REPRESENTATIONS OF THE INNOCENT AND THE GUILTY.

THE ARGUMENT THAT REPRESENTATIONS ARE CREATED BY THE POWERFUL

APRIL 26, 2016 RIO TAYLOR

U1352996

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Representations of the innocent and the guilty.

The innocent and the guilty are complex labels, even though the distinction to

some are as simple as black and white. This assignment will explore the relationship

of these concepts in detail whilst analysing how they are represented. Theory and

philosophy of representations will be reviewed for a basis for the understanding of

the innocent and the guilty. The argument that those in power create these two

categories that will be explored along with crime as a construction. The media’s role

to play in the representations of the innocent and guilty will be reviewed. Then, the

specific case of Steven Avery will be used as a boundary object to illustrate. The

innocent and guilty then will be analysed in the context of heroes and villains.

The philosophy and theory that this assignment is built upon the argument

that there is no ‘unmediated access to reality’. Contemporary society is socially

constructed and is based on what is seen as consensual truths. Moscovici (1963)

expands on this explaining in society is assembled on social representations. These

representations Moscovici mentions are ideas, values and beliefs that allow us to

communicate and act in an appropriate manner. Throughout this assignment the

questions: whose interest are these representations in favour of; and who and how

are they formed will be asked and answered. When relating these representations to

the innocent and the guilty there are ethical and real life consequences, which will be

analysed further on.

The argument of the powerful creating the innocent and the guilty is a strong

one, it can be illustrated with the rich and those in government or within religion.

Pinker (2003) claims that individuals tacitly act like these realities exist such as laws

and the morals of right and wrong. This correlates to historical and specific cultural

periods. An example of this is with the rich and the politicians. These groups of

people have great influence on what is seen as deviant and who is guilty of crimes.

An instance of this is drug taking: If the drug is medicalised by those in power,

examples being morphine or paracetamol, an innocence is attached to the individual

of being sick.

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On the other hand, if an individual freely chooses to use heroin or cocaine an

instant stereotypical image of a guilty person comes forward, associated with being

extremely thin, pale and someone who probably steals. Those in power chose what

drug fits what category as it regularly changes, for example the argument on

cannabis currently. The interest in legalising cannabis was that it would bring in large

amount of revenue estimated at £1.25 million per year in addition to save money on

costs of courts and police. (Hopkins, 2015) This demonstrates that the idea of the

guilty and innocent is not fixed when it comes to law due to a judge who is of the elite

chooses. This is one example of how the powerful create the innocent and the guilty.

A recent example of this is a CEO in America, Shkreli, brought a medical drug

that is used for conditions such as Aids, malaria and is used after chemotherapy.

(Buncombe, 2015) After the drug was brought Shkreli raised the price by 5,000%,

which individuals in America have to pay themselves, due to the lack of National

Health Service. This to the public appeared as a man guilty of taking advantage of

the vulnerable. There was public uproar, for example petitions and heat on social

media. Politicians in America however argued that this his choice and he was

innocent. This demonstrates that the powerful can manipulate situations to benefit

themselves. Shkreli prevents individuals being able to afford necessary medication

but, as he is in a powerful position, he is not given the stigma of a drug dealer with

extortionate prices. The example of Shkreli demonstrates that the powerful can

manipulate the labels of the innocent and the guilty, in addition to illustrating the

power people can have.

The powerful group that creates the representations of the innocent and the

guilty have varied throughout history and from culture to culture. Historically, the

select few who had religious power once controlled what was innocent and what was

guilty. Not only were you represented as guilty in your peer’s eyes but in God’s eyes

too. The terminology used played a role in labelling individuals righteous instead of

innocent. Examples of this are demonstrated throughout history and cultures. One

being abortions many cultures view the mother as guilty if an abortion is carried out.

This is reflected in some laws, such as in El Salvador where Christianity, specifically

Catholicism, is still dominant. ("El Salvador's total ban on abortion: the facts", 2015).

