This exercise aims to identify and examine the influence of the media on public perceptions of a specific type of crime problem and the resulting criminal justice policies and programs in response to these promoted and perceived problems. The media is considered to have significant influence on public perceptions of crime as well as practice and policymaking. Further, the media partly contributes to the construction and transforms different issues into crime problems including dominant myths about crime, criminals, and criminal justice.
**Article: Thompson, Carol Y., Robert L. Young, and Ronald Burns (2000), Representing Gangs in the News: Media Constructions of Criminal Gangs, Sociological Spectrum, 20: 409-432.**
1). Medias Role and Influence: Finding Use this to identify, describe, detail, and explain at least one major finding from the article relating to the influence of the media on public perceptions of crime and/or criminal justice (do not list/use the major themes as a finding). Please be concise and direct with your points and provide only relevant details in this section.
2). Medias Role and Influence: Policy This section concerns the policy implications of the research study by describing and detailing specific criminal justice policies and programs that are likely to be adopted and result from the dominant media constructions of gang crimes and for the finding identified in section (1).
Be direct and clear about the main point(s) you are making (state them directly) and support them with examples and supporting reasoning. Answer all required items in our own words and use quotes sparingly. Proper citations in the body of the text are needed for quotes and/or major paraphrasing. Minimum of 700 WORDS.
