This proposed study will consist of a systematic review of the evidence to examine the degree to which the media representations: Criminology Dissertation, OBU, UK

This proposed study will consist of a systematic review of the evidence to examine the degree to which the media representations of terrorism results in increased reciprocal crimes committed against Muslims. There is a significant body of research indicating that such a link exists.

Using data provided by Greater Manchester Police, Ivandic et al provide an analysis of ten terror attacks and show that these immediately result in large spikes in Islamophobic hate crimes or incidents. This shows that even where the terrorist events take place in areas far from where the jihadi terror attacks occur, the local Muslim populations will face a likelihood of hate crime victimization owing to the significant attention given to such events in the news media.

Although these studies indicate that there is an association between the reporting of a terrorist attack perpetrated by a Muslim fundamentalist, there are some limitations in how this subject has been studied. Most studies have been identified that attribute the correlation of hate crimes with the incidence of terrorist crimes. There is less attempt to identify the quality of representation or the level of exposure of the media reports, and it does not take into account the cultural context in which the reciprocal action takes place.

Questions

• How far do media representations of terrorism affect the crime rate against Muslims?
• What cultural context or related factors mediate these trends?
• What theoretical framework identifying these causal factors can best explain these trends?