When citizens were publically surveyed, the majority felt women were guilty if she

chooses to have an abortion no matter what the situation is. This can undermine the

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argument that the powerful decide who is guilty and who is innocent. The point that

individuals in society see the world have we have been told or shown too. (Gee,

2015) Therefore the powerful still create the concept of who is guilty and who is

innocent.

If crime is created by the powerful, it therefore suggests that crime is a

construction. Thorn states “acts are not intrinsically criminal, acts become

understood and labelled as criminal by an actor who is capable of making such

societally-wide statements” (Thorn, 2014, p.11). This supports the argument that

representations are created, as the label criminal is allocated to the individual. Thorn

explains the most common actor in this role is the government, suggesting the

powerful are the ones who create this given labels. The level of the criminal label

therefore reflects the reaction others gave to the act.

Acts that are considered a crime also vary, supporting the notion that crime is

socially constructed. An example of this is taking another person’s life. This act is

often labelled criminal and has been for centuries, it even states it as wrong in the

Bible, and there are laws against it in society. If this act is universally criminal, then

only criminals would kill. This is not the case, as killing is condoned as capital

punishment.

This image (CBS Interactive Inc, 1962) illustrates

that killing is not always perceived as wrong.

Images similar to this were used repeatedly in the

war, promoting killing and taking another’s life.

Soldiers have killed swerves of people but are

rarely labelled guilty. Instead in world war one

soldiers were killed for being deserters if they

refused to kill the enemy. (Winter, 1979) This is a

double standard as when taking another person’s

life, such as in war, is in the powerful favour it is

conceived as the morally right thing to do. This

went to the extreme that individuals were praised, given medal and labelled heroes

for taking another life. This suggests that killing another person is only correct if the

powerful have labelled the murdered as guilty.

(CBS Interactive Inc, 1962)

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Media are immensely influential and play a role in the representations of the

innocent and the guilty. There are many explanations to the media role, whether they

construct society or reflect society. Media have a power to change and even distort

people’s opinions, this will be demonstrated later in the context of Steven Avery.

To understand the media’s role in representing the innocent and guilty

Marshall McLuhan (2013) work can be applied. McLuhan’s work follows the theme of

this discussion that there is no unmediated

access to reality, instead there is

something between reality and individuals

in society. Media according to McLuhan is

a medium in this expanding our views on

subjects such as our interpretations of the

innocent and guilty. This is taken one step

further that individuals in society are both

receivers and transmitters therefore media

becomes part of people and people

become part of the media process.

Consequently, individuals can become

dazed. Therefore, media does not

construct or reflect society instead it is an

interaction between both. Inequality can

arise based on power. Media buy and sell

individuals in society everyday causing the power imbalance that creates the

representations of the innocent and guilty.

McLuhan (2013) work is illustrated in society every day. One example of this

is with gossip magazines, which buy people’s views and stories re-present them and

sell them on to the public. The image on the left is an example of this. (Talk to the

Press, 2014) This magazine brought an individual’s story and re-presented the

piece. They specially chose words such as evil to label this man no one has met as

guilty. This demonstrates how the media can put images into people’s heads as well

as creating the image of a guilty man even though we know nothing about this man

apart from what we have been told by the magazine that is trying to sell copies. This

can cause ethical problems as the man was arrested, rightly or wrongly, and is now

(Talk to the Press, 2014)

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consequently serving time in prison. This harmful representation of guilty by the

media had real life implications. Media clearly have power in this example but should

they use it in this way which can destroy people’s life’s, by representing someone as

guilty. This is especially problematic if people are innocent to the story they are

selling and more needs to be done to investigate and monitor this.

The media are a powerful group as

explained therefore can create representations

of the innocent and guilty. The media prefer to

represent individuals as guilty rather than

innocent, a reason for this could be that it sells

more when someone/thing is represented as

guilty rather than innocent. Yet when children

are represented in the media they are usually

presented as innocent. This is illustrated in the

image to the right were a child has been

labelled as innocent due to the conditions in

Syria. (van Tets, 2014) This is an obvious

label as innocent as it states it in black and

white, but to represent this person as innocent

the paper has also presented a group as guilty, even if it is not stated. This suggests

we cannot have innocent without having a guilty party.

