Constructing the Knife Crime Epidemic: A Corpus-Assisted Critical Study of the Media Reporting

这项拟议中的研究将揭示英国媒体如何操纵语言来构建一个扭曲的持刀犯罪形象，这种形象一直在塑造对年轻人和少数民族的污名化态度，并为惩罚性刑事司法政策提供支持。本研究采用语料库辅助的批评性话语研究方法，在一个具有代表性的媒体报道数据集中识别关键的框架策略。语言证据通过道德恐慌理论的透镜进行检查，以揭示媒体是如何影响公众和政治讨论的警务和犯罪立法，并建立边缘化的犯罪和标签的做法受影响的可起诉群体之间的关联。

The proposed research will reveal how the British media manipulate language to construct a distorted image of knife-enabled crime which has been shaping stigmatising attitudes towards young people and ethnic minorities, and generating support for punitive criminal justice policies. To identify key framing strategies in a representative dataset of media coverage, the research employs a Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Studies approach. Linguistic evidence is examined through the lens of Moral Panic Theory to uncover how the media is influencing public and political discussions on policing and crime legislation, and establishes marginalising associations between crime and vulnerablegroups affected by labelling practices.