Police, the Media, and Public Attitudes (From Measuring What Matters: Proceedings From the Policing Research Institute Meetings, P 169-182, 1999, Robert H. Langworthy, ed. -- See NCJ-170610)

• NCJ Number: 179863
• Author(s): Aric Press; Andrew Benson
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 14 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Department of Justice
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/NCJRS; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article examines how the media influence the public's perception of the police and how police performance is and should be assessed.

Abstract

The article discusses the press and its work and the academic literature and its lessons. The news media have pervasive, unintended and unpredictable influences on public opinion. The steady stream of crime news from the media affects the public, so that they are more fearful about the risks of crime than they need to be and are more likely to demand punitive criminal justice policies to control crime. That is true even though the public generally understands the social causes of crime and supports programs to counteract them, despite the news media's avoidance of that portrayal of crime. These attitudes may have a positive effect on public attitudes toward police in that the public views the police as having a difficult job, being at the forefront of crime. As a way to address the negative effects of news media accounts, criminologists and journalists have called for more context in crime stories. This should lead criminologists and police administrators to provide more statistics and research data to the public through the news media, which would bring order to the seemingly unconnected series of crimes and violent acts emanating from television and newspapers. References