Black youth crime in UK and the medial portrayal

Contents:

Abstract

Introduction

Section 2: Methodology

Chapter 3: Defining Black Youth Crime:
The problem of applying the phrase black youth crime

Chapter 4: Describing the emergence of Black Youth Crime in the United Kingdom
The origins of Crime Study:
What kind of solutions do black youth crime offer?

Chapter 5: The Media Representation of the Black Youth Crimes:
The effects of the media

Chapter 6:
Conclusions and Recommendations:
Recommendations:

Bibliography.

Abstract

This dissertation aims to investigate the phenomenon of black youth crime in United Kingdom and its relationship to the media coverage. Fear of black youth crime as a subject is explored primarily, in order to rationalize it as a valuable area of examination, and a series of statistics are then investigated which depict how serious and widespread a dilemma of fear crime is in contemporary societies.

Subsequent to this literature review comprising a broad range of views on fear of black youth crime is presented, which encompasses four perspectives held by reputable theorists. The most important and significant section of the study is an analytical framework on fear of black youth crime and which concerns of media coverage generated it. The framework emphasizes the credibility of the source, the model in which the paper is written and the place of the crimes that have been reported as fundamental factors in generating fear of black youth crime among the media consumers.

The means through which violent crimes are covered in the media both in USA and UK has overtime been a source of interest for academics. A lot of studies and academic works have been delivered that examine any probable connections between this coverage and fear of black youth crime in the media consumers. A number of these studies have, nonetheless, taken a rather limited and narrow approach on the issue, merely investigating one side of the discussion. In the course of this dissertation a more inclusive advancement to the investigation of this issue, which indicates how media, through their coverage of violent black youth crime, develop panic in their content consumption, will be adapted. A compete score of diverse perspectives from a wide variety of authors on the issue will be looked into. The first part of this study will comprise of a literature review that include the works of a number of theorists on the issue across a broad range of opinions and viewpoints. The second core section of this study will take the outline of considered perspectives on the subject, supported by keenly preferred and analyzed academic evidence.  Authentic viewpoints on this issue will then be established into a more analytical framework of fear of black youth crime and its connection to the media coverage that will try to identify precisely what features of stories of black youth crimes cause panic in their consumers.

Panic of crime, as a phenomenon, is extensive in the UK and a number of Western societies. A lot of people view crime as great social concern and report the mind-sets of being unsafe in the streets, especially in inner city environments (Walklate & Mawby 1994). (Zedner 2001) suggests that people’s panic of crime very much exceeded their chances of befalling a casualty of crime, resulting into the arguments that panic of crime itself in a predicament and in general that concerns regarding crime are unreasonable. Zedner (2001) also argues that those that are the risk of assault, for instance young men, convey less concern about it in comparison to those who are least at risk, with the older persons becoming a key example. The 2005 British Crime Survey (BCS) indicated that Wales and England almost one third of the respondents pointed out that they were convinced, very highly or fairly probable of being bungled in year to come, though when the crime statistics are analyzed it only indicate that just 6 percent of households were burgled in 2005 (Croall 2008). In the very survey, one out of six indicated that  were convinced, very highly or fairly probable of being mugged but the statistical risk, as Black et al. (2007) indicate, is less than 1 in every 100.

Introduction

This paper investigates the realities and the myths concerning the phenomenon of black youth crime in the United Kingdom, with specific support of the media reports and statistical evidence of the incidences of black youth crime so that one is able to ascertain if at all they offer accurate information and representation of the subject. There is not much studies on the black youth crime in the UK and this has resulted into huge volume of study from the United States of America being used in United Kingdom scenario.

By examination the exact nature of black youth crimes in this nation, this dissertation is aimed to determine whether this problem has been exaggerated by the media or the whether the moral panic to some extent justified.  The address these objectives, web bases materials and secondary sources were used to establish a conclusion and recommendations, highlight the gaps in knowledge that could motivate other studies into the concepts for further studies.

Primary areas of focus for this paper were the examination of various definitions of black youth crimes, the application of a number of sub-cultural hypotheses in order to give an insight the emergence of the black youth crime and the impacts of media in influencing the perception of the public and the government response, and the impact this phenomenon has on the official statistics.