If a child who is represented as innocent, then gets represented as guilty by

the powerful it is then a double jeopardy. This can be seen with the Thompson and

Venables case that shocked the world. These two individuals

were considered and represented as two of the worst people

society. Due to the moral panic fuelled by the medias

representations of them these children were treated as adults

and changed how the criminal justice system treated children.

This further demonstrates the implications of the powerful

creating representations of innocent and guilty.

(van Tets, 2014)

o (MGN Limited, 2016)

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This case also demonstrated how difficult it was to remove this representation

of guilty created by the powerful. The media’s power

was shown when Venables and Thompson got

released, with the media attempting to ensure the

representations they had created did not vanish. The

idea of having served their time was simply not

considered by the media, and they were instead

punished or put on ‘trial’ by the media. This can be

problematic as self-fulfilling prophecies can emerge.

It is unclear whether this was what caused the offending

however the media’s role has to be taken into account. This is because the media

influenced how the boys were treated, as everyone in the criminal justice system

knew how high the stakes were, having consequence’s- on how they were treated in

prison and throughout the criminal justice system. The media also influenced how

the public saw them and this continues today thus supporting the argument that the

powerful, such as the media, create the representations of the innocent and guilty.

This idea of representation of the innocent and guilty being created by the

powerful are a current phenomenon in the US and UK, due to the documentary

series Making a Murderer. Steven Avery, who the series focus on, has been

represented as innocent or guilty numerous times by those in power, varying from

the media, criminal justice system, politics

and police. Due to this Steven Avery has

become a boundary object. The trailer on

making a murder outlines the documentary

https://youtu.be/qxgbdYaR_KQ that led to

the fasciation of those in power creating

the guilt. (Netflix US & Canada, 2015)

Starting at the beginning of this case study, Steven Avery was first

represented as guilty in 1985, due to a cousin/neighbour, Sandra Murphy, claiming

he was not normal, therefore must be guilty of raping Penny Beerntsen in

Manitowoc, Wisconsin. (Ricciardi & Demos, 2015) To most this would seem quite a

MGN Limited, 2016

(Netflix US & Canada, 2015)

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leap, but Avery’s neighbor had power as she was married to the deputy sheriff of the

time and she had huge influence over Avery’s arrest. Sandra Murphy representing

Steven Avery as guilty, because he did not fit her ideals or norms, had

consequences on how everyone else viewed Avery due to Murphy’s powerful

position. It is unclear what exactly Avery did to Murphy, as in follow up interviews she

stated she did not recall any of her previous claims about Avery’s behaviour and

personality.

Murphy actions had the power to influence how Avery was represented. To

illustrate this the day Penny Beerntsen was raped Avery had 16 witnesses and

receipts a mile away for the time of the assault. (Steven Avery Case, n.d.) Avery did

also not fit the description of the suspect. In most legal investigation witnesses and

receipts would result in you being acquitted due to the time stamping however as

Avery was already represented as guilty his alibi was not trusted and disregarded.

The consequence of these representations of Avery resulted in him being sentenced

to 49 years in prison. (Sherrer & Justice Denied, 2016) This demonstrates that the

powerful influenced further representations of Avery suggesting they are created.

Avery remained his innocence throughout his time in prison. Avery’s parents

believed he was innocent and helped write to numerous Charites and lawyer to get

his conviction overturned. This was difficult as the it was a high profile case and

many believed Avery was guilty due to the publicity of the trail. The innocence

project finally accepted Avery’s case in 2002 requesting a court order on DNA.

(Innocence Project, 2016). After 18 years in prison Avery was found not guilty and

represented as innocent. The media loved this story of an innocent man being a

victim of labels falsely created. This video demonstrates how popular this story was

at the time to make sure everyone knew Avery was innocent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsGU0oGGCTU (NBC 26, 2016).

