Negotiated Brief
Thesis: Crime television affects crime and should be censored, but parts of crime television are beneficial to the public and should not be censored
These reasons justify the censorship of crime television.
Copycat crimes
Excessive sex and violence in the media can lead to similar behavior in viewers (studies in the USA have shown this). There is a very real risk of copycat crimes inspired by depictions of criminal activity in the media, even if no criminal act was committed during the creative process. This alone should be justification for censorship
Tylenol tampering incidents of 1982, the assassination attempt depicted in the 1976 film Taxi Driver http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/learning.htm
Censorship helps to protect society for the possibility of copycat behavior.
Ray Surette has done extensive research on copycat crimes since the mid-1980s. He argues that copycat crime is a persistent social phenomenon, common enough to influence the total crime picture, but mainly by influencing crime techniques rather than the motivation to commit a crime or the development of criminal tendencies. A copycat criminal is likely to be a career criminal involved in property offenses rather than a first-time violent offender. The specific relationship between media coverage and the commission of copycat crime is currently unknown, and the social-context factors influencing copycat crimes have not been identified.
Does the “CSI effect” exist
Reality and fiction becoming blurred
70 million people watch one of the 3 CSI shows http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/journals/259/csi-effect.htm
“Mode” copiers were those who already intended to commit a crime and who received a method from the media event. For example, a potential car thief copies the techniques seen on a television police drama for breaking into and hot wiring a car.
These reasons justify the necessary evil of crime television.
Informs the Public
Various news programs and channels such as: Local News, Dateline NBC, 60 Minutes, World News, 20/20, CNN, Nancey Grace, America's Most Wanted. These news programs can chronicle various crimes. Because they are news programs they also include information that is beneficial to the public. This could decrease the amount of people who become victims to certain crimes.
Entertainment
Fictional crime television shows such as: Cold Case Files, CSI, CSI:Miami, CSI: New York, Law and Order, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Criminal Minds etc. These shows have some of the highest viewer ratings in television. Everyone watching crime television is not a potential criminal. There are plenty of uncensored material in the media today that is purely used for entertainment. We shouldn't forget that this type of television has entertainment value.
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1 comment:
You are definitely on the right track. I encourage you to clean up your thesis statement. Figure out a way to say what you mean without using "crime" three times in the same sentence.
What does the following statement mean? "This could decrease the amount of people who become victims to certain crimes." To what does "this" refer?
Define "crime television." Does it include all of the TV shows you mention, prime time and news programs?
Also, the subject-verb agreement of the following sentence is not correct: "There are plenty of uncensored material in the media today that is purely used for entertainment."
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