dorfman off balance youth, race & crime in the news

8/6/2019 DORFMAN Off Balance Youth, Race & Crime in the News

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OFF BALANCE:

YOUTH, RACE & CRIMEINTHE NEWS

For a fair and effective

youth justice system

Prepared by

Lori Dorfman, DrPH

Berkeley Media Studies Group,

Public Health Institute

Vincent Schiraldi,

Justice Policy Institute

April 2001


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OFF BALANCE:

YOUTH, RACE & CRIMEINTHE NEWS

www.buildingblocksforyouth.org

This is the fourth in an ongoing ser ies of analyses publ ished by Building Blocks for Youth, a

mu lti-organ izat ional initiative whos e goal is to promote a fair an d effective ju venile jus tice system .

In J anu ary , 2000 , Building Blocks issu ed its first report, The Color of J u stice which foun d th at

youth of color in California were more than eight times as likely to be incarcerated by adult

courts as White youth, for equally serious crimes. Building Blocks comprehensive nat ional

stu dy, And J u stice for Some, reported th at yout h of color are trea ted m ore severely than White

youth at ea ch s tage of the jus t ice system, even when charged with the s am e offenses . In October ,

2000 Building Blocks th ird report, Yout h Crim e, Adu lt Time an in-dept h s tu dy of youth

prosecuted a s a du lts in 18 of the largest jur isdict ions in th e count ry, foun d ra cial dispari t ies

s imilar to the ear l ier reports , and r aised ser ious concern s a bout th e fairness a nd appropriateness

of the process.

The initiative h as five m ajor componen ts:

(1) Research on th e dispara te impa ct of th e justice system on minority youth , on th e effects of new

adu lt-court tran sfer legislation in the sta tes, a nd on t he privatization of ju venile ju stice facilities

by for-profit corporations;

(2) Ana lyses of decisionma king at critical points in th e just ice system , including ar rest, d etention,

adjudication, and disposition;

(3) Di rec t advocacy on beha l f o f you th in the jus t ice sys tem, par t i cu la r ly on i s sues tha t

disproportionately affect you th of color su ch a s con ditions of confinemen t in jails, pr isons, a nd

juvenile facilities; access to coun sel an d a dequa cy of represen tation in juvenile cou rt; an d "zero

tolerance" an d other issu es relat ing to sch ool sus pensions a nd expu lsions;

(4) Cons tituen cy-bu ilding am ong African-American , Latino, an d Native-American an d other minority

organizations, as well as organizations in the medical, mental health, legal, law enforcement,

child welfare, civil right s, h u ma n rights , religious , victim's rights, an d domest ic violence area s, a t

the n ational, stat e, an d local levels;

(5) Developm ent of comm u nications str ategies to provide timely, accura te, an d relevan t inform ation

to thes e constitu encies, pu blic officials, policymakers , the m edia, and th e pu blic.

The p artn ers in the initiative are t he Youth Law Center, American Bar Association J u venile J u stice

Center , Center on J u veni le an d Crimina l J u st ice , J u veni le Law Center , Minori t ies in Law

Enforcement, National Coun cil on Crime a nd Delinquen cy and Pretrial Services Resour ce Center.

The initiative is s u pported by th e federal Office of Ju venile J u stice an d Delinquen cy Prevention

an d th e Bur eau of J u stice Ass istan ce, the Ann ie E. Cas ey, Ford, Mott, MacArth u r, Rockefeller an d

William T. Grant foundations, and the Center on Crime, Communities & Culture of the Open

Society Ins titute. This p roject was s u pported b y award No. 98-J N-FX-K003 award ed by th e Office

of J u venile J u stice and Delinqu ency Prevention, Office of J u stice Programs , U.S. Depart men t of

J u stice. Points of view or opinions in th is docu men t are th ose of the au thors a nd d o not necessarily

repres ent t he official position or policies of the U.S. Depar tm ent of J u stice or the s u pporting

foundat ions.
http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/


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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 3

INTRODUCTION

Race and the Juvenile Justice System

In J anu ary 2000 , the Building Blocks for

Youth in itiative issu ed its firs t r eport, Th e

Color of Justice , which foun d th at you th of

color in Californ ia were more th an eight

times as likely to be incarcerated by adult

cou rts as White you th for equa lly serious

crimes.1Build ing Block s comp reh ens ive

na t ional s tu dy, And Ju stice for Som e ,

reported th at youth of color are trea ted

more s everely than White youth at ea ch

stage of the justice system, even whencha rged with th e sa me offens es.2 In

October, 2000 , Build ing Block s third

report , Youth Crim e, Ad ult Tim e , an in-

depth s tud y of youth prosecu ted as adu lts

in 18 of the largest jurisdictions in the

cou n try, foun d racial dispa rit ies s imilar to

th e earlier reports , an d ra ised s erious

concern s abou t the fa i rness an d

app ropriaten ess of th e process. 3

Thes e reports h ave built u pon a growin gbody of research sh owing th at youth of

color receive disparate treatment in

Am ericas juvenile jus tice system . In th e

m ost r ecent r eporting to th e Office of

J u venile J u s t ice and Delinqu ency

Prevention of th e US Depart men t of

J u stice, every sta te bu t one tha t reported

dat a foun d disproportiona te confin emen t

of m inority you th .4 More th an two-thirds

of you th s con fin ed in Am erica are m in ority

you th , even th ough m inorit ies ma ke up

only abou t on e-third of Am ericas you th

population.

In a seminal meta-analysis conducted by

research ers Carl Pope and Richa rd

Feyerh erm , two-th irds of th e carefully

con stru cted stu dies of sta te an d local

juvenile ju st ice system s t h ey an alyzed

fou n d th at t h ere was a ra ce effect at

som e sta ge of th e ju venile ju st ice process

th at affected ou tcomes for m in orities for

th e worse.5 Their research suggested thatthe effects of race may be felt at various

decision points, they may be direct or

indirect , and they may accum u late as

you th continu e throu gh the system. They

suggest that the race effect in the juvenile

ju stice system m ay be more comm on th an

in th e adu lt sys tem.

Th ere is evidence th at st ereotypin g is

affecting th e treat men t youn g people

experience a t th e ha nd s of th e ju venile

jus tice syst em. According to a 19 98

analysis by University of Washington

researchers, court reports prepared prior

to sen ten cin g by proba tion officers

cons istent ly give m ore n egative port ra yals

of Black you th even when contr ollin g for

offens e beh avior an d p rior record, th u s

leading to harsher sentencing

recom men dat ions for Blacks .6 Professor

George Bridges conclu ded t h at Th echildren wou ld be cha rged with the s am e

cr ime, be the sam e age and h ave the sam e

criminal history, but the different ways

th ey were described was ju st s h ocking.

