NCJ Number
208306
Journal
Journal of Crime & Justice Volume: 27 Issue: 2 Dated: 2004 Pages: 79-99
Date Published
2004
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study builds on prior research in developing a systematic and comprehensive analysis of racial presentations of crime perpetrators and victims in local television news crime stories.
Abstract
The significance of this issue is the findings from previous research that images of criminality presented by the media perpetuate stereotypes of the "Black criminal." Research has consistently found that the majority of the public's knowledge about crime and justice comes from the media. Research has also found that the news and entertainment media distort or present erroneous images of crime and justice, such that the media aids in the creation and perpetuation of crime myths and false beliefs about the nature and characteristics of crime and justice. The current study used stratified sampling to obtain 400 30-minute episodes from 4 media markets (100 from each market). Content analysis was conducted on 400 episodes, which consisted of 1,042 crime stories. The dependent, or outcome variable, was the presentation of race. The predictor variables included manifest variables (country of newscast, market, size, lead story, live story, length of story, interview, number of interviews, stage of crime, type of crime, reporting of firearm, suspect in handcuffs, and mugshot of suspect) and latent variables (reporting of motive, proactive police response, and presentation of fear, outrage/sympathy, and/or sensationalism). The study found the story characteristics influenced the presentation of race for the victim and the suspect. Further, the reporting of a motive and the presentation of outrage/sympathy predicted the victim's race, and the handcuff presentation predicted the suspect's race. The media has a tendency to focus on violent crime and the explanations of crime are arguably based on racial stereotypes. 2 tables and 60 references