FREE ESSAY ON CRIME AND MEDIA

CRIME AND MEDIA

Corrections has been a field dominated primarily by men. Women entering in this field have
had to struggle against the resistance presented when entering these types of jobs.
Criminal justice and women have been terms that have not been heavily associated. However
women do play a major role in the criminal justice system, whether they are the
offenders, victims or criminal justice professionals. The role of women in criminal
justice often depicts women as the victims in order to keep in place the ideologies of
women being subordinate, feeble, and unable to take care of themselves against their
aggressor. Women are not only victimized women also play roles of the offenders and
criminal justice professionals contrary to popular belief. Although women have made
strives to progress they still represent lowest line of sworn in officers
Women are very versatile in their involvement with the criminal justices system. It is
also important for us a as society to understand that women are major functions in the
criminal justice system although their isn't an enormous amount of literature about it.
Women are represented in every dimension of the criminal justice system.
The depictions of women in the media are influential factors for women who have chosen
this male dominated work force. The traditional role of women being housewives and
mothers have in some ways hindered the process of them becoming a dominant work force in
the field of corrections. 
Women As Police Officers
In film it is very noticeable how women are depicted as helpless or are in need of some
type of assistance from her male counterpart. In the Hale article about women in videos
the treatment of women tends to be a social control. It romanticizes the way women and
men are especially in uniform. For example the man is usually the hero in the film
usually he rescues the woman. The scenario hardly ever plays in the other direction. I
personally can't think of one movie were a woman police officer rescues the male police
officer. A woman saving a man would challenge our societal ideologies of women being weak
and feeble. I had the a discussion with three women officers, they were all troopers and
one was even a captain and this article really elaborated on the discussion that I had
with these women. The article really got into the nuts and bolts of women as criminal
justice professionals and it also was very informative when it discussed the hierarchical
role of women as police officers these women that I spoke with were very clear about the
harassment and isolation on the job. In the article I think the emotional trauma that the
author was speaking are direct results of the harassment and isolation that many women
officers face while on the job. The portrayal of women as not being able to do the job is
a justification of treating women so poorly on the job, when the sad truth is in many
instances their male counterparts want them to fail in order to assert their male
dominance. Women police officers in theory have the same protections as their male
counterparts, however this is a claim that can be disputed. Women do not have the
protection against the images that are presented in the media. The images that make these
women more likely to be taken for granted by society at large. In videos as well as in
society it is a natural practice trying to label things to make since of it. In this
article I think this claim is justified when we see the woman police officer and we label
her a dyke or lesbian. If the media throws these types of images into films and video
society tends to think that these women are outside of the norm, their norm being,
(heterosexual/straight) females. If we can tag a label on to these women it's almost
saying well it's wrong to be a woman police officer but it is okay for these women
because they are out of the norms of society.
She is smart, beautiful, single, sexy, who is shy? She is the female attorney. Often
depicted by the media as the world's brightest and most endearing person. The sad fact is
this is just a depiction like many other professions this one to has character in a sexy
body, who is on top of the world. The only sad part about this is she is a fictional
character in the real world of female attorneys. These female attorneys have not been
seen for their professional techniques as an attorney but rather their vivacious and
feminine demeanor. Women attorneys are also depicted as these powerful and dedicated
women who's only objective is to take crime of the street. The article that I chose by
Joanne Belknap was a mixture of Donna Hale, article and the Bailey Pollack Schroder
article. In the article it talks a lot about the obstacles presented to these women.
Women overwhelmingly face discrimination in the work place (Belknap). The article talks
about recruiting practices and how agencies must make extended efforts in order to be
recruited. Although this article didn't really talk about women in the adjudication
process, women who are judges and police officers still face the same type of
discrimination. Women who are police officers have this additional element in their
careers. Not only do they have to deal with the stress that the job may present they have
to did with external factors that the job brings. Things like discrimination and unfair
treatment in the workplace.