or crimes of topical social interest are consistentl" over-reported: murder is
consistentl" ver"
maredl" over-reported: so are more serious punishments. Thus, though crime
news must
and does bear some relation to the rates of reported crime, this relation is neither
simple nor
transparent. +,oshier, %&-.: /auge, %&0'1
2hat in fact we are dealing with is the relation between three diferent defnitions of
crime:
the ofcial, the media and the public de3nitions of crime. 4ach of these de3nitions
is a sociall"
constructed social event not a fact in nature; each is produced b" a distinctive
social and
institutional process. The ofcial de3nition of crime is constructed b" these agencies
responsible
for crime control the police, the courts, the statisticians, the /ome 5$ce. This
de3nition is the result of the rate of reported crime, the clear-up rate, the focussed
and
organised police response to certain crimes, the wa" the patterns and rates of crime
are
interpreted b" #udges and o$cial spoesmen in the crime control institutions and so
on. The
media de3nition of crime is constructed b" the media, and re6ects the selective
attention of
news men and news media to crime, the shaping power of news values, the
routines and
practices of news gathering and presentation. The public de3nition of crime is
constructed b"
the la" public with little or no direct e7perience or e7pert nowledge of crime. 8t is
massivel"
dependent on the other two de3nitions the o$cial and the media de3nitions. The
selective portra"al of crime in the mass media pla"s an important part in shaping
public
de3nitions of the crime problem, and hence also +through further feed-bac1 in its
o$cial
de3nition. )o we must replace the simple e!uation: crime 9 apprehension 9 news
about
crime, with a more comple7 model, which taes full account of the shaping power of
the
intervening institutions. Thus:
crime crime news values crime-as-news public de3nition of crime
+volume :
incidence
unnown1
+product of institutional
de3nition b" crime
control agencies1
+the selective
institutional practices
of news maing1
+the selective
portra"al of crime
in the media1
+the conse!uence of
information provided b"
o$cial and media sources
The common sense e!uation crime 9 news suggests that the primar" function
of
news is to give the public, accurate information about crime in societ". ;ut crime
news
serves other, e!uall" important, but less strictl" informative, functions. 4rison
reminds us
that confrontations between deviant ofenders and agents of control alwa"s
attracted a
good deal of attention in the past; there was good reason wh" the trial and
punishment
of ofenders were staged in the maret place. The reform which abolished T"burn
and
the other public spectacles of retribution, 4rison noted, coincided almost e7actl"
with the
development of newspapers as a medium of mass information. <rime is thus one of
the
oldest, most perennial topics of public interest. )imilarl" with punishment which has
a s"mbolic
as well as an instrumental value and must therefore be seen to be done as well as
done.
=s )ir <harles <urran noted, social re#ection is part of punishment. The
stigmatisation of
the wrong-doer is a critical part of the punishment process and for stigmatisation to
wor, it
must be made public publicised. >ews about crime and punishment thus pla"s
an important
social function in demonstrating where the moral, legal and normative boundar"
lines
which de3ne societ" fall and how the" are applied. )ociet" needs to be continuall"
reminded
where these normative boundaries, which de3ne it as a communit", lie: how the"
are being
tested, redesigned or undermined: who is transgressing them. 8t also needs public
reassurance
that, despite these transgressions, the boundaries remain intact. )ociet" is
fascinated b" this
endless unfolding drama between order and disorder, consensus and dissensus.
)ince crime
breaches our normal e7pectations about the world, the people rel" on the control
institutions
to de3ne, place and mae sense of the illegal, the ab-normal, the unthinable.
=nd if
control is to be applied in defence of the interests of societ" as a whole, societ"
needs to have
publicl" provided those e7planations and rationales which legitimate that control. 8n
4risons
memorable phrase 8n a 3gurative sense, . . . moralit" and immoralit" meet at the
public
scafold, and it is during this meeting that the line between them is drawn.
There is, indeed, a striing convergence between crime as a topic and the structure
of
news values. <rime stands out against the bacground of all that is massivel"
taen-forgranted
about the social world. That is wh", though there has never been a societ" without
crime, nevertheless crime alwa"s comes across as unpredictable, unusual,
disruptive of the
social order, and of the consensual moral framewor, a brea in the routine; and
thus
dramatic, sensational. ;ut news, too, is de3ned against the bacground of normal
e7pectations
and taen-for-granted routines. The news is precisel" what is new, unusual, a
brea
in the pattern, unpredictable, disruptive, dramatic, sensational. =s ?r. @arr" @amb,
editor
of the Sun noted, onl" big time crime is news, or small crime with big features, or
which can
be so featured. 2hat happens ever"da" to ever"one is hardl" ever news: but
an"thing that
goes thump or bang in the night is potentiall" a front-page stor". <rime and news
values
thus e7hibit a striingl" similar structure. <onse!uentl" crime has for a ver" long
period
been a consistent and recurring focus of news attention: one of the most perennial
of news
themes, intrinsicall" newsworth". 8n the histor" of the press, crime is one of the
oldest, one
of the most natural of news categories.