More Fear, Less Crime, Fear of Minority

Crime

Despite sh arp declines in youth crime, th e

pu blic express es grea t fear of its own

you n g people. Althou gh violen t crime by

you th in 1998 was a t i ts lowest poin t in

th e 25-year h istory of th e Nationa l Crime

Victimization Survey7, 62 % of poll

respon dents felt th at ju venile crim e was

on the increase.8 In th e 1998 / 99 school

year, there was less th an a one-in-two-

m illion cha n ce of being killed in a sch ool


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Off Ba la nce4

in America, yet 71% of respondents to an

NBC/Wall Street Journa l poll felt that a

sch ool sh ootin g was likely in th eir

community. Despite a 40% decline in

school associated violent deaths between1998 a nd 1 999 an d declines in o ther

area s of you th violence, respond ents to a

USA Toda y poll were 4 9% m ore likely to

express fear of th eir sch ools in 1 999 th an

in 1 998. 9

This r espons e is n ot simply an art ifact of

h igh ly pu blicized s ch ool sh ootin gs. A 19 96

CBS/New York T im es poll, tak en p rior to

an y of th e h igh ly pu blicized s ch ool

sh ootin gs, sh owed tha t 84% of

res pon den ts b elieved juvenile crim e was

on the increase. In a 1996 California poll,

60% of respondents reported believing

that juveniles were responsible for most

violent crime, when youths were actually

res pon sible for ab out 13 % of violen t crime

th at year.10

In an environm ent in which fear of you th

crime a nd actu al crime a re so out of sync,policies a ffectin g youn g people are b ou n d

to be influ enced. Since 1992, 4 7 s tates

ha ve m ade th eir juvenile justice systems

m ore pu n itive by eroding con fiden tiality

protections or ma king it eas ier to try

juveniles as adults. For example, crime by

you th fell more du rin g the 19 80s a n d

199 0s th an ad u lt crime in Ca liforn ia, yet

Californ ia voters overwhelmin gly pa ss ed

proposit ion 21 in 2 000, requ irin g that

you th a s you n g as a ge 14 be au toma ticallytr ied a s adu lts for certain offens es.11 In

one es t ima te , more tha n 2 00,000 you ths

were prosecuted in a du lt court in Am erica

in 1 998. 12 Some of the policy changes may

ha ve been in r espons e to th e ju mp in

ju ven ile h omicides with gu n s from th e

m id-19 80 s to th e early 19 90s bu t other

categories of juvenile crime did not

increase du r ing tha t per iod, and th e

public had unrealist ic perceptions about

crime long before those increases.

At th e sa me t ime a s Am erican s a re fearful

of you th crime, th ey are m ore likely to

exaggera te th e th reat of victimization b y

m inorities. Twice as m an y Wh ite

Am ericans believe th ey are m ore likely to

be victimized by a m in ority th an a White,

despite the fact th at Whites a re actu ally

th ree times m ore likely to be victimized b y

Whites th an by minorit ies.13

What Is The News Medias Role?

More th an 70 years ago Walter Lippm an n

wrote a n ow-clas sic work, Public Opinion .14

In th at book he d escribed th e imp ossibility

of knowing through direct experience

everyth in g that it was necessa ry to know

to fu nction as a ci t izen in our modern

democracy. In stead , Lippm an n explained,

we depend on pictu res in our h eads ,

many of them delivered by the newsmedia, to tell u s a bout th e world. Ou r

decisions abou t how to beh ave an d h ow to

constru ct our s ociety ha ve to be based on

th ose pictures, Lippm an n believed,

becau se th e world was too vas t to

experien ce pers ona lly.

The pu blic depen ds on th e media for i ts

pictu res of crime. Th ree qu ar ters (76%) of

th e pu blic sa y they form th eir opinions

abou t crime from wh at th ey see or read in

the n ews, more than three t imes th e

nu mber who s ta te th at th ey get their

primary information on crime from

pers ona l experience (22 %).15 In a Los

Angeles Times poll, 80% of resp ond ent s

st at ed th at th e m edias coverage of violen t

crime h ad in creased th eir person al fear of


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being a victim.16 A 19 98 report by Pub lic

Agenda foun d t h at da ily TV n ews viewers

were more likely to think th at crime an d

dru gs were Balt imores n u mb er one

problem th an were those who watch th en ews less frequ ent ly (67% vs. 42 %).17

Despite declin in g crime ra tes in Ba ltimore,

one woman th ere sta ted, I get m ore

nervou s a n d worried th e more I see, so the

less I see, the less crime I would feel is

going on out th ere.18

Thes e su rvey resu lts a re consistent with

comm u nicat ions research finding tha t th e

news m edia largely determ in e what iss u es

we collectively thin k a bou t, h ow we th in k

abou t them , an d wha t kinds of policy

alternatives are considered viable.19 News

portr ayals of ju ven ile jus tice issu es a re

significant for how they influence policy

ma kers an d th e pu blic regarding wha t

sh ould be done to ens u re pu blic safety.

Iss u es are n ot considered by the pu blic

an d p olicy makers u nless th ey are visible,

an d th ey are n ot visible u nless th e news

brings th em to light.

Most people ha ve little or no pers ona l

experien ce with juvenile crim e becau se

adu lts comm it m ost of th e crime in th e

nation: about 89% of all crimes cleared by

arres t a re comm it ted by adu lts .20

The p u blic depend s on th e media even

m ore for its pictu res of crime don e by or to

minority you th , since m ost of th e pu blic

ha s no d irect person al experience withcrime by m in ority yout h . Eigh ty-six

percen t of Wh ite hom icide victims ar e

killed b y other Wh ites, a n d overall, Whites

ar e th ree tim es a s likely to be victimized

by other Whites a s b y minorities. Th e

cha n ces tha t a White adu lt will be th e

victim of a cr im e by a Black youth ar e

qu ite s m all. Cons equ ent ly, Am ericas

domina nt voting a n d opinion sett ing block

its White adult population depends on

th e n ews to explain minority you th crime

to them .

The n ews m edia sh ould help as ma ny

cit izens as possible ma ke sen se of th e

world arou nd th em. But does the current

app roach t o covering you th an d crime

maximize public understanding? What

inform ation on youth an d crime does the

Am erican pu blic get from th e news ? In

view of th e powerful impa ct n ews covera ge

of crime h as on pu blic opin ion a nd th e

depend ence of most Am erican s on t he

n ews m edia for depictions of crime, th ere

are s everal imp ortan t qu estions we have

abou t the accu racy of th e pictur e

Am ericans ar e receivin g from th e news

media:

1. Does n ews coverage reflect actu al crime

t rends?

2. How does news coverage depic t

minorit ies a n d crime?3. Does n ews coverage dispropor t ionate ly

depict youth of color as perpetrators of

crime?

Th e rem aind er of th is s tu dy will seek t o

an swer these three qu est ions .

METHODS

Our objective was to compile and examine

th e best social science tha t h as an alyzed

th e cont ent of crime n ews to an swer the

qu estion s above, pa rt icu larly ana lyses

th at inclu ded exam in ations of race an d

youth . This repor t as sesses a nd

consolidates the findings from those

content a n alyses on crime news.

Issues are not considered by the public and policy makers unless they are visible, and they are not visible

unless the news brings them to light.


