WDW101Y1 Lecture Notes - Youth Criminal Justice Act, Juvenile Delinquency, Moral Panic
29 Nov 2013
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Lecture 1: the social & historical context of youth crime. Sanctions for young offenders today (12-17) are less punitive than for those 18+. * however, description of what the crime is the same for adult and youth: same definition of murder, different sentence. As a society, understand youth crime through mass media: often features youth crime as involving gangs, violent crimes as opposed to minor cases involving petty crimes b/c these serious crimes involve a lot of public attention (disproportionality) This presentation of youth crime in the media is not based on empirical reality but on constructed versions that serve political and moral purposes (giving what the public wants!) The media tends to distort and amplify crime-related news: discrepancy b/w crime in reality vs. media. E. g. , while media focuses on crimes of violence, official data suggests that violent crime represents a relatively small proportion of all reported criminal activity.