There is, in fact, a spectrum or continuum of t"pes of crime. ;ut crime news is
basicall"
structured around the two e7treme poles of the spectrum. ;asicall", crime news is
either
routine or sensational. = stud" of the reporting of crime and violence in the popular
press
+= ?irror *or Aiolence in )huttleworth, <amargo : @lo"d, %&-'1 has remared on
the ver"
small space, the impersonal and abbreviated manner, in which much mundane
crime is
routinel" reported. @ie the .B column inch stor" about an elderl" spinster found
stabbed to
death in her home +Daily irror, ' ?a", %&-.1. These routine items seem to sa"
little more
than that another serious crime has been committed; the" are simpl" blips on the
crime
screen. >evertheless, the press remains so highl" sensitised to crime that even the
most routine
and mundane transgressions are potentially news-worth". Though crimes of this
small order
occur all the time and are clearl" normal, the" continue to appear, in small items
in the
press. <rime of any ind has potential news visibilit". 2here the small, routine items
of crime
news are concerned, the press does not give them much space: but it seems to
continue to
e7ercise the function of continuall" patrolling and monitoring the routine incidence
of
crime. TA and radio where space +that is, time1 is scarce, is, of course, even more
selective
in terms of this routine treatment, than the press. These media onl" monitor
routine
crime at the local programme level, or in the form of general comments about the
crime
rate. 5nl" the more outstanding crimes catch the national radio and TA headlines.
8n the press, the consistent volume of mundane crime stories is matched, on the
other
side, b" the big, dramatic, sensational crime stories. ;ig, sensation crime stories
possess some
characteristics, embod" themes or touch social preoccupations which enable them
to be built
up and !eatured. The siCe or volume of the crime involved, the characteristics of the
gang or
criminal personalities involved are open to the more dramatic application of news
values
and this pushes them out of the routine and into the more feature or spectacular
categor" of
news presentation. )tories referring to the spectacular e7ploits of gangs lie the
Dra"s, the
,ichardsons or the Ereat Train ,obbers are naturals for feature news or colour
supplement
treatment. ;ut even lesser crimes can be built up to feature stories, or have the
space
and siCe devoted to them in the paper increased, as a conse!uence of the particular
choice
of ne"s an#les. The bi$arre stor" of the murder of . babies impaled on some house-
railings
+). irror %' =pril %&-.1 rated inch-wide headline +/5,,5, 5* ;=;84) )@=8> ;F
?=>8=<1, covered most of one tabloid page with a picture of a tent graphicall"
spread
across the garden wall. Gndoubtedl" the unusual nature of the murder and the fact
that
babies were involved helped to lift this crime stor" into its more sensational front-
page
e7ploitation. The irror stor" of how a press photographer was punched, with a lot
of space,
capitaliCed headline and aggressive photo would surel" not have been there if the
press
hadnt been involved and the man who threw the punch wasnt a high status
personality in the
celebrit" staes ?arlon ;rando. =t least, in the H month period around this event,
there is
no other stor" of a remotel" comparable ind in the paper. Trivial, and sometimes
none7istent,
events can also be lifted into news visibilit" if the" can be connected with a
prominent crime theme. The fact, reported in the irror of .( ?a" %&00, that the
police had
to use walie-talies to help two lost little bo"s would surel" not have been news,
had it not
been possible to lin this human interest tit-bit to the fact that the police concerned
were on
?ods and ,ocers patrol. >or would the stor" the same da" in the local press
+%&enin# 'r#us,
.( ?a" %&001, under the strap-line, Aiolence, that 8n ;righton there was no
violence in
spite of crowds of teenagers on the beach. Thus, in the last stor" referred to above,
the
absence of violence in ;righton is news onl" against the bacground of the
e7pectation
much sustained previousl" b" the press itself , that there would be fresh outbreas
of
violence between teenagers on the holida" beaches that weeend.
This tendenc" of crime news coverage to polarise between the routine and the
sensational
must be related to the point made earlier: namel", that news consists of the
abnormal contrasted against what is consensuall" taen to be normal, the norm.
The
media select events which are at"pical, presents them in a stereot"pical fashion
and contrasts
them against a baccloth of normalit" which is o&ertypical. +Foung1. )ometimes this
polarisation
between the unt"pical and the overt"pical is to be found within a single stor",
and
provides its news pivot. The (e"s o! the )orld stor" +I *eb -H1 of the mugging
and death of a
man outside his home must have gained e7tra news value from the counterpoint
between
the brutal thugs . . . cruel illers . . . /orrible in#uries . . . ;attered and iced to
death
. . . all for the sae of #ust J H; and Tom, a !uiet, inofensive famil" man who
en#o"ed a pint
and a chat at the local, who that night was his usual cheerful self . 8n general, the
closer a
stor" can be angled upwards towards the spectacular threshold violence, se7 or
violence,
gang or group crime, crime for pleasure, political crime, etc or the more single
events can
be mapped into a crime wave or +better still1 an org" of crime, the more
newsworth it gets,
the greater news value it realises, and the more sensational the treatment and
presentation
accorded to it.
The media* then* select !rom the pool o! reported crime especially those stories
"hich ft the structure o!
ne"s &alues+ and they connect these crime stories "ith "hat they take to be the
structure o! public interest about
crime. 8t is b" wa" of this connection that news values are realised, or, to use a
more vulgar
word, cashed. ;ut there are man" diferent inds of news interest or public
interest in
crime. There is the interest in the one-of spectacular or dramatic crime event or
personalit".
4!uall" important, is the interest in crime itsel! as a social problem. The %&enin#
Standard
headline, @5>K5> ?GEE8>EL MGKE4 T=@D) 5* <8TF 8> *4=, is clearl"
activel" orchestrating a relativel" minor event into a much larger, more menacing,
threatening
and resonant theme. This theme, spreading panic about muggers is the news
value of
the stor"; the facts of this particular case are reall" incidental to it. /ence what is
headlined
is not who mugged whom, but what the #udge said and the cit" in fear to which he
referred.
