Media's Role in Shaping Views on Juvenile Delinquency

Introduction: Media and Public Perception

Media affects our view of the world and the issues within it. As Descartes and Kottak observe, "media messages are cultural products that communicate norms and standards." Similarly, Dow argues that "television programming [is] public discourse that carries important meanings for its viewers, meanings that cannot be separated from their links to the larger context in which television is created and received" (Descartes & Kottak).

When extended to other forms of media, this observation remains valid. Media has, in its own way, addressed issues pertaining to work-family dynamics and the changing roles of parents, thereby leaving a strong impact on its consumers and reshaping their perceptions of various social issues. As Descartes and Kottak conclude, "the media both reflect and help shape our concerns and worldviews. The process is not a one-way imposition of media imagery and ideology on malleable spectators… viewers interpret what they see in the light of their own preconceptions," which also serves to reinforce those preconceptions. "It is in this sense that television influences certain (adult) beliefs."

This dynamic is apparent in the media portrayal of children as more receptive to behavioral problems — particularly in programs such as Law & Order, one of the top American dramas. A more prominent example, however, is 60 Minutes, a news program featuring true stories. One episode revolved around the widely publicized delinquent case of Nathaniel Abraham, which received substantial media attention and subsequently drew political and legal recognition. The program initially discussed the nature of the crime before gradually exploring the reasons behind it, clearly implying to its audience that "Nathaniel's father had left the family when the boy was small and that Nathaniel had been raised by a mother who worked the night shift, leaving him home in the care of his older siblings" (Descartes & Kottak).

This paper examines the role of media in shaping public understanding of juvenile delinquency cases, using the Nathaniel Abraham case as its central example. The guiding question is: how does media affect our view of juvenile delinquency?

The Nathaniel Abraham Case

The news media has both the ability and the authority to portray any juvenile as innocent or guilty, thereby playing a vital role in influencing the court's decisions and the public's attitudes toward them. In the case of Nathaniel Abraham — an eleven-year-old child tried by the Michigan State court for first-degree murder — the role played by the media remained largely positive throughout, ultimately contributing to a favorable outcome from the legal authorities. "Nate" remained in custody from October 1997 until his lawyer arranged a trial, and the court ordered that he be placed under rehabilitative care within the Juvenile Justice System until the age of 21, on January 13, 2000 (Nichols).

Nathaniel Abraham's case was heard in Pontiac, Michigan, where the prosecutor accused him of murdering an eighteen-year-old, Ronnie Green, with a .22-caliber rifle, alleging that the killing was carried out with adequate planning and a deliberate motive (Nichols). Abraham was charged with first-degree murder following "an earlier ruling by Judge Eugene Moore of the Oakland Family Court, which followed evaluations by two psychologists who stated the twelve-year-old had the learning and emotional abilities of a six- to eight-year-old child" (Nichols).

Media, Legal Manipulation, and the Judicial Process

Nearly all cases tried in court involve various tactical maneuvers — at times by the media, and often by the lawyers. Nathaniel Abraham's case was no exception. Politicians used the case to create hysteria among the public regarding juvenile delinquency through misleading information disseminated via media channels. Meanwhile, lawyers misused facts about "how and what the defendant did before the killing, his planning, his motive, [and] facts about how the killing was done" in order to mislead the jury into believing that a young child possessed the capacity to plan and deliberately commit first-degree murder. In actuality, as attorney William Lansat remarked in an interview, "when you think of premeditation and deliberation, the defendant knows the victim, stalks the victim, plans the crime. That is not what happened" in the case of Nathaniel Abraham (Nichols).

Given the implausibility of the claim that an eleven-year-old could plan a murder, the prosecutor further misused an alleged statement of confession in which the defendant "states plainly that he was shooting at trees, not at people" (Nichols). These episodes illustrate that in the judicial process, "truth" is not always a legal discovery — it can be a social construction shaped by both the media and the legal process itself.

Media reports that are heavily researched and drawn from reliable sources reveal the contradictory worldviews and perceptions held by both the public and researchers, underscoring the media's powerful and enduring role in shaping attitudes toward serious issues such as juvenile delinquency. The media is undeniably capable of generating both reassurance and fear among its audiences regarding such matters, and consequently plays both a negative and a positive role in delivering information to the public.

Conclusion

When media makes valuable reports available to the public — including comments from figures within the legal system such as Judge Eugene Arthur Moore's remarks in the matter of the petition pertaining to Nathaniel Abraham, "Children are too precious to be lost because of the system's neglect and failures" (Text of Nathaniel Abraham's Sentence) — it leaves an inexplicably powerful and positive impact on society. Furthermore, this thought-provoking role played by the media helps the world identify the loopholes in the legal system and recognize the urgent need for remedial measures.

From the foregoing discussion, it is clear that media in all its forms plays a vital role in shaping our understanding of juvenile delinquency — even when, at times, it contributes to public hysteria concerning youth crime. The relationship between media, public perception, and the justice system remains complex and consequential, making responsible and well-researched media coverage all the more essential in matters affecting the lives of young people.

Works Cited

Descartes, L. & Kottak, C. Media and the Work/Family Interface. Retrieved March 05, 2003 from

Nichols, T. Interview with attorney of 12-year-old charged with murder in Michigan: "This is a test case to try any child as an adult." Retrieved March 05, 2003 from World Socialist Web Site at

Kaufmann, S. "The American crackdown on youth crime has little to do with justice and everything to do with politics; Old enough to kill, old enough to be executed." The Guardian Weekly, Volume 160, Issue 1, week ending January 3, 1999, p. 7. Retrieved March 05, 2003 from

Court TV Online Trials. "Text of Nathaniel Abraham's Sentence," January 26, 2000. Retrieved March 05, 2003 from http://www.courttv.com/trials/abraham/sentence_text_ctv.html

Morgan, F. "The bad seed-victim debate," March 3, 2000. Retrieved March 05, 2003 from