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Off Ba la nce6

Collecting the Universe of Studies on

Crime News

To ident ify scientific con ten t an alyses of

crime n ews, we con du cted search es ofcrimina l ju stice an d commu n ications

dat aba ses for art icles containing the

following key words: content analysis,

crim e, m ed ia, ra ce, violen ce, a n d/ or

you th . Com mu nications an d crimina l

ju stice dat aba ses inclu ded th e Crimina l

J u st ice Abs tra cts, SocioFile, the Miss our i

Sch ool of J our n alism s s tu dy of Race &

the Media, the DialogWeb(TM) database,

MERLINs OVID database (the CurrentCont ents an d Periodical Abstr acts

data bases) an d the J STOR online dat ab as e.

Phyllis Sch u ltze, Inform ation Specialist ,

Rutgers Law Library, conducted the initial

sear ch of th e crimina l ju stice dat aba ses.

We au gmented th e electronic sear ch with

pertinent articles cited in the references of

these ar t ic les that h ad n ot turn ed up in

our keyword searches.

Analyzing the Universe of Studies onCrime News

Th e sea rch yielded 1 46 a rticles. The

au th ors, with th e ass ista nce of University

of Miss ouri jour na lism gradu ate stu dent

Maria Len-Rios a n d J u st ice Policy Ins titu te

intern Alea Brown, read , abs tracted a n d

categorized all 146 articles for their

relevan ce to the iss u es of youth , crime a nd

race. Thirty-six of the articles were

newspaper accou nts or repor ts that d id

n ot offer pr imar y data an alyses. We elim -

in ated th ese art icles from ou r an alysis .

Leve l 1 and Leve l 2 st udies. Ou r firs t

task was to determine whether the s tu dy

presen ted origina l dat a on n ews conten t.

We also determ ined wh ether th e stu dy was

published in a peer-reviewed journal. We

focused ou r att ention on th e 65 a rt icles

pu blish ed in peer-reviewed jour n als

becau se we believed th ese stu dies wou ld

provide u s with evidence pu t th rough th emost r igorou s scru tin y. These a rt icles

were th e best th at s ocial science ha s to

offer on t h e topic of ra ce, crim e, you th an d

th e n ews. We du bb ed th ese Level 1

s tudies .

The remaining 45 articles included

empirical ana lyses p u blish ed by

organ izations or researchers with out th e

benefit of peer-review. While these articles

do not offer the same level of confidence as

th e peer -reviewed st u dies, we believed

tha t th e find ings warran t examinat ion a nd

discussion here. We called these Level 2

s tudies .

Severa l of th e 11 0 Level 1 an d Level 2

studies were ultimately eliminated from

our a n alysis becau se th ey were primar ily

ab ou t sin gle even ts (e.g., O.J . Sim ps on),

reality shows which we deemedenter ta inment ra ther than news 21, m edia

effects, photographs only, non-US news,

or topics other th an an alyses of genera l

news that included crime news content.

Ultima tely, 33 stu dies were elim inat ed for

one of th e reas ons list ed a bove (see

Appen dix 1). Ou r conclusions are b as ed

on th e fin dings synth esized from th e

remaining 77 pu blish ed s tu dies .

We also excluded from our analysis theseveral books th at h ave been writ ten on

th e su bject of race an d crim e becaus e we

wanted to focu s on s tu dies tha t ha d been

peer -reviewed. However, in th e cas e of

stu dies of youth depictions, becau se th ere

were so few studies, we wanted to include

an y available an alyses. Therefore, we


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included findings from studies reported in

books when the methodology was well

descr ibed an d/ or we cou ld conta ct the

au th ors with ques tions. We note in th e

text if th e stu dy we ar e discu ss ing is froma book.

Most s tu dies an alyze th e type of crime

repor ted in th e news an d the

characteristics of that coverage. Some

stu dies compa re the type and frequen cy of

crime coverage to crime statistics. A few

stu dies compar e crime coverage to pu blic

opinion a bou t crime. Several stu dies

test ed m edia effects (e.g., wheth er n ews

stories cha n ged att i tu des or opinions of

au diences) bu t did not an alyze con tent,

th ough s everal of th ese stu dies a re

referred t o in th e body of th e report

becau se of th e in sigh t th ey offer as we

interpret the various content analyses.

Appendix 1 lists all 110 Level 1 and Level

2 s tu dies. A complete bibliogra ph y is

availab le in t h e Referen ces. 22

Com parison of news c onte nt to crimestat i s t i c s . Once we had su mm arized and

con dens ed the find ings ab out n ews

con tent, we compar ed th ose fin dings to

crime trend s r eported by law en forcemen t

agencies. For exam ple, if stu dies of th e

news s h owed a n ever larger proportion of

th e n ews h ole th e am ou n t of

n ewspa per or t elevision t im e devoted t o

n ews occu pied by violent crime, was

that simply a reflection of actual increases

in violent crime du ring th e sa me t im eperiod? According to th e bes t s cient ific

an alyses of m edia conten t, is th e news

providing a n accu ra te reflection of crime

trends? We ascertained whether the

stu dies th ems elves ma de the relevan t

comp arisons t o crime trends , an d, if th ey

did not, we collected the appropriate crime

dat a to com par e to th e cont ent of th e

n ews. We collected th e relevan t crimina l

ju stice dat a from th e Federal Bur eau of

In vestigation an d US Departm ent of

J u stice an d s tate or local law enforcem entsurveys, where applicable.23

FINDINGS

The stu dies we su rveyed covered a ran ge

of m edia 24 local an d n etwork t elevision,

newspapers , and broadcast an d pr in t

n ews m agazin es from 19 10 th rou gh

2001. Most studies analyzed newspapers

(N=53), followed by local television (N=26).

Twenty stu dies an alyzed networktelevision n ews. Only three s tu dies

an alyzed print n ews magazines a n d two

an alyzed the con ten t of TV n ews m agazin e

program s. (The n u mbers a dd to more than

77 becau se several stu dies an alyzed more

tha n one m ediu m).

Overall, th e stu dies t aken together

indicate that depictions of crime in the

n ews a re n ot reflective of eith er th e ra te ofcrime genera lly, th e pr oportion of crime

which is violen t, th e pr oportion of crime

committed by people of color, or the

proportion of crime committed by youth.

The p roblem is n ot the inaccu racy of

ind ividu al stories, bu t th at th e cum u lative

choices of wha t is includ ed or n ot

includ ed in th e news presents the

pu blic with a false pictu re of h igher

frequ ency an d s everity of crime th an is

actu ally the case.

Fur th ermore , the s tu dies show that cr ime

is depicted as a s eries of distinct events

u n related to an y broader context. Most

stu dies th at exam in e race an d crime find

th at t he p roportion of crime comm itted by

peop le of color (u su ally African Am erican s)

is over -reported an d th at Black victims are

Overall, the studies taken together indicate that depictions of crime in the news are not reflective of either the

rate of crime generally, the proportion of crime which is violent, the proportion of crime committed by people

of color, or the proportion of crime committed by youth.


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Off Ba la nce8

u nder -represented. Other s tud ies find tha t

crimes comm itted by people of color ar e

covered in pr oportion with a rrest rates ,

bu t tha t crimes comm itted by Whites are

undercovered.

Finding #1 : The ne ws m edia report

crime, espe cially v iolent crime, out

of proportion to i ts ac tual

occurrence .

