Criminal justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 14

Criminal justice - Essay Example (socyberty.com/social-sciences 2011). Police presence in any situation, in most cases, is a crime prevention measure. While the police do fight crime, the media does not always depict the police in a realistic light. The police are shown as being in a position to sacrifice their lives to uphold and enforce the law; however, this label is real but an over-emphasized depiction. As police go through the day to day deed of fighting crime, the media does not report the ordinary times between events. (Dantzker, 2003). Events that occur without inflated incident will be less likely to be noted by the media due to lack of interest or drama involved on viewers. (socyberty.com/ 2011). Television plays an important role in the myths associated with police crime fighters. According to Dr. Podlas the overall pattern of television programs that viewers are exposed to cultivates a common perception of reality. (Podlas 2006). â€Å"The â€Å"reality† tends to mirror what viewers see on the TV screen.† He contends that people who watch a great deal of television will see the real world as a match to television. (Podlas 2006). The news media do, in fact, overdramatize crime. (C. Michael, 2009). Examples of over-dramatization are such things as racial and ethnic crimes. Television news stories about drugs show blacks 50 percent of the time and white 32 percent of the time. However, statistics show that only 15 percent of illegal drug users in the US are black and 70 percent are white. Newspapers also focus their attention to white crime victims even though most violent crimes are interracial. (C.Michael 2009). The media manipulates reports through misleading information or bias. They randomly select people to interview who support the reporter’s view. Also, vital information, such as history and background information, is purposely deleted from a crime story. (C.Michael, 2009).