by Mimi Lu

Created on: January 08, 2008

The media does not cause crime. Society - with its fallibility, mutability, inequalities, hypocrisies and prejudices does. The media only makes crime into a bloody spectator sport. It transforms ordinary citizens into the testosterone-charged, bloodthirsty gladiator audiences of ancient Rome, marveling in the brutal slaughter of their fellow men, intrigued by the fantastical methods of their murders, thanking Jupiter that it wasn't them that were decapitated by a scimitar and fed to the ravenous lions.

In today's society, the media, through its multitude of sinister but subtle mediums, dramatizes crime and often glorifies the criminal. The media provides detailed descriptions of the crime the location, the nature of the crime, the implements used, the ultimate resolution. This catapults the average, law-abiding citizen into the action. In other words, the nave consumers are hoodwinked into buying the next day's newspaper, in order to follow this intriguing serialized news story.

All this is harmless enough, so far. People working in mind-numbingly bland office jobs, trapped in a stagnant marriages, tormented by a rowdy brood of offspring, need their entertainment. However, the media's hyperbolic representations of crimes, in their avaricious pursuit of ratings, somewhat absolves the criminal and somehow makes them heroic. For instance, by propagating the tragic life story of Mr X, who has just shot his three-year-old daughter and then, himself, the media has created a martyr. The same goes for Mrs P, who robbed a bank to sponsor her son's university education.

The media knows full well that human beings have always had a penchant for the law-breaker, the rebel, the daring individuals who dare to cross the line that they themselves shy from. Why else do women fall for bad boys' and men femme fatales'? People inevitably fall for the criminal streak.The media exploits this sadistic obsession to the full, by in turn, presenting the sympathetic, pathetic side to the most malicious of psychopaths.

And the consequences of this exploitation? To impressionable minds, the media seems to be going so far as to condone crime, as it glorifies and places audacious criminals on pedestals. To desperate minds, the media represents the most powerful medium that will convey their message to the world. The publicity that the media unfailingly delivers may often be the impetus for horrific crimes such as school shootings they are often cries for help, for attention, or expressions of pure hatred and revenge.

Nevertheless, the media does not directly cause crime, although it is culpable for dramatizing crimes to suit its commercial purposes. In order to discover the true roots of criminality, we must examine the society itself. Would the frustrated Mr X have taken such extreme measures if national legislation had been different, and he was granted co-custody of his daughter, rather than supervised visits once a month? Would Mrs P have resorted to holding the bank at gunpoint if there were improved social support schemes or increased government funding to reduce university fees? For, if there did indeed exist an uncorrupted institutional justice in a society, there would be no need for individuals to impose their own instinctive justice and break the conventional laws.

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