Studies of newspapers and television

iden tified th ree clear p atter ns . First , a nd

most cons isten t over t ime, is tha t

newspa pers a n d television em ph as izeviolent crime. Second, the m ore u nu su al

th e crim e, the greater th e cha nce i t will be

covered. Th ird, th e ra te of crim e covera ge

in creased while real crime r ates dropped.

While all media emphasize violence in

th eir n ews, newspap ers do it to a less er

degree tha n n etwork television, wh ich

does it less th an local TV n ews.25 There a re

fewer s tu dies of Span ish lan guage

newspa pers an d television n ews broadcast

in the US, but those tha t exis t a lsodemonstra te an em pha sis on cr ime

con sistent with stu dies of En glish -

lan guage US news.26,27,28,29,30

Violent Crim e Dom inates Crim e

Coverage. Crime is often t he d ominan t

topic on local television news 31, network

news 32 , an d TV n ewsma gazines .33 On

network n ewscasts, crime an d violence are

covered more tha n a n y other topic on th enews. Crime is a n ewspaper s taple as well.

When th e news m edia cover crime, th ey

cover little other th an violen t crim e.34

While crimes against property occupy

m ost of law enforcemen ts a tten tion ,

violen t crim es occu py television

producers , n ewspap er editors , and

reporters.35 In general, TV crime reporting

is th e invers e of crime frequ ency. Th at is,

mu rder is reported most often on th e news

thou gh i t happen s th e leas t .36 As we

discus s later in th is report , this is n ot

surprising since homicide is a crime withmu ch greater cons equ ences than proper ty

cr imes a nd embodies ma ny asp ects

report ers s eek in a good st ory.

The m ore unusual the c rime or

violenc e, the m ore l ikely i t i s to be

covered. In s ome s tud ies , the nu mber of

victims was th e str ongest predictor of

wheth er or n ot a crime would be covered.37

Other factors th at increas e th e l ikelihood

of a h omicide being reported in t h e news

ar e m u ltiple victims , m u ltiple offend ers,

an u nu su al method, a White vic t im, a

ch ild, elder ly, or fema le victim , or

occurren ce in an afflu ent n eighborh ood.38,39

For exam ple, a s tu dy of five years of

h omicide coverage in th e Los Angeles

Times from 1990 th rough 1994 foun d tha t

th e least common hom icides r eceived th e

m ost coverage.40 Th at is, h omicides

between s t ran gers an d in terracia lh omicides received m ore coverage when ,

in rea lity, most m u rder victims in Los

An geles Coun ty were killed b y som eone

th ey kn ew an d someone of th e sam e race.

Th e disp roportiona te coverage of homicide

was also pr evalent in television n ews. For

exam ple, Rocky Moun tain Media Watch s

one-da y sn ap sh ot of local television n ews

in 55 m arkets aroun d the cou ntry on

Febru ary 26, 199 7, th e Kaiser Fam ilyFoundation analyses of national television

n ews in 1 996 , an d Gilliam et al.s s tu dies

of the evening news on KABC-TV in Los

An geles from 19 93 t o 199 4 were

remarkably consistent. All three found

tha t homicides mad e up more than a

qu arter of th e crimes reported on th e


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evening news (27% - 29%) while from one-

to two-ten th s of one per cent of all ar res ts

in th ose years was for a h omicide. On on e

Los Angeles local station this amounted to

14 h omicide s tories for every h omicidecommitted.41 As th e au th ors note, th e

ser iousn ess an d n ewsworthiness of

mu rder can not be den ied, bu t the level of

dist ortion is im pr ess ive. Oth er violen t

crime categories were also portra yed out of

proportion to their actua l sh are of arr ests .

Crime cove rage has increased wh ile real

crime rates h ave fallen. Overall th e rat e

of crime coverage in th e news did n ot

reflect crime tren ds . For exam ple, one of

th e few stu dies of newsm agazines foun d

th at increas es in crime reporting in Time

magazine reflected increases in crime

dur ing 1975 an d 1979 .42 But it a lso foun d

a 5 5% increa se in crim e coverage in Time

from 1979 throu gh 1982 when th e actu al

crime rate increased by only 1%.

On network television news, crime

coverage dou bled from 1 99 2 to 19 93 , from830 to 1,698 stories. This m ade crime the

leading TV news topic for the first time

since 1987. The coverage continued rising,

reaching 1 ,949 s tor ies in 1994 an d 2 ,574

in 1 995, m ore than tr iple the total

recorded in 1 992. Crime n ews peaked in

1995 primar ily becau se of th e O.J.

Simp son tr ial coverage, bu t n ever dropped

to its pr e-O.J . levels. 43 From 199 0 throu gh

199 9, Cen ter for Media a n d Pu blic Affairs

research ers catalogu ed 135,44 9 stories onABC, CBS, an d NBC evenin g newsca st s.

Crime was t h e biggest topic of th e decad e

with 14,289 crime s tories. Crime n ews

declin ed for th e firs t time in 2 00 0,

dropping 39% from t he p revious year, bu t

rema ins th e third most frequen t topic on

network news.44

Local television n ews h as n ot been

mon itored for as long as t he n etworks .

However, several studies done in the mid-

19 90s by Rocky Mou n tain Media Watch

(RMMW) provide similar evidence for localTV news .45 RMMW volun teer s collect late

n ight n ews broad casts from local TV

sta t ions on th e same night arou nd th e

country. All RMMW studies show high

levels of crime reporting, so m u ch s o tha t

RMMW created a measure dubbed the

m ayh em index to a ccoun t for local TV

news attention to crime, violence and

disa ster coverage. In every year exa m ined,

crime st ories dom inat e th e local TV

n ewscas ts, a n d violent crime, pa rt icu larly

mu rder, domina tes th e crim e stories. For

example, in 199 7, RMMW foun d t ha t

crime topp ed th e list of su bjects covered

on local even in g news, was one-th ird of all

local news stories, an d ap peared th ree

t imes a s m u ch as the n ext c loses t su bject .

RMMW su ggests th at crime coverage n ot

only persists out of proportion to a ctu al

cr ime, but th at i t a lso us es u p t ime tha t

could be devoted to oth er imp orta n t top ics.

The Kaiser Family Foundation (1998) has

recently begun tracking news agend as ,

with a n interest in h ealth iss u es. Its

st u dies of n etwork an d local TV n ews in

1996 foun d tha t cr ime was th e most

common story on local news. Of th e

17,00 0 local news stories broad cast

du r ing a three month per iod, the nu mber

of violen t crime st ories b road cas t, 2,0 35,

was almost dou ble th e nu mb er of h ealthstories (1,265 ), three t imes th e nu mb er of

foreign n ews report s (63 0), an d four times

the number of education stories (501). In

contrast to the local news findings, crime

ran ked s ixth on th e network n ews a genda

du r ing the s am e per iod.46


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Off Ba la nce1 0

Sum m ary & Im plication s

The n ews media ha s pr oven to be a p oorvehicle for discern in g crim e tren ds . While

th ere was a 1% increa se in crime from

197 9 to 19 82, crime coverage in Time

increased b y 55% dur ing that t ime

period.47 Nation ally, crime dr opped b y 20%

from 1990 to 1998 while network TV

sh owed an 8 3% increa se in crime news.48

Wh ile h omicide coverage was in creas ing

on n etwork n ews473 % increa se from

1990 to 1998homicides were down

32.9% from 199 0 to 1998. 49 (See Graph s 1

& 2).

