Abstract

An irrelevant mass media is a disempowered mass media if judges lack trust and respect in its’ coverage and content. To reveal the level of impact from media reporting this research examined the lower Court theft sentencing practices of 12 Danish and 12 English judges. Their perceptions of the media influence were qualitatively compared. This revealed that there was a similar Danish and English judicial reaction to the media. The media was predominantly negatively perceived as having a low influence due to being biased and misinformed. However, judicial trust in academic and government sources was predominantly positively received. These two trusted media sources should be focused upon when developing future English sentencing guidance tools, i.e.) sentencing guidelines, legislation, theft case law and judicial training. This can then beneficially boost the relevance of the mass media and thus re-empower its’ positive influence on the wider sentencing community.

Available Versions of this Item

• “An irrelevant mass media? – Comparing the perceptions of English and Danish lower Court judges when sentencing theft offenders.”. (deposited 22 Sep 2010 16:41) [Currently Displayed]
  • An irrelevant media when sentencing? – Comparing the perceptions of English and Danish lower Court judges when sentencing theft offenders. (deposited 31 Jan 2011 13:57)

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