Deck 6: Youth Deviance and the Media: Mapping Knowledge and the Limits to Certainty

Question 1

The case of Archie Billard is significant because it ________.

A) showed how youth can get away with murder
B) led to recommendations for changing the YCJA
C) illustrates the complex causes of violent youth crime
D) All of the above
E) Both a and b

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Knowledge about youth crime and justice is produced through ________.

A) media
B) official statistics
C) unofficial data
D) All of the above
E) Both b and c

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Official statistics ________.

A) highlight emotional and violent extremes of crime
B) record in detail what is known and reported to the police
C) are the main source of crime news information for the public
D) All of the above
E) Both a and b

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Unofficial data ________.

A) highlights emotional and violent extremes of crime.
B) records in detail what is unknown and unreported to the police.
C) is used to fill out incidents not reported to the police.
D) All of the above
E) Both a and b

Question 5

________ coined the term moral panic to describe exaggerated fears about youth deviance that was generated by the media.

A) John Muncie
B) Stanley Cohen
C) Chris McCormick
D) Bernard Schissel
E) Jane Sprott

Question 6

What term is used to describe any group that is unjustifiably perceived to pose a threat to the traditional values and institutions of society?

A) Deviant
B) Outcast
C) Folk devils
D) Gang-involved
E) Rebel group

Question 7

The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) has collected information on crime every year since ________.

A) 1962
B) 1967
C) 1984
D) 1989
E) 1991

Question 8

According to the author of Chapter 6, our understanding of youth crime is ________.

A) policing-sensitive
B) court-sensitive
C) corrections-sensitive
D) All of the above
E) Both a and b

Question 9

The media's role in the distortion of crime knowledge is illustrated in how news of crimes committed in public by strangers against innocent victims ________.

A) encourages the perception that crime is random
B) sensitizes the public to fear crime
C) can lead to police enforcement or legislative changes
D) All of the above
E) Both a and c

Question 10

News about crime and deviance, as illustrated in news accounts of the disappearance of sex-workers, can encourage public ________.

A) hostility
B) fear
C) apathy and disinterest
D) action
E) co-operation

Question 11

Social scientists have frequently argued that the media coverage of crime and deviance ________.

A) over reports the level of property crime
B) can be blamed for misinforming the public
C) exaggerates the level of corporate crime
D) All of the above
E) Both b and c

Question 12

Data show that Canadians rely on ________ as a primary source for information about the Canadian youth justice system.

A) newspapers or magazines
B) TV or radio news
C) the Internet
D) academic sources
E) personal experience

Question 13

Data show that approximately ________ of Canadians learn about the Canadian youth justice system primarily from the media.

A) 30 per cent
B) 40 per cent
C) 60 per cent
D) 80 per cent
E) 90 per cent

Question 14

In her study of articles on youth crime that appeared in Toronto newspapers, Sprott (1996) found that approximately ________ focused on violent crime.

A) 60 per cent
B) 70 per cent
C) 80 per cent
D) 90 per cent
E) 95 per cent

Question 15

According to the author of Chapter 6, context analysis is ________.

A) a method of comparing official statistics and unofficial data
B) based on the premise that the reality constructed by the news media might not reflect other images of reality
C) a new method of analyzing media reports of youth crime
D) All of the above
E) Both a and b

Question 16

Research completed by Baron and Hartnagel (1996) on public views about the Canadian youth justice system concluded that public views were ________.

A) quite punitive
B) often based on personal experiences of victimization
C) often based on conservative social values
D) All of the above
E) Both a and c

Question 17

A study on the reporting of juvenile homicide cases in Chicago newspapers found that ________.

A) as juvenile homicide rates declined, media coverage increased
B) news articles did a good job of covering youth crime
C) a homicide received more media coverage if it was committed by a white youth
D) All of the above
E) Both a and c

Question 18

Portraying a young offender as both a villain and a victim is an example of ________.

A) moral panic
B) reverse psychology
C) moral uncertainty
D) ideological flexibility
E) media manipulation

Question 19

According to the author of Chapter 6, like official statistics and unofficial data, media knowledge is ________.

A) a window on the world
B) complementary
C) limited
D) All of the above
E) Both b and c

Question 20

Frame analysis and critical discourse analysis allow us to ________.

A) analyze in more detail the role of the media in the public sphere
B) view the media as a forum for debate
C) appreciate how hegemony is accomplished through discourse
D) All of the above
E) Both a and b

Question 21

The group Crime Responsibility and Youth was formed ________.

A) after a stabbing incident in a so-called random street attack
B) by a group of young people coming together to advocate for youth
C) after the victimization in Toronto of a young male
D) by parents and other citizens looking for vigilante justice
E) as a result of Anthony Doob's letter to the editor suggesting the toughening of rules

Question 22

The purpose of the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is to ________.

A) reflect the total amount of crime in society
B) measure police work
C) be used to compare crime across jurisdictions
D) justify the use of police resources
E) Both c and d

Question 23

Surveys of high school students show that ________ of youth have experienced online bullying.

A) 15 per cent
B) 25 per cent
C) 35 per cent
D) 45 per cent
E) 55 per cent

Question 24

________ is the process of analyzing media content to see how crime and criminals are depicted.

A) Content analysis
B) Critical discourse analysis
C) Frame analysis
D) Meta-analysis
E) Micro analysis

Question 25

Statistics Canada reports that approximately ________ youths were charged with criminal offences in Canada in 2017.

