NCJ Number
156440
Date Published
1994
Length
290 pages
Annotation
This dissertation attempts to determine what ordinary Americans think about crime and its remedies, and the significance of the prominent place crime occupies in American public life.
Abstract
This study is informed by the constructionist approach to political discourse and public opinion. The approach rests on three basic assumptions: (1) Regular people should not be regarded as passive recipients of media messages, but as active assemblers of meaning; (2) Meaning construction through the work of framing occurs in various forms, including academic journals, the mass media, and everyday conversation, and these should be treated as discrete cultural systems each with its own norms and vocabularies and each deserving of study in its own right; and (3) Political conflicts on particular issues are fought out as symbolic contests between contesting frames. In the eight chapters of this study the author identifies the crime frames and discusses the study's discourse samples and methodology describes the frames' performances in the samples of popular and public discourse, and attempts to explain why certain frames performed well while others did not. The author suggests that three principles reducing the scope of the criminal justice system, reducing social and economic inequalities, and fostering community solidarity and empowerment must inform any serious effort to create a safer society. Footnotes, figures, tables, appendixes, bibliography