Of cour se, h omicide is a far m ore seriou s

crime th an car t heft or r obbery. It d eserves

serious at ten tion from jou rn alists its

app ropriate to report m ore in tens ely on

mu rders th an van dal ism . Yet the

contin u ed focus on th e most seriou s

crimes leaves th e pu blic with an

incomp lete pictu re. Addition ally, wheth erit is m ore newsworthy or not, reporting

m ore frequ en tly on a category of crime

(m u rd er) th at is declin ing is likely to lead

th e pu blic to form erroneous beliefs abou t

cr ime t ren ds .

Fur th ermore , if the most un u su al

h omicides get th e only news a ttent ion,

au diences will assu me th ose are the

typical homicides, or th at th ey are m ore

prevalent th an th ey actu ally are. Bas ed on

th e news, the pu blic ma y (an d indeed,

does, a ccording to pu blic opinion

su rveyin g) as su me th at interracial

mu rders b y stra ngers are typical , yet tha t

is n ot th e case in th e US. The repetit ion of

the u nu su al ha s cons equ ences for how

au diences int erpret crime. The s teady diet

0%

100%

PercentChange

Graph 1: Nationally, crime dropped by 20%from 1990 to 1998 while network television

showed an 83% increase in crime news.

Source: Center for Media & Public Affairs,2000a, US DOJ 2000

National

83%

-20%

crime drop

Crime newsincrease


11/56

You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 1 1

of violen t crime, cou pled with th e ab sen ce

of n onviolent crime an d genera l context,

mea n s th at th e rare crime looks l ike the

normal crime; homicide is the prototypical

crime in th e news. Furth er, in creasedcoverage of crime in gen eral a n d

hom icides in par t icular wh ile crime a n d

h omicides ar e d eclin in g gives th e viewin g

pu blic a sk ewed view of crime tr en ds . We

believe th is explains , to a large extent, wh y

th e pu blic consistently overestima tes th e

ra te of crime.

Criticism of th e news for its em ph as is on

violen t crime is certa inly n ot n ew.

Periodically, pundits, critics, community

grou ps, a nd others bemoan th e if it

bleeds, it lead s edict tha t s eems to govern

local TV n ews in p ar ticular. Even som e

who produ ce the news claim to hate th e

ma nd ate, som etimes feeling th ey h ave no

choice. Yes, th e crime rep orting ar ou n d

th e local stat ions is disproportionate tore a lity, KTLA-TV n ews dir ector Da vid

Goldb erg told t h e Los Angeles Times . It

h elps drive th e fear in ou r comm u nities.

You wou ld th ink [Los Angeles] was on e of

the m ost dangerou s places on ear th . But

u n fortun ately, n ewsroom s find crime very

eas y to cover. Its t h eir way of n ot h a vin g

to work ha rd.50

Violen ce stories a re eas y to do an d r ead ily

available, perfect for a deadline driven

newsroom. They are often about life and

dea th good s tories, fu ll of dra m a an d

0%

500%

473%

-32.9%

PercentChange

Graph 2: From 1990-1998, homicidecoverage was increasing on networknews by 473% while homicides were

down 32.9%

Source: Center for Media & Public Affairs,2000a, US DOJ 2000

Nationalhomicide

drop

Homicidenews

increase

-100%


12/56

Off Ba la nce1 2

emotion that keep au dien ces atten tive.

All of these reasons contribute to the

consistency of the findings in the studies

of news.

Anoth er im portan t factor in t he cu rren t

emph as is on crime coverage is th e advent

of 24-h our news. Sta tions ha ve a lot of

time to fill, and crime coverage is easy,

cheap an d a vailable. In his b ook cri t iquing

rou tine crime covera ge, form er crime

reporter an d editor David Krajicek

su ggests th at a Murd ock effect pu sh ed

crime coverage further into the

sen sa tiona l. Dur ing th e 1980 s, s t at ions

own ed by media m ogu l Ru pert Murd ock

began broad casting sens ationa list ic news-

like program s s u ch as A Cu rren t Affair.

The program s pu rsu ed topics in a ma nn er

most t rad it ional news ou tlets esch ewed.

Bu t, Kra jicek argu es, in th e lat e 198 0s,

ma ins tream n ews ou tlets began t o cite A

Cu rren t Affair as a n ews sou rce, allowin g

th em to report on celebrity scan dals an d

other crime tha t h ad previous ly been

res erved for th e ta bloids. Now, accordingto Krajicek, the networks included in their

broadca sts stories th at th ey previous ly

would not have investigated or reported.

As local an d n etwork TV n ews repea tedly

aired ta pe from sh ows like A Cu rren t

Affair, Kra jicek m ain ta ins , t h e defin ition

of legit ima te n ews h ad cha n ged.51

Finding #2 : The ne ws m edia report

crim e as a se ries o f individual eve nt s

without adequate attent ion to i ts

overall co nte xt .

Presu ma bly, if th e emph as is on crime is

sa tisfyin g viewers des ire to kn ow ab ou t it,

then p r in t a nd broadcast journ al is ts

sh ou ld a lso b e explainin g it. Yet m ost

crime n ews is episodic, des cribin g crim e

event s a s if th ey are isolat ed from larger

social, historical, or environmental

contexts . Studies s pan ning a lmost 10 0

years 191 0 to 200 0 are con sistent inth eir find in gs tha t n ews reports describe

wha t h app ened with lit t le reportin g about

why the crime an d violence h app ened or

wha t cou ld be done abou t it .52 In one

exam ple , researchers foun d th at th e

n ation s dom ina n t news m agazin es

portr ayed th e race riots of th e lat e 196 0s

as ran dom, u npr edic table , and most of

all, u n ju st ified event s ou tside a larger

social context 53, despite Kerner

Comm iss ion fin dings th at th ere were

m an y iden tifiable an d ju stifiable

reas ons for the r iots .54 Pa u l Klite of RMMW

n otes th at local TV n ews covers all th e

elemen ts of th e crime: the s earch, th e

scene, th e arrest , a nd th e tr ial , with

dr am a tic video of flash ing light s, yellow

crime-scen e ta pe a n d grievin g relat ives,

bu t little of th e context, cons equ ences ,

pa t terns or so lu t ions tha t s u r roun d the

events.55

The lack of explanations forcrime and violence complicates the

pr oblem of exaggera ted frequen cy in n ews

stories b y leavin g the im press ion th at t he

violen ce is inevita ble.

Finding #3 : The news me dia,

particularly televis ion n ews, u nduly

con nec t race and crime, e special ly

violent crime.

Several stu dies exam in e race in crime

n ews, bu t th e find ings a re less

st ra ightforwar d. People of color a re

depicted m ore often in crim e stories th an

in n on-crim e stories, 56 bu t not al l s tu dies

differen tiate between victims an d

perpetrat ors. Some cou nt depictions of


13/56


people of color; others don t cou n t h ow

often perp etra tors or victims of color

app ear bu t an alyze th e ch ara cterist ics of

the por t rayals a nd the c ircum stan ces in

which th ey app ear. Other stu dies examinehow mu ch a ttention was pa id to people of

color in crime stories by counting the

nu mb er of words in stories with

perp etra tors or victims of color. These

different resea rch a pproach es ma ke it

more difficult to draw conclusions across

s tudies .

