About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about media effects and the question of whether the media causes crime, focusing in particular on: (i) early research into media effects in the mid-twentieth century, notably Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment, and the hypodermic needle hypothesis; (ii) some critiques of these early theories of media effects, such as their assumption that all individuals react to media in the same way; (iii) alternative approaches to understanding media effects and crime, such as strain theory and left realism; (iv) recent research into the effects of violent cartoons on children.

About the lecturer

Dr Francesca Menichelli is Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Surrey. Her research focuses on crime prevention, policing and social control, and her teaching covers a broad range of criminological issues. She is author of Order and Conflict in Public Space (2016).