1 CJL4934 Media & Crime Spring 2017 Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays: 1:55-2:45 Matherly Hall: Room 103 Instructor: Lauren He

CJL4934 Media & Crime Spring 2017

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays: 1:55-2:45

Matherly Hall: Room 103

Instructor: Lauren Henry

Office Hours:

I am available for office hours Wednesday 12-1 in Turlington Hall Office 3331. If you would like to meet outside of these office hours please contact me to make an appointment.

Email:

Please contact me through Canvas (strongly preferred) or at my email indicated above. When emailing, use your ufl.edu address. This ensures that I am able to receive it and it isn’t at risk of being labelled as junk mail. I check my email daily and if you have not received a response from me in 48 hours please send a follow up email to ensure that I receive your message. Email responses will be less frequent over weekends. When emailing, make sure to keep all exchanges professional and clear.

Announcements:

I will be utilizing announcements on the Canvas page in order to post any reminders, updates and changes regarding the class. For example, if class is cancelled for any reason this is the method of communication I will be utilizing. Please make sure to review all announcements to ensure that you are informed of any updates or changes.

Course Description:

The media is one of the world’s most important and rapidly changing social institutions. The relationship between media and crime & justice is not a new phenomenon, but it continuously evolving. This course delves into important features of that relationship, including the role of the media in constructing images about crime and justice, in shaping our perceptions of reality about crime and justice, and in influencing our debates about criminal justice policies.

Requirements:

There are no required texts for this course. Due to the nature of this course, students will be required to complete readings from various media sources as well as videos outside of class. All of this required resources will be posted on the Canvas page. The readings required are all posted in the files by their corresponding week. The readings will be discussed in class so make sure to

1 have them complete for the next lecture. All discussion of the readings and information within the readings is fair game on the quizzes.

Student Rights and Responsibilities:

As a student you have numerous rights and responsibilities. Please inform yourself about your rights and responsibilities, including academic honesty guidelines, formal and informal procedures for hearing academic dishonesty cases, the grievance procedure, and the confidentiality of student records. See http://www.dso.ufl.edu/studentguide/

According to university rules, on all work submitted for credit by students at the university, the following pledge is either required or implied: “On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment.”

As a student you also have confidentiality rights. Student records are confidential. If your parent(s) contact(s) us about your grade or any information that is not “UF directory information,” I will tell them to contact you with their questions.

Student Accommodations:

Please contact the Dean of Students Office in order to receive documentation of your needs. Contact me with the accommodation information and documentation and I will be happy to make all necessary accommodations. Please contact me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE in the course and after receiving an accommodation letter regarding accommodations. When providing accommodation documents make sure to provide me with ALL of the necessary documents. In order for me to provide accommodations I need both a copy of your official accommodation letter as well as all corresponding documents. For example, if you need a note taker you must provide your letter as well as the full DRC packet issued in regards to having a note taker.

Grading:

Submission Format:

All papers and submissions must be a word document. If it is in a different format (pdf, .pages, etc.) IT WILL NOT BE GRADED. This is to ensure that I can open the file and grade it.

Grammar:

Grammar, punctuation, and syntax are crucial in all written assignments. There are no assigned points for grammar outlined in each assignments rubric BUT if grammar is a distraction to your writing there will be a reduction in your grade. Additionally, if your paper has a large amount of grammatical issues that make it difficult to understand, read and grade you will have to submit a revised version. The mandatory revised version of assignments will only be able to obtain a 50%.

APA Format:

All written papers MUST BE in APA format. This is built into the grade for every paper. If a paper does not include the following items it WILL NOT receive the points for proper formatting. You DO NOT need to include an abstract with any of your papers. Please see the attached example paper for clarification on any of these points.

These aspects of a paper must be in the proper format:

 Times New Roman font  Size 12 font  Page numbers  1 inch margins  A title page  Headers*  Proper in text citations*  Reference list*

*These aspects must be done in APA formatting when they are utilized but it is not necessary to utilize them in all of the assignments. For example, headers might not be used in your law quote paper but they will be in your Just Mercy paper.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism will in no way be tolerated in this course. DO NOT “cut and paste” other individuals’ work. ALWAYS cite any information that you reference that is not your own. If you use writing and information from another source besides yourself and you do not put it in quotes it will be considered plagiarism. All assignments will be submitted through Canvas and will be run through Turnitin.

Late Policy:

Late papers will be accepted within 24 hours of the due date and will have the assignment’s grade lowered as a penalty. For clarification, all assignments submitted late automatically are reduced to a possible 75%. For example, if a paper is out of 50 points the highest score that a late paper can achieve is a 37.5.