Noneth eless, th ere is s ome con sistent

evidence that a disproportionate number

of perpetrat ors on th e news a re people of

color, esp ecially African Am erican s.

African American perpetrators are

depic ted as dan gerou s a nd

indist inguishable as a group, they appear

more frequently in crime news storiesth an Whites, an d interracial crim e is

covered disp roportiona tely. Th e str ongest

evidence s h ows th at people of color, a gain

prim ar ily African Am erican s, ar e

u n derrepresen ted as victims in crime

news. 57

Invisible Black Victims versus Visible

Black Suspects

Wh ile m an y crim e stories do n ot iden tify

race, th ere is s ome evidence th at

n ewspa pers ar e more likely to iden tify race

in a crime s tory wh en a n African Am erican

is th e sus pect .58,59 In nine of 12 (75%)

stu dies, minorit ies were overrepresent ed

as perpetrat ors of crime.60 Six out of seven

(86%) stu dies th at clearly iden tify the ra ce

of victims found more attention was paid

to Wh ite victims t h an to Black victims .61

(See Tab le 1).

Vict ims. Several stu dies foun d th at Black

victims ar e less likely to be covered in

n ewspa pers th an are White victims 62 , and

one foun d th at newsworthiness increases

when th e victim is White.63 Homicides of

White victims resulted in more and longer

ar ticles th an h omicides of Black victims .64

Th e n ews m edias preferen ce for s tories of

White homicide victims over Black victims

is p art of wha t m otivated Sorenson et al .

(1998) to coin the term worthy victim to

describe wh o gets at tention in n ewspaper

stories a bou t h omicide. They foun d th at

mu rders of Blacks an d Latinos were

su bstan t ia l ly un derrepor ted in the Los

Angeles Times in a s pecial seven-pa rt

series th at reported five years of h omicides

Table 1: Nineteen* studies mention therace of victims and perpetrators

Six out of seven (86%) studies that clearlyidentify the race of victims find anunderreporting of minority victims

Studies finding the Studies finding nounderrepresentation underrepresentationof minority victims: of minority victims:

Hawkins et al 1995 Fedler & Jordan 1996Johnstone et al 1994Pritchard & Hughes 1997Romer et al. 1998Sorenson et al. 1998Weiss & Chermak 1998

Among studies that document the race ofperpetrators, nine out of 12 (75%) findminorities overrepresented

Studies finding minority 3 studies document nooverrepresentation overrepresentation asas perpetrators: perpetrators:Barlow 1995 Fedler & Jordan 1996

Barlow 1998 Rodgers et al. 2000Dulaney 1969 Sorenson et al. 1998Gilliam & Iyengar 2000Gilliam et al. 1996Entman 1990Grabe 1999Romer et al. 1998Weiss & Chermak 1998

*24 studies mention the race of victims and/or suspectsbut not all present the data clearly differentiated.


14/56

Off Ba la nce1 4

in th e coun ty (199 0-1994 ). For examp le,

th ey fou n d th at 8 0% of h omicide victims

in Los An geles were Black or Hisp a n ic. Yet

Black s were h alf as likely to be depicted a s

homicide victims as Whites in the LosAngeles Times , an d Hispan ics were two-

thirds as likely to be depicted as homicide

victim s a s Whites. Pu t a noth er way, wh en

a White person is m u rdered in Los

An geles, it is th ree times as likely th at

th ere will be a s tory about it in th e Los

Angeles Times th an if th e victim is Black .

Asians an d Whites, conversely, mak e u p

3.8% an d 1 2.9% of victims in Los An geles.

Nearly 9% of h om icide victim s d epicted in

th e Los Angeles Times in Los An geles were

Asian, and fully 20.9% of homicide victims

depicted in th e Los Angeles Times were

Wh ite. Th ey conclud ed th at t h e pap ers

homicide coverage focused on the worthy

victim the White, youn gest a n d oldest ,

women , high socioeconomic statu s, who

were killed by str an gers .65 Researcher

Mike Males found that the only school

sh ootin gs not p rominen tly covered du ring

th e 1997-99 s chool years were th oseinvolvin g min ority victim s (see sideb a r).

Perpetrators. Th e coverage of perpetra tors

of color is less ou t of ba lance th an th e

coverage of victims. Some s tu dies fou n d

distinct disparities, while others found

perpetrators of color represented in

nu mbers th at m atched their local ar res t

ra tes , bu t foun d Whites u nd errepresented.

For exam ple, a stu dy of m u rder coverage

in Indiana polis n ewspap ers foun d th at thepercentage of articles about Black

su spects reflected the p ercentage of

Blacks a rrested for mu rder (60% an d 61%,

res pectively), bu t if th e su sp ect was Black,

the average article length was longer than

for a Wh ite su spect.66

There are more crimes committed each year than the new

media have space to cover. As in all other fields, the med

must make choices. The following summary digested fro

Kids and Guns: How Politicians, Experts, and the Med

Fabricate Fear of Youth (Common Courage Press 2000)

Mike Males, Ph.D., discusses which homicides were an

werent chosen for national coverage.

From May 1997 to November 1999, in Ventura, Californ

three affluent suburban adults in their 40s killed 10 people

multiple-victim shootings six children and four adults. Tha

more than the combined toll of school shootings in Pea

Mississippi; West Paducah, Kentucky; and Jonesbor

Arkansas all in just one county. Yet none of the Ventu

grownup shootings made national headlines. All the usual b

story ingredients were there: well-off perpetrators killi

innocent children in communities where murder just do

not happen. The only big-story ingredient missing: t

murderers were not youths.

Consider the dozen mass shootings in the last half of 199

All involved middle class adults. The toll was 90 casualtie

59 dead (including 21 minors) and 31 wounded. Thus, ju

25 weeks of middle-aged mass shootings killed and injure

far more people than three years of highly publicized scho

shootings (Columbine 16; Jonesboro 4; West Paducah

Springfield 2; Pearl 2; Mt Morris Township 1). All occurr

where such things are not supposed to happen: professio

offices, churches, community centers, upscale hotels,

suburban homes. A few received press attention (e.g. t

Atlanta office mass-murder) but the media quickly wearied

the sheer number of middle-aged killings.

Likewise, the news media made choices about covera

even within the category of school shootings. According

the National School Safety Center, from 1997 - 1999, the

were 30 school killings that received practically no publicit

The deaths fell into two categories. Twenty-two involv

minority student victims or students of unknown rac

attending mostly-minority schools. Eight involved white victim

of those, seven involved adult perpetrators, and one stude

died from an aneurysm after a fist fight with another stude

In the super-charged 1999 school year when the med

feverishly awaited any new school shooting, three were virtua

ignored. A 14-year-old Elgin, Illinois, teen was shot to dea

in his classroom in February. Not news: he was Latino and

Special Ed. On June 8, two girls were gunned down in fro

of their high school in Lynwood, California. Not news (even

the Los Angeles Times which ran a modest story on an insi

page): they were Latinas. On November 19, a 13-year-o

boy shot a 13-year-old girl in a Deming, New Mexico, midd

school. Both were also Latinos.

