Criminal Justice System and the Media

Criminal Justice System and the Media

When you think of the term media, most people associate it with news, whether it is radio or television. Media applies to more than just news though. Media can refer to any television or radio broadcast including your favorite television shows and movies. Now I would like for you to think about the Criminal Justice system. I think we all think about law enforcement and the court systems. The criminal Justice system also includes corrections (or the punishment for illegal wrong doings). How does the media portray criminal justice? Is it accurate or over embellished? I intend to explain to you the way the criminal justice system is portrayed by the media. I hope you will be able to understand how our criminal justice system works and how it is perceived by the outside world. I am going to first explain how the media portrays our law enforcement agents, our courts system, and the corrections or punishments of illegal acts.
When you stop and think about watching a movie or TV show involving police officers, you imagine high speed chases, police shootouts, police corruption and brutality. I am sure that this stuff happens occasionally, but not on a regular basis. The media over embellishes law enforcement for the purpose of entertainment. The community judges law enforcement personnel by what appears in the media. Very few citizens have direct contact with police officers; so they make decisions on the police departments effectiveness based on what they read, see or hear. Thus a high percentage of our knowledge about law enforcement is likely to come from television. In fact, heavy TV viewers greatly overestimated the percentage of the population working in law enforcement. “Real” police officers and trainees see the TV police shows as unrealistic portrayals of their profession.

The media has the power to portray law enforcement officers in either a good or bad light to the people of the community. Unfortunately, the “bad” stories and portrayed...

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