The report of the actual mugging here onl" provides the news peg, on which to
hang
the stor". +)ept. -H1. This is a particularl" interesting e7ample, since it is one of the
stories
which inaugurated the massive media build-up and public panic about mugging in
%&-H.:
and the tentative use of the !uestion mar, there, b" the Standard is important. =
da" or
two later, the !uestion mar was to disappear: a sign that une!uivocall", ?ugging
had
at last arrived. ;ut the news interest in the problem behind the stor" is alread"
perfectl"
clear from the stor"s headline and details: @ondoners are afraid to use the
underground
and underpasses late at night for fear of being mugged +no !uestion or !uotation
mar1 . . .;
the Mudges remars that ?ugging is becoming more and more prevalent . . . 2e are
told
that in =merica people are even afraid to wal the street at night . . . This is an
ofence for
which deterrent sentences should be passed: These are the real points of news
interest in the
stor". The speci3c crime event has been almost entirel" swallowed up b" the wider
social
themes.
There is another ind of crime interest in the crime rate itself, interpreted b" the
control
culture and the media, as a social barometer. *or e7ample, the use of the ?oors
murder
in %&00 as a social indicator of the conse!uences of permissiveness and
pornograph"
+S. %,press: =,4 ;,=KF =>K /8>K@4F T/4 5>@F EG8@TF 5>4)L1. Then there is
the interest in crime as an aspect of control the law and order lin. This sort of
connection
is often made in editorials, which dont refer to an" actual crime news stor" in detail
at all, but
tae of on the basis of one such incident to issue a general cr" for stronger
discipline,
tougher sentences: more law and order measures. The Sunday %,press, (e"s o! the
)orld and
other )unda" populars, fre!uentl" moralise and campaign about crime itself in this
wa".
;ut the connection is not e7clusive either to )unda" papers or to editorials. The
Daily ail
ended its stor" on the illing of . policemen in @ondon in %&00 with the report that
= daCed
incredulit" is followed b" the realiCation that order is not to be taen for granted.
The #ungle
is still there. There are still wild beasts in it to be controlled. <rime therefore
engages a wide
range of social themes: and the newsworthiness of crime stories can be directl"
increased b"
pushing a stor" down towards the deeper issues which lie within it, or b" lining
and
mapping a particular crime stor" up into one of these broader themes.
The media have little direct access to crime as such. )ome papers are silled at
rewriting
proceedings in court to mae it appear that "our reporter was actuall" present
when the
dar deed was done. )ome papers serve the function of private-public confessionals
to
!ualit" villains. The TA networs have to be more circumspect about allowing
criminals to
appear: and if someone confessed on screen to a crime for which no one had "et
been
apprehended, the networs would be re!uired to pass their names and addresses to
)cotland
Fard which cant greatl" increase the numbers of villains taing the primrose path
to
Television <entre. )ome papers do mae a heav" investment in investigative
feature crime
reports and in the routinel" sensational crime e7posNe: though, where the latter are
concerned,
illegalit", immoralit" and engineered moral outrage tend to blur into one another.
;ut the ma#orit" of crime stories, and the good news about the crime rate, must
come to the
news media via the police, the courts and the control agencies and departments.
This means
that, with respect to crime and crime news, the crime control agencies are the
principal and
primar" sources and thus de3ners of crime. Their de3nitions of crime and the
criminal
prevail: the" stand at the ape7 of the hierarch" of credibilit". This position of the
control
institutions in relation to the de3ning process about crime is enhanced b" the
o$cial and
institutional nature of their role +the" are also the controllers1; and b" the absence
of courseL
of the criminal, in crime stories and reports and thus of an" alternati&e counter-
de3nitions.
The power to control crime is thus inseperable from the primar" power these
institutions
have to defne what crime is, who the criminal is liel" to be, and wh" the rates for
diferent
crimes are what the" are: the social and political de3nitions of those in dominant
positions
tend to become ob#ecti3ed in the ma#or institutional orders, so providing the moral
framewor
for the entire social s"stem +Oarin1. There is no m"ster" about the regular access
which these control institutions have via the media to the public de3nitions of
crime. The"
are, after all, the institutions charged with crime apprehension, production and
control.
The" stand in the front line of the 3ght against crime. The" see crime at 3rst hand
ever"
da". Their nowledge, de3nitions and interpretations of crime therefore command
the 3eld.
The" are also the main sources of the news about crime. The media depend on
them as
privileged sources. The more competitive news-gathering becomes, the more
newsmen rel"
on the institutions in control, who can brief and pre-schedule events for the media,
thereb"
reducing the incessant pressures of time . . . resource allocation and wor
scheduling
+?urdoc1.
=t the level of news gathering, there is considerable and widespread routinisation of
contacts between crime reporters and correspondents, and o$cial crime control
sources.
)ometimes as in the case of the media transmitting news of police plans to
apprehend a
villain who is still at large and no doubt listening in the goals of the crime
controllers and
the media diverge. ;ut, routine contacts must be maintained and regularised. There
is
indeed, a taing over wholesale of the institutional perspective b" some newsmen
who have
been too long on the crime beat; so that their prose is onl" a heartbeat so to
spea awa"
from the policemans. +,oshier1 This cannot be good for an"one including the
police. =nd
it especiall" results in an overwhelming loading of the dice when we recall that, in
this area,
the criminal is unliel" either to be accessed or to be balanced. )o far as
television and
radio are concerned, as with the press, the spoesmen for the crime control
agencies have
privileged access the" are alwa"s called on 3rst when an aspect of crime and
prevention
becomes controversial or a topic in current afairs treatment and the" have an
absolute right
of repl" should the" care to e7ercise it. Two other practices of newsmaing con3rm
and
reinforce this privileged access of the control institutions to the de3nition of crime in
the
news. The 3rst is the re!uirement a general one in the press, a tight and speci3c
one inradio and especiall" TA that the media should be balanced and impartial.