Several of the unheralded school killings had death to

equaling or exceeding nationally headlined killings. Why th

did the news media deem white-suburban-student killings

apocalypse and white adult, minority student and inner-c

killings of no import? To ask the question is to answer it:

the crass logic of the newsroom things like that are suppos

to happen to darker-skinned youth.


15/56


RMMWs s tu dy of local TV n ews a cros s t h e

cou ntry in 1995 foun d th at 37% of

perp etra tors on local TV n ews were Black ,

32% were Latin o, 27% were Wh ite, an d 4%

were Asian. Whites dom in ated most otherroles on local TV n ews in th e n ation th at

day, comp rising 89% of th e an chors, 78 %

of the reporters, 87% of the official

sou rces, an d 80 % of th e victims .67 Nine

month s la ter the nu mbers were near ly

identical.68

Close looks at local TV news in a major

media m arket an d large u rban center

found disparities as well. Blacks were 22%

more likely to be shown on local TV news

in Los Angeles committing violent crime

than nonviolent crime, while according to

police statistics, Blacks were equally likely

to be ar rest ed for violen t crime an d

n onviolent crime. Likewise, Hispa n ics were

14% m ore likely to be d epicted as

committing violent crime than a

non violent crime, whereas Hispa nics were

7% m ore likely to be ar rest ed for a violen t

crime th an a n onviolent crime.69

Somemigh t argue th at th is is simply becau se

violent crime is more newsworthy than

n on-violent crime. Bu t Whites were 31%

m ore likely to be d epicted comm ittin g a

nonviolent crime than a violent crime,

wher eas Wh ites were in fact on ly 7% more

likely to be ar rest ed for a n onviolent crime

than a violent crime. Thus, while Blacks

an d Hispa nics were overrepresent ed as

violent offenders, Whites were

u nd errepresen ted a s violent offenders onth e evening news. In a ddit ion, resear chers

foun d th at wh en st ories featu red a Black

perpetrat or, reporters includ ed sou rces

hosti le to th e perpetra tor ha lf th e t ime,

whereas with Wh ite perpetrators,

reporters inclu ded h ostile sou rces only

25% of th e time.70

How are African Americans depicted in

crime stories? In h is extens ive work on

portr ayals of African Am ericans on local

television news 71, Profess or Robert

En tman documents tha t B lacks a re mos tlikely to be seen in television news stories

in the role of criminal, victim, or

dema n ding polit ician . Black s u spects were

less likely to be identified b y na m e as were

White su spects; were not a s well dressed

as White su spects on the n ews; and were

m ore likely to be s h own p h ysically

restrained than Whites. In sum, Black

su spects were routinely depicted as bein g

poor, dan gerous , an d indist inct from oth er

n on-crimina l Blacks . He also foun d th at

Blacks are more frequently reported in

connection with violence, and that Black

su spects an d th eir defenders were

su bst an tial ly less likely to speak in th e

stories th an were their White

coun terpar ts , reinforcing th eir ab sen ce of

individuation.72

Are Blacks blam ed for crime ? Rom er et

al . (199 8) wan ted to find out wheth er th eoverrepresentation of people of color,

especially African Americans, in stories

about cr ime a nd other problems was

simp ly an a ccu ra te reflection of th e crim e

that Blacks committed or the consequence

of jou rn alists interp reting Black crime a s

intergrou p con flict. Th ey posited t h at if

Blacks a re sh own a ccus ed of crim es, bu t

not affected by crime or active in

prevention efforts, the blame

interpretation would persist in viewers.The au thors exam ined m ore tha n 3 ,000

st ories from 14 weeks of loca l TV n ews in

Philad elph ia. Th ey fou n d Blacks

overrepresent ed in crime stories a n d m ore

likely to be sh own as perpetra tors in

violent and nonviolent crime (though one

sta t ion ha d a more balanced por t rayal ,


16/56

Off Ba la nce1 6

with h igher ra tes of Black s in n onviolen t

roles). They found Whites represented as

vic t ims a t a greater ra te tha n as

perpetrat ors, ran ging from 30 -70%73 , all of

which were grea ter th an Wh ites ra te ofvictimization according to police statistics

in Philadelphia. Despite mu ch h igher rates

of Black victimization according to the

FBI, Wh ite victims are s hown a t a mu ch

high er rate on th e news. Th ey foun d th at

person s of color are represen ted in th e

crime category primarily for their

contribution to crime, whereas Whites

ar e sh own pr im ar ily for th eir rea ction to

and suffering from crime.74 Rom er et a l.

con clu de tha t thes e depictions

overem ph as ize th e ha rm people of color

in flict on Wh ite victims , perp etu at e

tens ion between groups , an d in hibit

cooperation.

Interracial Crime. Our na t ion h as an

u gly history of trea tm ent of interra cial

crime, d ating from slavery throu gh th e

J im Crow era t o the well-docum ent ed

fact th at t oday Blacks ha ve a h igh er r iskof receiving the death penalty for killing

Whites than any other victim-offender

ra cial m ix.75 Th at h istory is reflected in

public opinion polling on race and crime

th at s hows th at Whites overestima te their

likelihood of bein g victimized b y m inorities

by three to one.76 The resea rch we

exam in ed foun d th at d epictions of

in terracial crim e were emp ha sized. On

local TV n ews in Philad elph ia, four in t en

stories ab out n on-White perpetratorsdepicted a Wh ite pers on a s a crim e victim ,

whereas only one in ten hom icides with a

m in ority perpet ra tor a ctu ally in volved a

White victim .77 Likewise, int ereth n ic

h omicides were 25 % m ore likely to be

reported in th e Los An geles Times t h a n

th eir a ctu al occurr ence in Los An geles in

1990-1994. 78 On local television news in

Chicago, 76% of Chicago news a bou t

Black s wa s cr im e or politics, with st ories

ab ou t Black victimizat ions of Wh ites being

especially prominent.79 These findings aredistu rbin g sin ce people of an y racial group

ar e far m ore likely to be killed b y som eone

of th e sam e race.

Cont radictory Evidence . The evidence of

distorted news portra yals of race an d

crime is str ong, bu t there are som e

exceptions . A conten t a n alysis of th e S t.

Louis Pos t-Dis pa tch did n ot fin d African

Am erican p ortra yals lim ited to st ereotyped

roles of perpetrator or entertainer. 80 Th e

au thors su ggest that th is may be the

resu lt of a h eightened a warenes s by the

n ewspa per staff to comba t su ch

stereotypes. Anoth er stu dy foun d th at

h omicides allegedly com m itted by Blacks

or Hispanics tended to be covered less

extens ively th an h omicides allegedly

committed by Whites.81 Anoth er foun d n o

sign ifican t d ifferen ce in t h e dep iction s of

African Americans and Whites in the[Orlando] Sen tinal Starin n ews coverage

during 1980, though crimes considered

newsworthy most often involved African

Americans , an d so i t was th ose crimes

th at were m ore likely to app ear in th e

paper.82 A reporter told th ose research ers

that racial identification in a crime story

"was som eth in g I was told to leave ou t".83

Fin ally, research ers condu cted a

"ba selin e" conten t an alysis of 19 80

newspapers to determ ine th e prominen ceof covera ge of Mexica n Am erican s, t h eir

representation, characterization, and

wheth er th ere is an y variability in th ose

depictions. 84 Though Mexican Americans

are generally un derrepresen ted in

American newspapers, the researchers did

n ot find an overemph as is on crime

Despite much higher rates of Black victimization according to the FBI, White victims are shown at a much

higher rate on the news.


