FIVE:
News media have undoubtedly played a role in sustaining over 50 years of mass incarceration in the United States. It is hard to deny that news media—the public’s primary source of crime information—have shaped public perceptions about who commits crime, the extent of the crime problem, and what we should do about it. Amidst a historic crime drop, the majority of Americans continued to believe that crime has been increasing in spite of voluminous evidence to the contrary. Starting in the early 1990s, over the course of three decades, crime rates fell across the nation by roughly 50 percent. While there was an increase in homicide rates during the social upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, these have now begun to decline and overall property crime rates have remained low. Yet, counter to this reality many Americans feel our criminal legal system is not tough enough on crime and continue to call for more policing. Contributing to public misperceptions about crime are news media headlines and corresponding stories that too often fail to offer context and nuance.
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Best, J. (2012) Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from The Media, Politicians, and Activists. University of California Press.
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Bogert, C. and Hancock, L. (2020) Analysis: How the media created a ‘superpredator’ myth that harmed a generation of Black youth. NBC News, [online] November 20. Available from: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/analysis-how-media-created-superpredator-myth-harmed-generation-black-youth-n1248101
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Dorfman, L. and Schiraldi, V. (2001) Off Balance: Youth, Race, & Crime in The News. Youth Law Center. Available from: https://www.bmsg.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/04/bmsg_other_publication_off_balance.pdf
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Ghandnoosh, N. (2022) Media Guide: 10 Crime Coverage Dos and Don’ts. The Sentencing Project. Available from: https://www.sentencingproject.org/app/uploads/2022/08/10-Crime-Coverage-Dos-and-Donts.pdf
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McBride, K. (2023) Local newsrooms want to stop sensationalizing crime, but it’s hard. Pynter. Available from: https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2023/journalists-if-it-bleeds-it-leads-accountability-reporting/#:~:text=The%20first%20step%20is%20to,to%20the%20modest%20traffic%20spikes
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Otero, V. (2023) The Media Bias Chart, Version 11.0. Available from: https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/?utm_source=LI_VO81523
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Shaw, M. (2017) Photos reveal media’s softer tone on opioid crisis. Columbia Journalism Review. Available from: https://www.cjr.org/criticism/opioid-crisis-photos.php?link
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Stone-Mediatore, S. (n.d.) Tough questions for tough-on-crime policies. Ohio Wesleyan University. Available from: https://www.owu.edu/news-media/from-our-perspective/tough-questions-for-tough-on-crime-policies/
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