This means
that, in a controversial area lie crime, the media would not go ver" far in reporting
crime or
interpreting the criminal statistics "ithout substantiatin# their &ie"s by -uotation
!rom the .ofcial
sources, or b" grounding and witnessing what the" sa" in the o$cial view of
crime. This
circle is further tightened b" the fear of contempt and the constraints of sub /udice
rules.
These ma", indeed, partl" account for the ver" abbreviated nature of man" routine
crime
reports. ;ut, in the more spectacular aspects of crime, the media are on safer legal
ground,
but also appear more impartial and balanced, if the" can rest a report s!uarel" on a
direct
interview with or indirect !uotation from, a control spoesman or from proceedings
heard
and seen in court +again, if possible with direct !uotes1; or from a #udges homil"
made
during sentencing, or from an o$cial interpretation usuall" at high raning level
of the
statistics and rates and movements of crime. The whole range of crime news is thus
massi&ely
!ounded in these o$cial sources and de3nitions. 8ndeed, most e7tensive crime
stories are reall"
stories, not about a crime event, but about a court case: and man" of the most vivid
headlines
about crime are taen directl" out of a #udges summing-up re6ections on the
+usuall"
rapdil" declining1 state of the world as a result of crime. 2e can see both the
process itself,
but also the translation b" the media up the scale of aggression in this e7ample of a
irror
stor", based on the <hief 8nspector of <onstab.s presentation of his 'nnual Report
in %&-.
+%IP0P-.1. 2hat the <hief 8nspector is !uoted as sa"ing the 3rst ma#or
interpretation of
the movement of crime in that "ear was that the increase of violent crime in
4ngland and
2ales has aroused #usti3able public concern. Fou will note that this is not a simple
statement
of statistical fact, nor even simpl" an interpretation of the statistical facts. 8t does
not simpl"
note that violent crime is going up: it a$rms that the public is /ustifed in its concern
about
violent crime. 8t is, therefore, public legitimation b" a police spoesman, of what is
and what
is not #usti3abl" a matter of public concern. 2ith this warrant behind it, it is hardl"
surprising that the irror then headlined this item: =EE,5 ;,8T=8> Q?indless
AiolenceR
of bull" bo"s worries top policemen.
=s we have seen, the crime control agencies act as the primar" de3ners of crime.
;ut the
media not onl" rela" and reproduce these de3nitions the" transform, translate and
mediate
crime, as reported and interpreted, into the selective patterns of crime-as-a-news-
event. 2e
have alread" spoen about the general pla" of news values across the reporting of
crime: of
the angling and framing which e7tracts added news value to a stor": of the
thematisation
and conte7tualising of crime in terms of issues and problems. /ere we want to
pinpoint
certain broader features of this translation process, as crime moves from its
o$cial and
institutional, to its media and news de3nition. )electivit" and angling are onl" some
of the
practices which are at wor here. There is also the transforming of the crime event
into
a 3nished news item the coding of crime stories within the formats and rhetorics
of
the #ournalistic discourse. The transformation of the <hief 8nspectors remars into
the
=EE,5 ;,8T=8> headline referred to above accomplishes at least three things. +%1 8t
dramatises, sensationalises and e7aggerates a considered o$cial statement about
crime
partl", no doubt, for efect; to catch attention, to strie home with its readers. +H1 =t
the same
time, it translates the measured language of an o$cial spoesman into the vigorous
public
language of popular #ournalistic rhetoric. 8n this wa" it helps a carefull" framed
#udgement
to become more widel" accessible it slots the crime into a wellworn groove in
public
consciousness. 8t normalises and difuses the statement, at the same time as it
sensationalises it.
;ut +.1 it also interprets, conte7tualises, gives a social reference for a particular
fact about
the crime rate. ;" using the terms =EE,5 and ;ull" bo"s, the report connects
whether
legitimatel" or not is another !uestion the increase of violent crimes speci3call"
with )inheads +the term =ggro is theirs1, and football hooliganism, both highl"
sensational
social phenomena. 8t also connects the facts about a particular crime with a wider,
though
less well de3ned, highl" generalised theme the fear of mindless violence in the
streets.
This last point the active giving of meanings and social conte7ts to crime, the
broad
identi3cation of crimes with certain categories of individuals and the thematisation
of crime
in terms of public an7iet" these are the most pivotal translations of all, which the
media
accomplish. /ere the press is no longer simpl" in an informative or reproducing role.
The
media have become active mediators.
The process of mediation does not necessaril" end with the representation of crime
in
press reports. *or, a stor" about crime, especiall" when signalled as signi3cant b" a
spoesman
for the crime control agencies or b" a #udge in court as a legitimate matter of
public
concern, can then also support a newspaper; escalating into a more active
editorialising role.
;" taing the public voice, assuming the mantle and aura of moral guardian, the
newspaper
can begin activel" to shape public opinion on the issues of crime and punishment; a
paper can even activel" develop a campai#n about crime. =s the post-war
consensus has
withered and societ" has become more polarised around the basic issues of our
moral,
economic, industrial, social and political life, so the media have begun more openl"
and
consistentl" to campaign about crime; issuing calls for harsher sentences, tougher
measures,
coupled with an attac on soft liberals, wish"-wash" penal reformers and intelligent
dogooders.
