Learning About Crime - Conceptions of Crime and Law Enforcement as They Relate to Use of Television and Other Information Sources

• NCJ Number: 72052
• Author(s): S S McDonald
• Date Published: 1977
• Length: 262 pages
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: University of Pennsyvania - doctoral dissertation

Annotation

Results are reported from a study that examined, through intensive interviews with a quota sample of 40 white adults, the way in which television and other information sources (incliding direct experience) might shape respondents' impressions of crime and law enforcement.

Abstract

The sample consisted of 20 high school graduates and 20 college graduates, with each education grouping composed of 10 husband-wife pairs. The interview schedule consisted of questions on general media use; perceptions, beliefs, and anxieties about crime and law enforcement; sources of crime-related information, including relevant personal experience and discussion; and viewer assessments of television's realism, uses, and consequences. Level of education emerged as the single most important study variable. It was associated with lower television viewing, greater access to trend data relevant to crime, fewer 'TV responses' to cultivation items (i.e., a more statistically realistic assessment of violent crime incidence); and less frequent explicit mention of television to substantiate responses. Higher levels of education were also accompanied by more cynical assessments of television quality and authenticity. Viewers may be particularly susceptible to television effects when they can test and confirm to their satisfaction that a particular phenomenon viewed on television bears some relation to reality as experienced and the material at issue is complex and apparently technical, thus seeming to leave little room for dramatic manipulation or distortion. Future research might give attention to differences in respondents' neighborhoods as a predictor of community discussion and surveillance, more detailed and systematic differences in news use, and developmental comparisons across younger age categories or within a cohort over time to map relevant changes in conceptions and use of various sources. Tabular data and the interview schedule are appended, and an index and bibliography (60 references) are provided.