NCJ Number
126952
Date Published
1990
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study compares television robbery and murder victims on both prime-time programs and daytime "soap operas" between 1976 and 1981 with official estimates of real-life victimization for such crimes.
Abstract
For prime-time television, 3 television seasons were sampled over 5 years: 1976-77, 1978-79, and 1980-81. Sampling in the first two seasons was purposive, focusing on prime-time (8-11 p.m.) programs that dealt with either murder or robbery. In the third season, a complete or saturation sample for all prime-time programs on the three main commercial networks in November 1980 was completed. The content of each program was analyzed. Any person directly impacted by the crimes was classified as a victim. Where possible, the victim's gender, race, age, and social class were coded. To obtain data on "soap opera" murder and robbery victims, 315 "soap-opera" viewers were interviewed. Respondents provided details on 80 murders and 78 thefts, spread over an 8-year period. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports for murder, robbery, and other theft were used for official statistics. For both time periods, there was an overrepresentation of white, middle-class persons as victims; whereas, in real life the victims of murder and robbery are typically black and poor. Also, although real-life victims are usually young, their televised counterparts tended to be middle-aged. "Soap operas" consistently portrayed murder and robbery victims as female; the most common prime-time victim, until 1981, was male. These discrepancies between televised and real-life victimization suggest that television viewers are conditioned to a false sense of the risks of victimization based on victim demography. 3 tables and a 32-item bibliography