The press, on some occasion, has activel" stimulated the panic about crime as well
as contributed to an informed public about crime. The" have, at times, precipitated
the
development of law and order campaigns. 8 mae this charge seriousl" and
directl",
because 8 believe it to be of the utmost public concern. ;" developing a campaign
about
crime we mean something more than the traditional adoption of a tough editorial
stance
about crime control though this, of course, regularl" and fre!uentl" occurs. The
stor"
about Tom !uoted earlier from the (e"s o! the )orld, beginning as a crime news-
stor",
graduall" evolves, via a substantiating !uote from the Mudge +<onditions in this
countr" are
approaching those that prevailed H(( "ears ago . . .1, into a crusading appeal 8n all
conscience,
for an"one with the slightest scrap of information to go to the police station . . .
@ets show the muggers, before an"one else gets hurt, maimed or illed, that the"
cannot get
awa" with it. This is !uite a mild e7ample, in fact, of press campaigns on the crime
!uestion.
2e have in mind, for e7ample, the orchestration of whole centre or front pages in
the
popular press around the crime menace. 47amples in the late %&0(s and earl"
%&-(s could
be selected in an" wee of that period from, sa", the Sunday %,press: with, for
e7ample, on the
left hand, an editorial resuming the 3gures, the pros and cons of the debate, but
ending
with a strong plea for tough measures and a prophec" of escalating danger: on the
far right
of the page, 8 mean the Mohn Eordon column, with its unceasing onslaught on
soft
liberals and reformers and the menace of soft crimes lie homose7ualit" and
permissiveness
written in its usual vigorous polemical-swearing st"le: top, centre, a grim blac
<ummings
cartoon, depicting the threat promised editoriall", with a headline which articulates
closel" with the centre feature: such feature la"outs might include a regular column
b" another accredited spoesman, de3ner and interpreter often, in these "ears,
@ord
/ailsham, mobilising his immense institutional power and charisma in this area,
with a
measured re6ection on the state of societ" as registered b" the crime
thermometer and a
warning that, though red paint on the cricet pitch ma" seem a long wa" from
anarch", it
ma" be the thin edge of the red wedge . . . +cf: for e7ample, a similar treatment of
the Oaul
)tore" mugging in ;irmingham in %&-. in the Sun1.
This ind of presentation is no longer #ust good hard-hitting #ournalism. 8t is the
press in its full" orchestrated crusading role. <ampaigns of this ind can spiral and
develop a series
of feed bac loops, even when the" are not laid out with the full rhetorical
resources. 5ne
familiar spiral is where the paper !uotes a #udge giving sentence: endorses and
reinforces the
sentiments e7pressed: and campaigns behind him; at the same time, referring its
editorial
view to increasing public an7iet" and concern perhaps simpl" as intuited b" the
paper, at
other times as it surfaces in the letters from a selective slice of readers: this being
then
followed b" a #udge who, in giving +usuall"1 a tougher sentence grounds his use of
deterrence
in public concern as re6ected and e7pressed in the press . . . and so on round the
circle, the press warranting its chosen stance in #udicial precedent, then
orchestrating opinion
and feeding it bac into the #udicial process. +0P%(P-H1 Mudge /ines told . muggers,
in
;irmingham sentencing them to . "ears The course 8 feel bound to tae ma" not be
best for
"ou "oung men individuall", but it is one 8 must tae in the public interest, the
irror added
to this report its editorial weight b" endorsin# his #udgement: Mudge /ines is right.
Then, a
wee later, there is the Sun +T=?8>E T/4 ?GEE4,) %.P%(P-H1 aligning the public
with deterrent sentencing: if punitive #ail sentences help to stop the violence . . .
then the"
will not onl" prove to be the onl" wa". The" will regrettabl", be the ,8E/T wa". =nd
the
#udges will have the bacing of the public. This spiralling up the ladder of control b"
public
spoesmen and campaigning media has been rightl" described as a concerted
move towards
closure in the control culture. 8t is most liel" to occur at moments of social tension,
when
uncertainties about the future or fears about the polarising nature of social con6ict
assumes
the all-too-convenient scapegoat form of a public panic about crime. 8n an area as
delicate
as that of crime and control the prospect of such full"-orchestrated spirals inspires
terror.
<rime is, of course, also trans!ormed +as well as reported on or campaigned about1
b" the
presentational devices emplo"ed b" the media. Aisualisation b" TA will in6ect a
crime stor"
one wa", accenting its vivid and spectacular aspects. >ational and local press
treatments will
also var" signi3cantl". 8n all the media, the position of crime items in the news
hierarch", the
length and forms of the coverage +in terms of the lining interviews, reports with
e7pert
opinion and so on1 la"out and visual means of e7position serve to bring emphasis,
to ran
and place crime news in the overall hierarch" of public attention. 2e call this the
agenda
setting function of the media the placing of a particular topic, lie crime, in the
hierarch"
of public concerns. 8t is in this wa" that crime has graduall" become a ma#or
political cause
for concern. The press emplo" diferent presentational devices from TA using
position,
captioning, space, headlining, rhetoric, illustration and so on to lend an item
emphasis and
weight. The use of these devices mae a stor" more visual or more
interesting . . . ;ut
it also shapes how the public maes sense of crime. =s a stor" passes from one
format
to another, so diferent framewors of meaning are brought to bear on it. Thus
news
treatment places the accent on the factual le#al side of a stor". This highlights the
e&ent!ulness
of crime act, criminal, victim, circumstances, event, arrest but necessaril"
displaces the
social bacground, the causes or motivations, of crime from the centre of attention.
