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Race, Place and Crime Through the Lens of Toronto's Print Media By Race, Place and Crime through the Lens of Toronto’s Print Media By Vanessa N. Rhodes A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in The Faculty of Social Science and Humanities Criminology University of Ontario Institute of Technology July 2015 © Vanessa N. Rhodes, 2015 RACE, PLACE AND CRIME IN MEDIA Abstract Geographical areas with high concentrations of impoverished racialized groups tend to experience disproportionate rates of violence in Canada. As news media heavily focuses on crime reports, violence often comes to characterize the affected neighbourhoods. News reports can impact audience levels of fear and scholars argue that disproportionate reporting of crime-related events can instil fear among the public. To date, there has been no study that examines a moral panic of neighbourhoods. Therefore, this thesis examines how the racialization of crime and the criminalization of place coalesce to create a moral panic of a neighbourhood. To examine the media’s role in creating fear, two Toronto newspapers were sampled over a 14-year period. A frame analysis was conducted to investigate how Toronto newspapers framed Kingston- Galloway between 1998-2012. Findings suggest that Toronto newspapers racialize crime and criminalize place, which may aid in the construction of a moral panic of a neighbourhood. Keywords: Crime, frame analysis, moral panic, race, racialization i RACE, PLACE AND CRIME IN MEDIA Acknowledgements I would first like to thank my committee members, Dr. Steven Downing and Dr. Carla Cesaroni for your support throughout this process. Also, Dr. Scot Wortley for your insight and thoughtful advice. To my family, thank you for your love and constant understanding. Sophia, Christina, Angela and Eleni, I thank you for always providing an ear when I needed it the most. To Kanika, thank you for your friendship, laughs and unwavering support. To Kiran, for your astonishing knowledge of all things related to Word. And last, but certainly not least, my partner, Akwasi. I am forever indebted to you. Thank you for your friendship, love, support and patience throughout this entire process. ii RACE, PLACE AND CRIME IN MEDIA Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. ii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Focus of Current Inquiry: Kingston-Galloway ............................................................... 2 Recent Crime in Toronto and its Impact on Public Policy .............................................. 3 Racialization of Crime, Criminalization of Place and Moral Panic ................................ 6 My Current Study ............................................................................................................ 8 Organization of the Study ............................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 11 Racialization of Crime .................................................................................................. 11 Race and Racialization .................................................................................................. 11 Race, Crime and the Media ........................................................................................... 14 Media Portrayal of Racialized Victims ......................................................................... 17 Media, Race and Crime: A Canadian Perspective ........................................................ 18 Media and Audience Effects of Fear of Crime ............................................................. 21 Criminalization of Place ................................................................................................ 26 Understanding Space and Place .................................................................................... 27 Race, Place and Policies ................................................................................................ 31 Racialization of Crime and the Criminalization of Place .............................................. 34 Neighbourhood Profile: Kingston-Galloway ................................................................ 35 Chapter 3: Theoretical Framework ................................................................................... 39 Overview of Cohen’s Moral Panic Theory ................................................................... 39 Moral Panic and Labeling ............................................................................................. 40 Moral Panic Framework ................................................................................................ 42 Criticisms of Moral Panic Theory ................................................................................. 46 Neighbourhoods and Moral Panic ................................................................................. 54 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 4: Method ............................................................................................................ 62 Newspapers as a Relevant Medium .............................................................................. 62 Sample ........................................................................................................................... 63 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 65 Thematic Analysis ......................................................................................................... 66 Frame Analysis .............................................................................................................. 69 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 71 iii RACE, PLACE AND CRIME IN MEDIA Chapter 5: Results ............................................................................................................. 72 Thematic Analysis ......................................................................................................... 73 News Frames of Kingston-Galloway ............................................................................ 78 i. The Racializing Crime Frame ............................................................................ 78 ii. The Criminalizing Place Frame .......................................................................... 84 Counter-Frame: Community Mobilization .................................................................... 90 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 94 Chapter 6: Discussion and Conclusion ............................................................................. 95 Strengths and Weaknesses of the Current Study ......................................................... 100 Directions for Future Research ................................................................................... 102 Policy Implications ...................................................................................................... 102 References ....................................................................................................................... 104 iv RACE, PLACE AND CRIME IN MEDIA List of Tables Table 1: City of Toronto Demographics 2001 and 2006................................................38 Table 2: Volume and Type of News Report in The Toronto Star (1998 - 2012)...........74 Table 3: Volume and Type of News Report in The Toronto Sun (1998 - 2012)...........77 v RACE, PLACE AND CRIME IN MEDIA List of Figures Figure 1..........................................................................................................................57 Figure 2..........................................................................................................................60 vi RACE, PLACE AND CRIME IN MEDIA 1 Chapter 1: Introduction In Canada, the research on the social ecology of lethal violence is limited, and only recently have Canadian scholars begun to examine violence at the neighbourhood level (see, Charron, 2009; Gartner & Thomson, 2004; Thompson, 2009; Thompson & Gartner, 2013). Findings from the American literature demonstrate that high levels of lethal violence are concentrated within inner city neighbourhoods that are often heavily racialized and characterized by high rates of poverty and income inequality (Blau & Blau, 1982; Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003; Sampson, 1985). While Canadian scholarship demonstrates that a small portion of lethal violence clusters in a small number of inner city neighbourhoods in Toronto, the majority of lethal violence is distributed in neighbourhoods outside the city centre, that is, within its “inner suburban” neighbourhoods (Thompson, 2009). Lethal violence is important to examine as news media focuses heavily on these events, and violence often characterizes affected neighbourhoods (Henry & Bjornson, 1999). These negative media portrayals can have significant
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