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Due to Avery’s conviction,

the media have removed the

majority of their coverage from this

time. This demonstrates that it

does not matter what the powerful

group represents someone as, as

they remain in flux to suit an

agenda. It is during this Avery

becomes a boundary object. This

is where the theory of the visible and invisible is applied. The boundary objects such

as Avery are seen but unseen including how he is represented to us. To illustrate the

powerful forces that create his representations are generally unseen but they can be

visible more in printed media. Stepping beyond the invisibility, it changes how you

are seen and represented and this can switch. This is a boundary object. Steven

Avery is a boundary object as he switches between innocent and guilty numerous

times.

When Avery is being represented as innocent, a legal battle is ongoing. High

media coverage fuels this moral panic suggesting that Avery has enlightened the

public on the corruption that goes on within the police, the group with the power.

Lawyers and the media used the representations of Avery as innocent to pass the

“Avery Bill”, or later renamed “Criminal Justice Reforms Package” (Griesbach, 2016).

Avery was also suing the state of Wisconsin due to how Manitowoc country treated

him due to their representation of him being guilty. Greisbach (2016) a prosecutor

that was involved in Avery exoneration explained that Denise Vogel in charge of

Manitowoc country police department at the time was not shocked that Avery was

not the killer, suggesting that they just wanted Avery away because they saw him as

guilty and it was irrelevant how that was done.

(Reiher, 2016)

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While Avery’s $36M lawsuit was

examining Wisconsin police department, they

felt panic and felt the needed to diffuse the

situation. In the investigation it was stated

that they did not like Avery and he belonged

behind bars. (Ricciardi & Demos, 2015) This

demonstrated that Manitowoc County police

department needed to shift the power

balance to change the representations of

who was the innocent party and who was the guilty party. In the first episode of this

documentary this is seen in an interview with a Cousin of Avery how states ‘they

might even frame murder on you’ (Ricciardi & Demos, 2015). This demonstrates how

fragile having power over the representations of innocent and guilty are. Because the

balance shifts here due to the pressure. What happens next also demonstrates what

the once powerful group can do when under threat.

The next chapter of Avery’s life had taken an even darker turn when Teresa

Halbach goes missing. The investigation once again focused on Avery from the very

first second Halbach was reported missing, due to the police’s tainted representation

of Avery (Griesbach, 2016). It did not matter that Teresa was being harassed by her

ex-boyfriend, or that her flat-mate and her brother showed concerning behaviour just

before she was reported. Yet they were not considered suspects. This demonstrates

a couple of things; that once you have a representation it does not always change

even if the evidence is stalked against it; it also demonstrates how representations

can impact a person’s life. This is not to say Avery did or did not commit this second

crime, it is merely a demonstration as to how he was represented in this situation.

From the Manitowoc police’s perspective this crime was tragic, but also a

godsend they could also finally investigate a guilty Avery once again. (Ricciardi &

Demos, 2015) This is demonstrated throughout the investigation, for example the

Averys owned vast amount of land for waste cars and more. When Halbach went

missing his land was searched due to his representation of guilty. The car was found

on Avery’s land however this does not been he killed the women as a body was not

found yet. Also in court a clip was shown suggesting the car was planted there by

the police. This is shown in the Making a Murderer documentary and the link is a clip

(Ricciardi & Demos, 2015)

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that suggests they tailored evidence to fit Avery as the killer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ9M9xjF_LI (RA: MakingAMurderer, 2016).

This is just one of the example the police used their powerful position to make the

evidence fit the guilty representation of Steven Avery.

While all this was going on, Netflix were filming and making their documentary

to the world. This aimed to represent Steven Avery as an innocent victim of the

people in power. This has got a lot of criticism for doing so as many of the public

have sided with Avery and believe he is innocent. (Victor, 2016) Netflix had power in

this instance in how they represented Avery. This cause thousands of fans of the

show to create a petition calling for Avery to be exonerating or for a new trail, wi th

526,139 signatures (Seyedian, 2016). In this it was demonstrated the Netflix succeed

in representing Avery as innocent.