*eatures
in the press, or documentaries and current afairs specials in TA, b" contrast, are
concerned
with the bacground, the causes and e7planations, the wh"s and wherefores, of
crime.
These e7planations draw on and re6ect the various public ideologies about crime.
There
are often discrepancies between the news and features parts of a paper some of
which are
never resolved. The news, through its attachment to drama and event, ma" use
+and abuse1
common stereot"pes of the criminal, and tra$c in public labels, at the same time as
the
more investigative features are !uestioning the stereot"pes and 3gures and
unpacing the
labels. There is no necessar" consistenc" here, even in the so-called !ualit" press,
between
the framewors for crime adopted in one and another part of the same paper. The
Sunday Times, for e7ample, which taes often a sociological and environmental or
social problem
view-point on crime, also regularl" runs the Spectrum column which is unswervingl"
addicted
to a ps"chopathic, chemical, genetic, indeed, near-@ambrosian, e7planation of
criminal
and deviant behaviour. Though criminolog" has long aspired to the condition of a
science,
the fact is that e7planations of crime are powerfull" and massivel" overlaid b" la"
ideologies.
These ideological framewors set whole chains of e7planations in motion; whole
families of
criminal t"pes and categories are set going, which nit together, while appearing to
unravel,
the enigma of crime and its causation. /ere one often 3nds the comple,ities of
crime those
comple7ities to which the Eovernor of <helmsford Orison made indirect reference
classi3ed
out into the genetic, or the ps"chopathic, or the environmental, or the sociological,
or
the ps"chiatric or the sociall"-disorganised and undersocialised e7planations. To
each
cluster of e7planations is attached an appropriate t"polog" of criminal: the
underchromosomed,
the unregenerated evil, the criminall" insane, the deprived, the sic, the
wea, the mother-deprived, criminal t"pe. To each is often also attached its chain of
motivations:
the irrational, the driven, the neurotic, the search for ics, the congenitall"-wiced,
motive. To each, often also belongs the appropriate social setting or scene: the bac
street, or
multipl"-deprived woring class area; the bomb site; the high-rise bloc and the
unused
telephone os; the football end; the drug scene or hippie pad . . . >o doubt
something of
the truth lurs and hovers within and between these stereot"ped and clustered
maps of
meaning. ;ut the" are rarel" pressed through in depth and detail to the di$cult and
comple7
but necessar" social connections which the" inde7. )ometimes, after a parade of
e7plorations
and e7planations, the argument is dissolved ideologicall": into one of the great
Oublic
8mages 8nner <it" )lum, *amil" whose ?other went out to wor, etc which bring
the
account convenientl" to an end, if not to a resolution. /ere, from the Sunday
Times +'P%%P
-H1 is an e7tended e7ample of a schematic ideolog" of crime parading as a
scienti3c
e7planation: +T/4 ?=D8>E 5* = ?GEE4, b" Oeter 2atson1. 4ver"thing we now
about mugging suggests that what is at wor here is a mind-blowing tissue of
ideological
in6e7ions and constructions.
There is nothing new about mugging someone e7cept the name after all a few
"ears
ago the same sort of violence used to be called coshing.
;ut the en!uir" the /ome )ecretar" set up into the phenomenon last wee could
well
discover at least one new point about the gangs behind the attacs: the presence in
them
of h"sterical impressionable lieutenants dependent on the gangs leaders and who
tip
the gangs activities in a violent direction.
Three t"pes of "outh appear to be involved in these muggings. *irst, at the centre
of the gangs, is usuall" found a highl" disturbed and unstable bo" or girl. /e or
she invariabl" has a highl" troubled bacground a violent or alcoholic father is
common and shows earl" and predictable aggressive tendencies.
=rra"ed round the gang leader will be the lieutenants. Their bacgrounds tend to
be
unhapp" and deprived rather than violent. *inall", the third t"pe, which maes up
the
outer ring of the gang, consists t"picall" of fairl" normal "ouths from bacgrounds
not
generall" thought of as disturbed or abnormal in an" wa". The lieutenants
relationship
with the gang leaders is highl" ambivalent half admiration, half fear. ;ut it means
that
there is now much more chance for the disturbed factions in a gang si7 or seven
strong
to assume leadership.
Orobation o$cers and ps"chiatrists 8 spoe to were in no doubt that collective
violence
b" "ouths has risen considerabl" in recent months, and that ver" "oung bo"s and
girls are concerned +down to %H in some cases1. =nd three probation o$cers told
me !uite independentl" that a possible e7planation of this crucial relationship
between
the disturbed and the impressionable might lie in the wider availabilit" of drugs in
recent "ears.
Krugs ofered the opportunit" for friendship between the diferent inds of disturbed
individuals who were attracted to their use. ;oth the seriousl" disturbed and the
h"sterical
t"pes, for e7ample, are attracted to the instant e7perience ofered b" drugs. 5n
top
of this, though, the more e7otic and e7aggerated behaviour of some highl"
disturbed
"ouths when under the in6uence ma" appeal to the dependent h"sterical bo"s or
girls
who then, in a sense, become addicted to the more disturbed "ouths.