A) 30,000
B) 59,000
C) 89,000
D) 109,000
E) 139,000

Question 26

Official statistics record in detail what is known and reported to the police, while self-report and victimization studies are used to fill out those incidents not reported to the police.

Question 27

The Uniform Crime Report survey (UCR) is the official source that represents crimes substantiated through police investigation.

Question 28

The argument that our understanding of youth crime is policing-sensitive means that the level of police enforcement determines whether the crime is counted.

Question 29

The argument that crime is media-sensitive means that, if crimes are publicized, a feedback loop can change the public's perceptions and their willingness to report.

Question 30

Increasing police efficiency can also increase crime rates.

Question 31

In Canada, cannabis possession went from 2,300 cases in 1968 to 44,000 cases in 2006 due primarily to increased law enforcement.

Question 32

The national news almost consistently reports only on violent assaults committed by youths.

Question 33

Compared with other hot-button social panic issues, there is not much research on media coverage of youth crime.

Question 34

The hypothesis that the media inundates the public with ideas about crime is referred to as the moral panic hypothesis.

Question 35

A study on the reporting of juvenile homicide cases in Chicago newspapers found that news articles do a good job of covering youth crime but also tend to focus on atypical cases.

Question 36

Social constructionism is a theory that views youth crime as an important source of social change.

Question 37

Social constructionist researchers have advanced the view the media trades in on the ambiguous culpability of youth as both victimizer and victimized.

Question 38

Ideological flexibility refers to the portrayal of persons as being politically biased.

Question 39

In general, constructionist analysis states that violent youth crime is underrepresented in the media.

Question 40

Media knowledge cannot provide a window on the world because it is simply too biased.

Question 41

Critical discourse analysis links discourse to culture.

Question 42

The valorization of victims is a tactic typically used by politicians to justify tougher measures aimed at punishing young offenders.

Question 43

The articles about youth crime that appeared in the National Post in 1999 were almost all about murders.

Question 44

News articles often serve as a venue for giving voice to the claim that youth crime is out of control.

Question 45

For most people, the reality the media creates about youth crime is their reality.

Question 46

In Sprott's findings, those who believed that sentences were too lenient were also more likely to underestimate the amount of violent youth crime and thought it had decreased.

Question 47

A moral panic is an exaggerated fear about social problems, including youth deviance, partly generated by the media

Question 48

According to the Centre for Disease Control, LGBTQ students are more likely to experience online social media bullying

Question 49

Who is Archie Billard? Why is his case significant?

Question 50

How is media-generated knowledge of youth crime and justice different from knowledge generated through official statistics and unofficial data?

Question 51

What is one of the key criticisms of the "official version" of youth crime?

Question 52

What is one of the difficulties common to both official statistics and unofficial data?

Question 53

What has been the traditional approach taken by social scientists to the study of crime and the media?

Question 54

What is context analysis and how can it be used to study the media coverage of youth crime stories?

Question 55

What are the main themes of social constructionist analysis?

Question 56

What were the major findings of Spencer's (2005) media research on youth violence in the United States in 1994?

Question 57

According to the author of Chapter 6, what is wrong with the argument made by critics who focus only on showing how the media's coverage of crime is distorted and sensationalized in comparison to other sources?

Question 58

According to the author of Chapter 6, what is the value of frame analysis?

Question 59

According to the author of Chapter 6, "there seems to be no ready reason for why the media should mirror what is known by the police any more than police statistics should mirror juvenile self-reports." What are the basic grounds for this argument?

Question 60

What does Spencer (2005) mean by the term ideological flexibility?

Question 61

According to the author of Chapter 6, rather than providing antagonistic knowledge, the media provides complementary knowledge about youth crime and deviance. Do you agree with this argument? Why?

Question 62

What is critical discourse analysis? How has this approach been applied to the study of youth crime and youth criminal justice in Canada?

Question 63

To what does the term valorization of victims refer? Provide examples that illustrate the meaning of this term.

Question 64

How are the stories of victims typically used by politicians who want to bring about changes in youth justice legislation?

Question 65

Discuss one example of how political and academic debates over issues relating to youth justice are reported in the media.

Question 66

How do news articles provide a platform for "the vilification of young offenders"?

Question 67

What are the five key themes that characterize the newspaper articles on youth crime that were analyzed by the author of Chapter 6?

Question 68

What factors influence the quality of raw material about crime? Name three of the five factors and explain.

Question 69

In this chapter, the author argues that "the study of youth crime and deviance is [about] more than just countng." Do you agree with this statement? Why?

Question 70

In this chapter, the author argues that "to know about youth crime from official crime statistics is like trying to dine out using restaurant reviews-entertaining but ultimately unfulfilling." What are the author's grounds for making this argument? Do you agree with this view? Why?

Question 71

How do law enforcement, legal definitions, and media practices affect our understanding of youth crime and the youth justice system?

Question 72

How do media practices contribute to knowledge about youth crime and the youth justice system?

Question 73

How were young offenders and the youth criminal justice system viewed by the Canadian media in the period from 1995 to 2003? What effect did this have on public attitudes and arguments for reforming Canadian youth justice legislation?

Question 74

What are the implications of the patterns of media coverage in youth crime?