NCJ Number
189687
Date Published
July 2000
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper examined sources of information and connections posited between drugs and crime, as well as type of newspaper and type of drugs and crime referred to in newspaper articles from 1995 to 1998.
Abstract
In modern society, the media provide important sources of information about matters that apply to social deviance, including drugs and crime. How the media reports drugs and crime has a great impact on public debate and on policy decisions related to drugs and crime. There has also been substantial criticism on the way in which the media reports on drugs and crime. However, in Australia, there have been few systematic empirical studies of the media’s portrayal of drugs and crime. This paper attempted to address this lack of knowledge and examined a sample of print media reporting on drugs and crime from 1995 to 1998. The paper focused on sources used by the media, the types of drugs covered, and the connection posited in media reporting between drugs and non-drug criminality. The following trends were observed on how drugs and crime were perceived and represented in the media: (1) a number of feature articles and editorial and opinion columns devoted to drugs and crime had increased; (2) coverage of drugs and crime increased in regional newspapers; (3) the proportion of articles that drew on research have increased; (4) the papers became less likely to report drug trafficking and associated criminality and more likely to report “economic-compulsive” property crime by individual drug users, specifically heroin as the problem drug; and (5) increased attention to heroin in the major quality dailies appeared to have reduced differences between them and the other daily newspapers in the coverage of drugs and crime, in terms of levels of coverage and depiction of the drug-crime link. Tables, graphs, and references