This, the" agreed, might also account for the con6icting patterns of muggings
some
of which seem to be carried out for ics and some for gain. *or the stolen mone"
and
watches ma" serve, in some cases, as funds with which to bu" drugs in an
increasingl"
e7pensive maret.
=nd mugging as a spill-over efect from the drug scene might also e7plain wh" girls
gangs are now taing part in violence, something unnown in recent "ears. Krug
use
shows less diference between the se7es than to most other crimes.
This three-part structure of the gangs, if it proves to be correct means, however,
that
the blanet administration of longish sentences b" the courts tends to be counter
productive
in the case of the impressionable lieutenants who would usuall" respond to
probation. =nd the outer mainl" innocent ring probabl" needs the minimum
amount of attention from the authorities.
2hich function a "outh ful3ls in his or her gang can usuall" be gauged from the
social
reports which probation o$cers prepare on "oung ofenders. Fet in mugging cases
the"
are rarel" used b" the courts.
8t is ironic that the courts do not recognise this three-part structure since the special
unit set up b" the police in ;ri7ton and b" @ondon Transport. Their aim is to get at
the
lieutenants who will respond to an authorit" greater than that of the gang leader.
;" not discriminating between leaders and led, the probation o$cers feel that the
courts ma" in this case be committing the prison and borstal impressionable
"oungsters
who will onl" get worse after a spell alongside more independent characters.
The media provide the bridge or lin between crime and the public an7iet" or
concern
about crime. There is, of course, a widespread and growing an7iet" about crime and
its
upward movement. ;ut, over and above what we now of rising crime either from
reported
crime, or from the ofered interpretations of the criminal statistics, there has been
also the
closel" related phenomenon of a public moral panic about rising crime: on the one
hand
panics about certain specifc crimes which connect with troubling public issues +e.g.
race, drugs,
pornograph", "outh; or, on the other hand, panics about the highl" generalised but
nameless
unspeci3ed tide or epidemic of crime itself. These panics have grown in intensit"
and
number through the post-war "ears; the" clearl" re6ect ver" deep-seated public
an7ieties and
uncertainties; but, the" are distinguished, above all, b" I things: +%1 the
discrepancy between
the scale of the nown facts, and the depth, intensit" and escalation of the public
perception
and response; +H1 the focussing of these panics around e" social themes and
social groups
+e.g. blacs1 or social categories +e.g. drugs ofenders; +.1 the wa" each panic
feeds of and
spirals with other concerns which are mapped into it, or in some other wa",
identi3ed with it;
+I1 the wa" in which moral panics issues into control crusades and law and order
campaigns.
>ow, one important element in the construction of social panics is the use of
powerful labels b" the media. @abels have a powerful efect in shaping public
perception of
events which are, at one and the same time, both troubling, perple7ing and not
clear-cut or
well-de3ned. The" resol&e unclear social phenomena into clear-cut identi3able and
controllable
categories. The use of a lable lie, for e7ample, mugging can help to cluster into
one
categor" events which are not in an" simple sense, the same. 2e have looed
closel" at
e7amples of crimes which, one da" in =ugust %&-H were not labelled a mugging
and where
a da" or two later an almost identical event, having been so labelled, escalates
rapidl" in
news visibilit"; and, of course, contributes to the orchestration of crime into distinct
and
threatening patterns or waves. @abels also attach whole types of people to crimes.
,ightl" or
wrongl" the mugging label has irreversibl" attached blac "outh to a particular
pattern of
crime. @abels allow supplementar" attributes to be mapped into the criminal
pattern. Thus,
the use of the mugging label in the 2atson article, its associations with =merica,
permitted
him, !uite unwarrantabl" in the nown evidence, to add or ascribe the whole !uite
diferent
connotations of drug-taing and drug pushing to the mugging pattern. Thus
diferent
crimes, diferent attributes, diferent t"pes of people con&er#e under the convenient
roof of the
lable. This convergence has the efect +a1 of constructing disparate events into a
crime wave
a whole movement of crime where perhaps none e7ists; +b1 of stimulating the
public
perception and fear of the upward drift of crime, in short, of escalating it; +c1 of
reinforcing
the notion that diferent strands of crime are indeed coming together to produce
one,
massive, overwhelming but nameless and generalised tide of crime. =s student
protesters
become thugs and hooligans, and muggers become drug-pushers, and pornograph"
readers
become se7 murderers through the thin edge of the wedge principle, so a general
panic with
its accompan"ing calls for greater control, is triggered. These panics clearl" have
their
origin in much wider and deeper social and political issues: but the" tend to be
displaced from
the di$cult and problematic terrain on which the" form up, into the better de3ned,
and
well controlled theatre of crime. The media have at times activel" participated in
the construction
of such spirals. 2e do not now how the mugger is made or how man" of him
there are: though we are convinced it has more to do, as 8ve suggested, with the
situation of
the "oung, unemplo"ed and alienated blac "outh, their dislocated biographies and
strategies
for survival in the crippling conditions of life in the inner-ring colonies, than it does
with the drama of the corrupted core and the corruptible lieutenants which passed
itself of
as an e7planation in the Sunday Times article. 2e do now that the mugging label
was widel"
and vividl" disseminated in the ;ritish press lon# before an" single speci3c criminal
act in
;ritain was labelled a mugging. 2e now that, though it has a histor" of several
hundred
"ears in ;ritain, its recent use was a transplant from the =merican e7perience; it
came with
all the power of its rich connotations and meanings: blac crime, ghetto violence,
the
breadown of the cit", the collapse of law and order, in which at one point in time
both a
previous Oresident and Aice-Oresident invested so much of their political fortunes.
