NCJ Number
178960
Journal
Social Justice Volume: 24 Issue: 4 Dated: Winter 1997 Pages: 96-116
Date Published
1997
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article investigates the patterns and effects of media crime reporting.
Abstract
The article assesses how the media covered juvenile crime in Hawaii and the actual extent and nature of local juvenile crime during the years 1987-1996. There was a wide disparity between the output of youth crime-related articles and youth crime trends, as measured by arrest or self-report data. Efforts to construct local juvenile delinquency as purely “Little Monsters” or “Fallen Angels” social problems were largely unsuccessful, although both views staked a permanent claim in the media spotlight. In short, newspaper accounts of youth crime indicated that there was far more juvenile crime than in years past; and youth involved were either demonized thugs who must be incarcerated or blameless victims of circumstance who can be saved by particular high-profile programs. Absent from those media accounts were the complexities of life for youth in communities heavily affected by gangs and violence. Tables, figures, references