ANY WORK SUBMITTED AFTER 24 HOURS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. This is set in stone and exceptions will not be made. If an emergency occurs, please contact me.

Documentation for excused late submissions is required. This would include doctors notes, receipt from tech support for assistance, etc. Please contact me before an assignment is due to inform me that it will be late if some emergency arises (more than 24 hours before). You will NOT be given the opportunity to make up missed assignments at the end of the semester. This is final and it is your responsibility as a student to complete your work.

Make up Policy:

I understand that sometimes one's personal life interferes with one's ability to complete graded activities like assignments and quizzes. If you have an excused reason for missing a class assignment (e.g., documented illness, death in the family, surgery, etc.), you will be allowed to make up what you missed IF you contact me immediately before/after the missed assignment or quiz.

All make up assignments and quizzes MUST BE COMPLETED AND SUBMITTED WITHIN A WEEK of their original scheduled time or due date. Please contact me as soon as you know that you are unable to complete a graded activity and your makeup will be scheduled at my discretion.

In terms of making up quizzes, your lowest quiz grade in this class is dropped at the end of the semester. Therefore, if you miss one quiz, you do not need to provide documentation for me right away. However, if an emergency occurs that hinders your ability to complete a quiz please contact me so that we can discuss the situation and if a makeup quiz is necessary.

Technical Issues:

If you have a technical issue occur that hinders your ability to submit an assignment please contact the UF help desk (http://helpdesk.ufl.edu). They will give you a ticket number when they assist you. Contact me with this number and I will make sure to work with you to complete whatever you were not able to because of technical issues.

If you are having difficulty with Canvas while attempting to submit an assignment and may miss the deadline because of this EMAIL me your assignment. This shows that the assignment was completed on time and that I am aware of the technical difficulties that you have experienced.

If you are having difficulty with internet, please take a screen shot of the completed assignment to show that the assignment was completed on time. This is to ensure that the assignment was in fact completed on time.

Grading Scale:

Grading will be done on a point system. At the end of the semester you simply need to add the points accumulated to reveal your final score. The points are spread across the various graded assignments (see below for a description of each graded activity). There will not be any minuses in the final grades. When calculating your grade keep in mind that your lowest quiz score will be dropped (when adding points only include your 5 highest quiz grades.

Your final point totals will be graded using the following scheme. There are 250 total possible points in the class.

Points & Grades 225 or higher A 213-224 B+ 200-212 B 188-199 C+ 175-187 C 163-174 D+ 150-162 D 149 or lower E Total Possible Points: 250

Coursework:

Attendance: Since this course’s foundation is in class lectures, discussions and activities, attendance is incredibly important. Because of its importance, there will be a sign in sheet that is passed around class on random days. Each missed class subtracts 1 point from your final attendance grade. If you miss more than 5 classes your final grade will be deducted a letter grade. This is final and there will be no exceptions made. The attendance grade is a possible 15 points.

Quizzes:

All quizzes are listed on the class schedule listed below. All quizzes will be given on the MONDAY of the week (unless otherwise listed in the schedule). This provides you with 50 minutes to complete the quiz.

There are 6 quizzes over the course of this class. The quiz material will only include information and lectures that have not be tested on the previous quizzes. THERE ARE NO CUMULATIVE QUIZZES IN THIS COURSE.

Each quiz are worth 25 points total. The quizzes will be composed of 20 multiple choice, true/false, and matching questions. These questions are worth one point each. Every quiz will have 1 short essay type question as well. The short essay question will be worth 5 points. These questions will be based on information from the in class lectures, discussions and assigned readings.

During quizzes, students are not allowed to leave the room at any time. Once the first person leaves a quiz NO ONE is able to come in late to complete that quiz. There will be no exceptions made. Similarly, once the quiz is distributed, no items may be on the desks and no students can leave the room.

YOUR LOWEST QUIZ GRADE WILL BE DROPPED. This means that if you are content with your first 5 quiz grades then you do not need to complete the final quiz. Additionally, if you miss a quiz and do not wish to make it up, that 0 will be dropped. If you need to make up a quiz due to

5 a documented excused absence please contact me as soon as possible. If you need to make up a quiz it MUST BE completed within a week of the original quiz date.

Quiz grades will be posted in Canvas as soon as ALL quizzes have been completed. All quiz grades will be visible no later than one week after the quiz.