The
mugging label was also used as a means of prophes"ing events in ;ritain following
their
=merican e7ample, long before there was evidence of its actuall" doing so: cf the
headline,
?ust /arlem <ome To ;irminghamL over an article which contained little factual
support
for this ominous prediction cast in the form of a !uestion. The mugging label with
its
resonances, not onl" triggered fears and an7ieties, especiall" about the blac
population and
its increasingl" militant and drifting "outh; it led to a prior sensitisation of both the
public and
the police to muggings possible emergence in ;ritain an anticipation of trouble
before it
began. 8ndeed, so thic was the air with =merican mugging reports in the "ear
before
=ugust %&-H, that, had the blac mugger not appeared in or around mid-%&-H, we
would
have been obliged to construct him. There is evidence of parallel sensitisation in the
police, especiall" where the formation of the @ondon Transport Oolices =nti-
?ugging s!uad was
concerned: a &i#orous !ocussin# of police attention and resources in certain areas,
especiall" of
)outh @ondon. Fou ma" recall, several earl" cases, predating the mugging panic
of
=ugust %&-H and after not, as it happened, at all reported in the overground
media: where
certain charges against blac "ouths near tube stations were dismissed because of
the lac of
witnesses other than the arresting o$cers, and in circumstances showing some
evidence of
what might be called anticipator" arrest, e.g. the case of the 5val I. The frst
speci3c use
of the mugging label to refer to an actual ;ritish crime, in =ugust %&-H, initiated a
wave,
not of actual mugging stories in the press, but of reports of cases now labelled
mugging in the
courts. Oarado7icall" the headline over this frst report was based on a police !uote
a mugging
#one "ron# presumabl" because the victim was seriousl" in#ured and
subse!uentl" died.
2ere these also muggingsL =ll of themL )ome of themL ?ore of them in earl"
%&-H than
in %&-%L The hard statistical evidence of this wave is even harder to pin down than
crime
3gures usuall" are, though the" provided the headline and stor" bases for most of
the press
and TA coverage of mugging in general. )ince there cannot be an actual mugging
3gure,
+for there is, strictl" speaing, no such crime1, these publicl" referred to 3gures
were composed
of selected proportions of the 3gures for other t"pes of robber". ;ut how much of,
which 3guresL The hard evidence which one hopes and e7pects la" behind such
headlines
as ?ugging up %(IS gets softer as one sees reports and the 3gures for mugging
retrospectivel"
pro#ected bac to %&0T, when, indeed, the label was hardl" nown or used,
although no doubt some people at that time were being #ostled and robbed on the
street.
)uch considerations had no efect in cutting of the head of steam building up
behind the
massive coverage of the mugging crime wave which lasted until mid-%&-.; nor of
undermining
the spiral in the scale of control which crested in ?arch %&-. with the Oaul )tore"
H( "ear sentence; nor, indeed does it seem to have established the smallest danger
signal for
the future for e7ample, in %&-I and again, now, in %&-' as we begin what loos
ver"
much lie a second escalation in the mugging spiral. The pla" and interpla"
between label,
public perceptions about crime +cf: ?ugging and @aw-and-5rder Meferson, et al
<<<)
)tencilled Oaper >o. .'1.
The media not onl" sometimes bring together under a single label unrelated things;
the"
have sometimes also helped to ampli!y and e,tend the perceived levels of the
threat. The" ma"
thus have contributed to the ampli3cation of public an7iet" about crime: sometimes
b"
reading event, in terms of their most sensational and illegal element: the
illegal aspect
of permissiveness: the political aspect of illegalit": the violent aspect of political
protest
and so on. 4vents troubling to the traditionalist, though not necessaril" illegal, can
be made
depending on how the" are treated in the press to pass through a series of
boundaries or
thresholds.
Oermissiveness is wiced, but not a crime; crime ma" be illegal but not politicall"
intended; political dissent, though going be"ond the formal limits of institutional
politics, is
not necessaril" violent. ;ut it is easier to comprehend, and to enlist the la" public
behind
control unreservedl", once an action or practice has been criminalised, i.e. de3ned
or
abstracted in terms of its illegal or criminal element alone1. >ot ever"one will
march under
the banner against se7ual liberation but who will not tae-arms-against violence,
especiall"
when de3ned as a dagger pointed at the heart of the state itself L
2e have in this paper deliberatel" focussed +in an inevitabl" summar" and
condensed
form1 on whose aspects of the relation between crime and the news which are least
remared, least understood and least studied and, for that ver" reason, most
troubling.
;" no means all the media share an e!ual responsibilit" in the processes we have
been describing. <ertainl", the" cannot be ascribed to the bad faith of individual
editors, or
newsmen. 2e have been taling about institutional processes, not personalities:
about the
role of the media in the comple7 e!uation of crime and control not about a few
rotten
#ournalistic apples. 2e have put the case as sharpl" as we could because we thin
the
situation is near danger point: but also because, in our e7perience, those in the
media are
sometimes ver" unwilling indeed to tae an"thing but the most immediate,
pra#matic view of
their role and responsibilit" in this 3eld. This defence mechanism among #ournalists
has
helped to preserve what at the beginning we called the naive view of the
crimePnews
e!uation, and ept it in place. The fact is that, in the present situation, the naive
view is no
longer good enough, if onl" because it has an"thing but naive conse!uences for
the lives of
most people and of societ" as a whole.