Media Representations and Constructions of Crime, Offenders and Victims : Serbian Cas

Abstract

By using a content analysis, the author attempts to explore the extent to which the prevailing media portrayals of crime, offenders and victims distract from factuality of crime in Serbia. It is argued that crime news is often distorted with the aim to acquire greater “news value”, or to induce moral panic over specific categories of offenders. The news is commonly distorted in tabloid press through rather simple albeit well approved means: by exaggerating the prevalence and dangers of specific forms of crime, portraying extensively certain uncommon criminal events, causal oversimplification, as well as by over/under/missrepresenting specific categories of perpetrators and victims. Particular consideration is given to the problems of selective and culturally sensitive attributions of responsibility for crime and victim blaming, as well as to media portraying of youth violence aiming to induce moral panic over youth crime and to call forth the harsher response toward juvenile offenders