Chapter 2 explores the methodology selected for this study, explaining the merits and the demerits of applying both the primary and secondary sources, as well as the reasons as to why the secondary study was the ideal method because of the complications which would have resulted if the primary study had been carried out.

Chapter three concentrates on the media representations of the black youth crimes in the United Kingdom to authenticate whether the media is exaggerating the black youth crime, in respect to the theory of moral panic. This thereafter develops into the examination of impacts of the moral panic have on the groups involved and the individuals, the effect it has on the police and public responses, and lastly how the media directly affects the government reactions.

Chapter 4 analyzes the problems which result from number of various variations of black youth crime definitions. At first the application of the United States definitions will be assessed to find out whether they are relevant to the United Kingdom. This will thereafter, lead on the view the definition which attempt to distinguish between groups of black youth hanging around and the real criminal black youths. The attention then changes on to what constitutes a black youth crime, before finally examining the troubles with applying the terms and how this is able to affect research and policy.

Chapter five discusses the emergence of youth crimes in the UK using the contemporary and past sub-cultural explanations. This section opens by exploring the significance of the early propositions of Chen Albert (1955) and Merton Robert (1938), which restructures a lot of the later point of view discussed in this section. A description of the fundamental issues of masculine identity, illegitimate opportunities, work and education and styles as a figure of resistance will also be looked into to determine what the crime subculture might have to offer black youth in contemporary society. An analysis as to whether these assumptions relate to the black youth crime will be investigated to discover the realities of the black youth crime culture in our day.

Lastly, the conclusions and the recommendations section underscore the major findings and recommendations of the paper, acknowledging whether the objectives of the study have been achieved. This thereafter gives room for choosing the recommendations to be made in respect to further fields of study and the implications of government future responses.

Section 2: Methodology

So that the goals of this dissertation can be addressed, secondary sources have been applied within internet based and library based approach. These sources comprise; the academic texts, official statistics, internet, journal articles, and a number of media sources. Collecting primary data was not necessary in order to achieve the goals and aims of this dissertation, in its place the utilization of the secondary data has offered adequate information to enable present phenomenon of black youth crime to be addressed. Otherwise the primary data would have been ideal because of the limited publications on the black youth crime in the UK; nonetheless, this could have been highly ambitious for a dissertation of an undergraduate.

The process and ethical issues of data collection would have been really time consuming, resulting in the rush of the project so that deadline would be met and therefore, obtaining the results that could have lacked the intended excellence. Regardless of this, conclusions are could still drawn from this study that will offer ideas for further analysis by those with more experience and time.

As the study is based on the black youth, there are troubles with access before first obtaining ethical approval and indeed would have taken a significant quantity of time. The British Society of Criminology (BSC) Codes of Ethics (2007) provides advises to the people carrying out research to “reflect on critically the chances that the survey or the research experience could be disturbing, especially for the people who are vulnerable in respect to factors, for example, age.” Because of the situation of the certain youth gangs in the United Kingdom who may have participated, witnessed or in one way or the other have been affected by crime, this would have been a very sensitive field for them, therefore will require the researcher to analyze the consequences of harm to the participants.

Moreover, Shipman (1997) points out that to “understand the youth calls for procedures that engage the researcher with the groups who normally hate intrusion” and basically these may have generated some reluctance to engage, and this can end up in getting the data that is unrepresentative.

Beside this are matters of safety and health when investigating the subjects who could be having a history of violent conduct. The ethical procedures outlined by the Social Research Association (2006) point out that ‘the societal researchers have the ethical obligation to try to reduce the risk of mental and physical hurt to them.  The decision not to carry out the primary research was founded on these safety and ethical grounds, as a result, the only option was to depend on the secondary data which had been already brought together by other scholars and researchers so that dissertation could be completed.

Carrying out a secondary  research as oppose to conducting primary research is advantageous because, the researcher prejudice is reduced, it is cheaper, and it is consuming much time because of the web based and library materials are readily available, providing adequate time to interpret the information. Wincup and Noah (2004) conclude that utilizing the materials for study normally assist to identify the similarities and changes over time period, especially with books giving the historical backgrounds, as much as present debates and issues. In addition, recent journals are significant in offering a highly up-to-date substance compared to books. Commercial publishers and academic journals normally have their contents referred by experts in the area of study; as a result this enhances trust in credibility and quality.

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