Does the media and common stereotypes influence societies perspectives on criminals? (Writers fortnight 2019)

Society labels criminals differently based on the belief that they will never change. When criminals are released from prison or from rehabilitation centers, people do not expect them to change their behavior; the mentality from society is ‘once an offender, always an offender.’ Christian Perrin, a criminal psychologist who works at the University of Liverpool and is currently based in Singapore quotes. “I don’t think society treats ex-offenders well, [however] I don’t think that it’s society’s fault. The media has a lot to do with the way that they portray offenders as this influences the community’s personal perspectives.”

 

Everyone has a fascination with crime in some way, and the media is the way that people access the news. The news is not only a place to understand current events, but also a place where anyone can write what they want about a certain topic and publicly express it.

 

Offenders are people too and believing that they will not change is a problem that the media has exaggerated to the point where it is impossible for them to re-enter society in the same way.

 

I believe that criminals and offenders should be given a second chance to be able to repent for their wrongdoings and prove that they want to improve from what they have done in the past. It is hard to accept offenders who have committed crimes that have caused harm to people, but would they really want to do that again? Personally, I believe that one of the reasons that people believe offenders and convicts will never change is because they know society will never accept them, so why change in the first place?

 

There are thousands of TV shows and movies that revolve around crime and portray stories of scenarios that should not be true. This directly affects people’s perspectives along with the media to put criminals and offenders into a bad light. To me, this is diminishing any chance that these people have of reentering society as a new person and not be judged based upon their past actions. According to ScientificAmerican.com, only 30% of sex offenders globally have ever re-offended. Considering that many people are not involved with offending in the first place, this statistic is incredibly low and only applies to handfuls of people.

 

I also think that people who do not believe in offenders wanting to change have reasons for that, but the problem is that they are not giving these people a chance to show that they can. I also think that society as a whole is not properly educated on these subjects and are not fully aware of the complete situation. Instead, all that seems to be going through their minds is, “once an offender, always an offender,” which is the wrong type of mentality in trying to fit these people back into society.

The website sexoffenderresource.com is a useful website that provides help to registered sex offenders. There are counseling services, employment relapses and other resources that can help sex offenders to reintegrate themselves into society. There are also useful resources in place that can educate family members of sex offenders on how to help with therapy and reassimilation back into society. This website is a great start to helping people understand how to bring about change for this issue, and is a great start to help sex offenders around the world.

1 Comment

  1. Hi Aditya,
    Thanks for posting your article.

    Why do you think so many people choose to vilify those who are past offenders? What keeps them from understanding that these people also deserve a second chance?

    I’d be happy to read your response.

    Thank you!

    Mrs. Ashton

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