Crime and Media

White-collar crimes are non-violent, financially motivated crimes committed by respectable individuals of high social status. including crimes such as money laundering, embezzlement, and insider trading. One of the more recently infamous cases of such crime is when Martha Stewart was found guilty of making a false statement, conspiracy, and obstruction of agency proceedings. In the media, Stewart’s reputation, like most white-collar criminals, was targeted the most, which lead to business and financial damage, such as The Broker Who Fell from Earth. Articles about her, like most white-collar criminals, were often aggressively written and meant destroy a person’s reputation, and less written to portray, for example, community awareness.

Crimes against the person are violent crimes that are committed by physical harm or threat against another person. The media mostly appeals to the public’s sense of empathy and loss for the victim. In the Treyvon Martin case, for example, there was immense coverage of both parties and the controversial Stand Your Ground law, however, journalists frequently exploited the racial aspect of the case to justly paint a more horrific portrait of Zimmerman for the public. The Huffington Post hosts a series of stories written to first empathize with the victim, then convict the suspect. This type of crime is often publicized to gain public awareness.

Crimes against property, meaning the destruction and theft of another person’s property, are portrayed in the media in such a way to gain community awareness and to take action to stop such crimes. Usually, the victims are less emotionally traumatized, and the issue, for example, graffiti, is publicized with intent to slow or cease such crimes and reinstall a sense of security. All three of these have changed some over time, but the drive for awareness and taking action to prevent all these crimes is more apparent than years past.

References

Bloom, L. (March 13, 2014). Yes, it is about race Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/yes-it-is-about-race_b_4948342

Thomas Jr., L. (Oct. 6, 2006). The broker who fell to earth. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/business/13martha.html