Media Representations of Crime

Crime and deviance make up a large proportion of news coverage.

___________________ (1993) found British newspapers devote up to ___ of their news space to crime

William and Dickinson

30%

The risk of becoming a victim to crime has fallen sharply in recent years. In 1995 the risk was ___ but by 2009 it had fallen to ___.

However perceptions of crime rates vary between people's characteristics; those who read _____________ are more likely to think that crime nationally has risen ‘a lot’

40%

22%

National tabloids

The media over-represent violent and sexual crime:

Ditton and Duffy (1983) suggest ___ of crime in the news is sexual or violent. In reality this only represents _________________

46%

3% of violent crime

The media portray criminals and victims as older and more middle class than ______________________________. Felson calls this the ‘age fallacy’

Those typically found in the criminal justice system

Media coverage exaggerates polic success in clearing up cases. Partly because the police are a __________________ and want to present themselves in a good light and partly because of the over representation of ___________

Major source of crime stories

Violent crimes

The media exaggerates the risk of victimisation, especially to women,…

Crime is reported as a series of separate events without structure and without examining…

White people and higher status individuals

Underlying causes

The media overplay extra-ordinary crimes and underplay ordinary crimes - …

Nelson calls this ‘dramatic fallacy’