NCJ Number
86574
Date Published
1978
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This analysis of five media crime prevention campaigns, deemed to range in effectiveness from superior, to average, to poor, derives principles for the structure and content of successful media crime prevention campaigns.
Abstract
Criteria for campaign success were based on favorable evaluation data where they existed as well as the judgments of experts in the crime prevention field. After selecting the campaign sites, the principals involved were interviewed to determine details of strategy, structure, implementation, and evaluation. The researchers examined the content of the materials used in the campaigns, with attention to their themes, appeals, and demands. The study found that the media are most apt to be effective in creating the awareness of and in contributing to knowledge about crime prevention, but they are least apt to be effective in changing citizen behavior. Face-to-face communications were found to be most effective in persuading people to act; mass communications can be an adjunct to personal influence but not a substitute for it. If highly emotional appeals such as fear are used to motivate audiences, they must be tempered with reassurances that the consequences referred to either can be avoided or controlled successfully. Demands must be reasonable and capable of being implemented by the average person. Finally, demands must have a high possibility of producing the promised results if they are obeyed.