Citizens' Reactions to a National Crime Prevention Campaign Campaign Utilization Study (From Mass Communication Strategy for Generating Citizen Action Against Crime - See NCJ-86573)

• NCJ Number: 86580
• Author(s): H Mendelsohn
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 26 pages
• Grant Number(s): 78-NI-AX-0105
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Corporate Author: University of Denver
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Available on microfiche as NCJ-86580

Annotation

This report provides questionnaire responses from 67 crime prevention groups regarding their use of and the effectiveness of the 'Take a Bite out of Crime' crime prevention campaign approach.

Abstract

The campaign received 'moderate local play' in 32 of the communities, while 26 communities received 'hardly any local play.' The campaign received the most local media exposure in television, while the least exposure was in local newspapers. Thirty-four of the agencies used the program 'to a fair degree,' while only 12 used it 'to a great degree' and 16 'not at all.' Forty-six of the agencies have used the campaign literature as part of their own ongoing crime prevention activities. Fifteen of the agencies indicated that the 'crime dog' campaign has been very useful to the agency, while 24 indicated it was fairly useful, and 25 stated it was hardly useful at all. 'Mostly favorable' personal reactions to the campaign were reported by 45 agencies, and 17 were neutral. Thirty-one agencies reported they did not know whether the public's reaction to the campaign had been favorable or unfavorable, while 19 indicated public reaction to be mostly favorable. Overall, 20 agencies considered the campaign to be 'fairly effective,' while 17 considered it 'hardly effective at all' and 22 did not know. Responses to the open-ended questions are provided.