Written Assignments:

There are 6 written assignments for this course. Their requirements and point values are outlined below. All written assignments are submitted through Canvas and are due SUNDAY at 11:59pm.

If you have questions regarding a paper and you email me within 24 hours of it being due there is no guarantee that I will get back to you before the due date. This is not a valid excuse for not submitting a paper. If you have questions make sure to email me as soon as possible.

The Symbolic Assailant:

This is a two part writing assignment delving into what you think of specifically in terms of victimization and offenders. This is completed in reference to the media as well as official crime statistics. All documents needed for this assignment are provided in the assignment description on Canvas.

Part 1: This writing assignment asks you to consider how we think and act about crime. Consider your subjective image about who will victimize you and the nature of that victimization. If this prompt makes you uncomfortable you may consider this in terms of property crime. List the characteristics of the person you fear will victimize you and the kind of victimization you think that person will perpetrate against you. Be subjective—this list has to do with your fears and anxieties. Describe your “symbolic assailant.” Discuss how closely your description matches what you see and hear and read about crime in the media. This paper should be double spaced (12 point, times new roman font with one Inch borders). Please include a separate cover page (i.e., your name should not interfere with your page length). Appropriate length 2-3 pages.

Part 2: Use your “Symbolic Assailant” assessment from Part I and compare it with the information about crime and its correlates in the attached pdf file on Crime Data and Crime Correlates. Discuss how similar or different your assessment/perception is compared with the objective reality and whether you think it is an apt illustration of the “backwards law” presented in the in class lecture. You MUST attach you part 1 paper to this submission so that I can reference it when reviewing part 2. This paper should be double spaced (12 point, times new roman font with one Inch borders). Please include a separate cover page (i.e., your name should not interfere with your page length). Appropriate length 2-3 pages.

Copycat Crime Review:

For this short writing assignment you will have to choose one of the following names or pair of names to investigate. When researching these individuals you can enter the name(s) and the term copycat crime into the search engine and the information you need should come up. 1. Benjamin Darras & Sarah 6. James Eagan Holmes Edmondson 7. Kyle Shaw 2. Thierry Jaradin 8. Mark David Chapman 3. Mark Andrew Twitchell 9. Barry Loukaitis 4. Daniel Sterling 10. Leonard Lake & Charles Ng 5. Tonda Lynn Ansley

Once you have chosen your name or set of names, there are a couple of elements discuss in your paper. First, explain who your name or names are, what crime they committed and what inspired their crime. Also, mention if the inspiration for the crime responded to the fact that they were linked as an inspiration for a crime. Then, explain if you think that the crime could have been prevented in any way and explain why or why not. Finally, do you think that the media can be held responsible for your specific crime and/or copycat crimes in general? Why or why not?

This paper should be double spaced (12 point, times new roman font with one Inch borders). Please include a separate cover page (i.e., your name should not interfere with your page length).Appropriate length 2-3 double spaced pages.

Accuracy Analysis:

For this paper you must choose a major crime or criminal justice issue that received media attention. Examples would include the Casey Anthony Trial, The War on Drugs, Police Brutality, etc.

You will state what topic you have chosen briefly and find and discuss 3 different media sources focused on your topic. These 3 media sources should vary in format. For example, you can look too television news stories, news articles, political cartoons, songs, entertainment television references, and more. If you are concerned that a topic or source you want to reference is not a good choice feel free to contact me. You MUST cite the sources in your paper and provide a citation so that I am able to locate the media source as well. If you are including something like a political cartoon, song, etc., you can include it in your paper but that material does not count toward your final work count. Once you describe each of the media sources, conclude on if the sources are overall accurate or inaccurate and why.

Crime Fighters:

Crime fighters are popular subjects of popular media; from Law and Order to Police Academy, police specifically have been the subject of countless numbers of movies and television programs. For this assignment, your job is to analyze this media depicting police officers using the information from the lectures. So, choose a popular media movie or television show involving police, and watch it (for the television show, watch two episodes minimum). Then, address each of the following topics:

Media source: What television show or movie did you watch? Give a basic short plot summary of your choice (one paragraph maximum). This should not be the bulk of the paper, this is simply to give context to the following sections.

Media portraits/stereotypes: What media portrait or stereotypes were used in portraying police work in the media? Was more than one portrait/stereotype used? In your answer, describe the media portrait(s)/stereotype(s), and then give specific examples from the television show/movie that support the use of this portrait(s)/stereotype(s) in the television show or movie.