Netflix used their power to change how Avery was presented to world as

before the documentary peers, in the form of a jury, found him guilty of the second

crime. This was not the case at the beginning of the trail, as one juror, who was

excused the day before the verdicts were made, explained that at the beginning of

the trail the jury was split. (TODAY’S TMJ 4, 2016) This is

because this case was near impossible to avoid in

America so people either believed the representation by

the police that Avery was guilty and the other that he was

innocent and another victim. In the Today’s TMJ 4

interview with the juror it is explained that the verdict came

from a situation of pressure that aided the non-guilty

representation of Avery, as one juror was related to a

police officer involved with Avery and had considerable

power over the other jurors. This may seem unethical but

nothing in the Avery example was followed by the book in

addition to ethical conations to the powerful constructing the guilty and innocent.

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In this case the jury had great power in how Steven Avery was presented after

the verdict. He was guilty as the jury presented him as a murderer. The media

jumped on this and fueled the fire with national news carrying it. The image to the left

illustrated this. Avery was then viewed by the world as a guilty murderer. His

previous label of innocent was overturned quickly new to the new representation that

was created. Avery was then perceived as guilty by many for years due to this label.

Yet like before Avery is standing by his claim of being innocent and is not settling or

conforming to the representation assigned to him by the powerful. To illustrate this

Avery is studying law every day in prison in hope to get his conviction over turned.

This is different to most cases where representations of innocent and guilty are

assigned to individuals, as it normally becomes a self-fulling prophecy. For example,

when a young male is labelled delinquent they normally internalized this label and

commit further crimes as it becomes their identity. This is not the case with Steven

Avery and might be one reason why he is a boundary object.

After Avery was sentenced his representation that was created remained as

guilty, until the Netflix documentary aired in December (Ricciardi & Demos, 2015).

This case of the powerful unethical using their power to create representations took

the world by storm being one of the most

watched documentary’s ever. This series also

shifted once again how Avery was

represented with people believing he was

once again a victim of the power created a

guilty representation. Steven Avery was once

again presented as innocent. This idea of

Avery being innocent can see be seen all over

social media, as the screenshot of the twitter

search demonstrates. (Twitter, 2016)

(Twitter, 2016)

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Trying to understand what shifted the representation of guilty to innocent

tends to fall on one aspect of the documentary and trail. This is the sudden

appearance of Teresa Halbach’s key. This is

seen in the image to the left which was used in

evidence in Avery’s trail (TORRES, LOUSZKO,

Effron, & NEWMAN, 2016). This key was not

present in the first number of searches it was

then suddenly found by the police officer,

Colborn who was under investigation due to the

Avery’s false conviction. Colborn almost lost his

job due to part in making sure Avery stayed in

prison. When Halbach was murdered he was told not to partake in the investigation

but was involved anyway. Then after several searches Colborn found this key, after

Avery had been arrested and been in county jail, which had previously not been

there. This suggests viewers undermined the representation the verdict gave of

guilty as there was no logic in the evidence as well as clear ethical violations.

Therefore, it the powerful group is shown as dishonorable the representations are

not taken aboard.

To overview Avery’s case his representation of guilty and innocent have

regularly changed. This depended on who had the power in each chapter of his life,

demonstrating the representations of innocent and guilty are created by those in

power. Avery’s representation is currently under another change as Wisconsin

government complained that the media, especially Netflix, showed a biased portrayal

of Avery as innocent and now Netflix are doing a second series on Avery assigning

him as guilty. It will be interesting if the public perception of Avery changes again and

research could be done in this area.

In conclusion the representations of the guilty and the innocent are created by

those in power.

(TORRES, LOUSZKO, Effron, & NEWMAN, 2016)

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