Media accuracy: Was the show basically accurate or inaccurate? How was the media portrayed police work different from real-world police work? How was it similar to real-world police work? Again, in your answer, use specific examples from the television show/movie that support your statements.

Effect on public: How might the portrayal of police work in this television show/movie affect public support for anticrime policies (if at all)? How might the accuracies/inaccuracies in the television show/movie affect public perception of crime fighting and police more generally? What implications does that have for the criminal justice system?

PLEASE NOTE: You must pick an entertainment media source that has a strong focus on police work and is a crime based show. Make sure to choose a media source that is entertainment media rather than news or infotainment such as 60 minutes, Forensic Files, Cops, etc. DO NOT analyze shows that are about superheroes (such as Arrow, Daredevil, Flash, etc.) You will receive a 0 if you chose a show based on comic books or fantasy type story lines. If you are worried about the media source you want to write on please contact me.

Media Inspired Policy Paper:

This paper requires that you find a criminal justice policy that is being discussed or was discussed due to a criminal justice event and heavy media coverage. Discuss how competing social constructions of the issue were framed, whether the event became a symbolic crime, and whether a policy change followed or is being considered. Discuss which elements of the crime or event made it more or less likely to generate a memorial criminal justice policy. Examples of possible topics are discussed in the in-class lectures and you are welcome to utilize any of that

8 information in these papers. Again, if you are concerned with your topic choice feel free to talk to me about it.

In-Class Final Reflection Paper:

This paper will be completed in class on the final day. This will be an open-ended essay prompt that allows you to discuss a topic of your choosing from the entire semester. You will be required to identify a topic or issue presented in this course and discuss why it was particularly noteworthy to you, what importance it has in reference to the justice system and finally if it is rooted in a positive or negative impact of the media. Appropriate length 2-3 pages.

Extra Credit Writing Assignment:

This will be an optional class at the end of class. The film will be shown during class and you will write your response during that class. The prompt is listed below.

Please watch the film ‘My Cousin Vinny’ and discuss what concepts presented in class are reflected. This can range from a discussion of narratives used, frames of the justice system, accuracy of depictions, etc. This is as long as you want to make it, but the more you discuss and reference the more points you will receive. Make sure to reference class materials in reference to the film itself. This can receive a maximum of 5 extra credit points.

Point Overview:

Media & Crime Point Information Assignment Length Point Value Attendance 1 point per class 15 Symbolic Assailant (Part 1&2) 4-5 pages 25 Accuracy Analysis 4-5 pages 25 Crime Fighters 2-3 pages 15 Copycat Crime Consideration 2-3 pages 15 Media-Policy Paper 2-3 pages 15 In-Class Reflection Paper 2-3 pages 15 Quizzes(6 but one dropped) 21 questions 125 Total: 250

Tentative Class Schedule*:

*This is subject to change. Be alert to announcements in class and made on the Canvas page.

Class Dates Topic Important Deadlines Week 1: 8/21, 8/23, 8/25 Syllabus Review Media & Crime History Week 2: 8/28, 8/30,9/1 Backwards Law Symbolic Assailant Social Constructionism Part 1 Week 3: 9/4, 9/6, 9/8 Criminogenic Media Quiz 1

Week 4: 9/11, 9/13, 9/15 Media Impact on Group Crimes Symbolic Assailant Part 2 Week 5: 9/18, 9/20, 9/22 Media Portraits of Race & Nationality Quiz 2

Week 6: 9/25, 9/27, 9/29 Media Portraits of Women & Children Copycat Crime

Week 7: 10/2, 10/4, 10/6 Media Portraits of Criminality Quiz 3

Week 8: 10/9, 10/11, 10/13 Media Portraits of Crime Fighters Crime Fighters

Week 9: 10/16, 10/18, 10/20 Media Portraits of the Courts Quiz 4

Week 10: 10/23, 10/25, Media Portraits of Corrections Accuracy Analysis 10/27 Week 11: 10/30, 11/1, 11/3 Media as a Crime Control Tool Quiz 5

Week 12: 11/6, 11/8, 11/10 Media & Criminal Justice Policy Media Inspired Policy Paper Week 13: 11/13, 11/15, New Media, Crime & Justice in the 21st Century 11/17 Week 14: 11/20, 11/22, THANKSGIVING 11/24 Week 15: 11/27, 11/29, 12/1 Media & Crime in the 21st Century Continued Quiz 6

Week 16: 12/4, 12/6 Extra Credit in Class Paper In-Class Reflection Paper Date = cancelled class All due dates are listed in the assignment descriptions