17/56


reporting.85 However, more recent research

in dicates th at Latinos ra rely app ear in the

n ews, an d wh en t h ey do it is likely to be in

stories a bout crime or immigration.86

Summary and Implications. Despite

some evidence to t he contrar y, 75% of

stu dies th at investigated th e race of

perpetrators conclude that people of color

are disproportionately associated with

violent crime a s s u spects in news s tories.

Six ou t of seven s tu dies th at exam ined t he

race of victims foun d a cons isten t u nd er-

rep ortin g of peop le of color a s victim s of

crime. In news coverage, Blacks are most

often th e perp etra tors of violence a gainst

Whites an d other Blacks, whereas in

rea lity Wh ites ar e six tim es a s likely to be

hom icide victims at t he h an ds of other

Whites.87 Other su mm aries of content

an alyses h ave foun d th at African

Americans an d Latinos are m ore often

portrayed as criminals an d less frequen tly

sh own a s victims .88 Consequently, it

app ears th at m ost Americans a re given an

erron eous pictu re of ra cial violence a n dwho suffers most often from crime, as

attested to by public opinion surveys. In

particular, the absence of Black victims,

cou pled with th e repeated presen ce of

Black s u spects a cross different s ources of

n ews, reinforces st ereotypes ab out African

Americans as a grou p au diences sh ould

fear.

Finding #4 : Few studies e xamine

portrayals o f youth o n t he news.

Thos e t hat do f ind that yout h rarely

appear in the news, and when t hey

do , it i s con necte d to v io lence .

There is su bsta nt ial ly less resear ch th at

focuses on portra yals of you th in th e

news.89 Thou gh th e fin dings are

consistent, there are fewer of them. Of the

146 articles we originally identified, only

16 examined whether an d h ow youth were

portr ayed on television n ews or

newspapers . 90 Despite the s ma ll nu mber ofstu dies, th e find ings a re consistent with

th e emph as is on violent crime in n ews

coverage gen erally. Th u s, wh en you th

app ear in th e news, i t is often conn ected

to violence. There is a lso eviden ce th at

you th app ear in violent cont exts, a s we

might expect since m ost crime n ews is

violence-related. A few of the studies also

par allel th e gen eral find in gs on r ace a nd

th e n ews. Youn g people of color s eem to

far e as poorly as a du lts on th e news

perha ps worse. Finally, som e stu dies find

th at violence perpetrated by adu lts u pon

youth is u nderrepor ted.

News Invo lving Yout h is Violent . Stories

about you th in newspapers an d on

television n ews are scar ce. When th ey do

app ear in th e news, youth u su ally are in

stories about education or violence.91

Relat ively few yout h ar e arr ested each yearfor violent crimes, yet th e m ess age from

the n ews is that th is is a comm on

occu rren ce. Th e earl iest s tu dy we foun d to

focus on youth an d crim e in th e news was

an examinat ion of Min nes ota newspa pers

pu blish ed between J u ly 1 , 1975, an d J u ne

30, 1976.92 Overall th e stu dy foun d th at

ima ges of boys emph as ized th eft a nd

violence primarily because status offenses

were not included in coverage. By failing

to report on s tatu s offens es, whichrepresent th e more comm on problems

facing a greater number of young people,

th e n ews pictu re of you th , like a du lts , is

focused on t he m ore un u su al yet far less

frequ ent crimes. As with crime covera ge

genera lly, theft a n d violen ce comm itted by

youth a re more ser ious th an s ta tu s

In particular, the absence of Black victims, coupled with the repeated presence of Black suspects across

different sources of news, reinforces stereotypes about African Americans as a group audiences should fear.


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Off Ba la nce1 8

offens es. Sti ll, th e au th ors were concern ed

th at th e abs ence of th e lesser offens es in

the pictu re mean s th at del inqu ents are

pres en ted a s inevita bly ba d, a n d, if left

u n trea ted, t h ey will in evita bly go wrong.93

Stu dies of h ow ju ven ile crim e was covered

over 10 yea rs in Ha waiis m ajor da ilies,

Th e Honolulu S tar Bu lletin and The

Honolulu Ad vertis er, sh owed extreme

distortions of juvenile crime.94 From 198 7

to 199 6, th e newsp ap ers coverage ofju ven ile delinqu ency incr eas ed 30 -fold.

The newspapers coverage of gangs

in creased 40-fold; th e m ost frequen t type

of ju venile crime s tory reported by th e

n ewspa pers was gan g activity. Th is

exploding coverage did not simply reflect

higher rates of crime and violence among

Hawaiis you th . On th e contra ry, un like

th e rest of th e coun try, Hawaii saw its

juvenile crime ra tes d eclin e or rem ain

sta ble du ring the s am e period. Th e

au thors conclu de tha t s ince most Hawaii

res iden ts believe th e m edia d o a fairly

good job rep orting crim e news an d n ews

media are th e prima ry sou rce for that

news, it app ears th at m an y people

perceive th e n at u re of juvenile crime in

Hawa ii to be typified b y violen t a n d/ or

gan g-related offens es. 95 In fact, in Hawa ii

most youth are a rrested for less s eriousoffenses s u ch a s vanda lism , ru nn ing away

from home, dru g possess ion an d fighting.96

An a n alysis exam in in g 840 n ewspaper

stories and 109 network news segments in

199 3 sh owed tha t 40% of all newspa per

stories on children were about violence, as

were 48 % of n etwork t elevision n ews

Graph 3: One out of every two (53%) local TV news storiesconcerning children or youth involved violence, while Californiacrime data show that one out of every 50 (2%) young people in

California were either victims or perpetrators of violence in 1993

* Dorfman et al 1997. In this study youth included people through age 24.** Youth arrest data come from the California Department of Criminal Justice's California Criminal JusticeProfile 1995. Population data come from the California Department of Finance, Race/Ethnic Population with Ageand Sex Detail, 1970 - 2040, 1998. Youth in these data were defined as up to age 18.

53%One out ofevery two

storiesabout youth

involvedviolence*

1 out of every 50 (2%)of youth in California were victims

or perpetrators of violence**


19/56


stories. 97 Nominal attention was given to

topics of family, health, or economic

concern s. There wa s m ore overa ll covera ge

of crime a n d violence t h an of all oth er

policy iss u es combined. In a later stu dyth at examined 3,17 2 ran domly selected

stories on you th in one year of th e Los

Angeles Times , Sacram ento Bee , and S an

Francisco Chronicle , researchers found

th at t he n ewspa pers focus ed largely on

two topics: edu cation a n d violence. No

other topic rated even a th ird as m u ch

atten tion. Edu cation stories comprised

26% of all stories involving youth. The

au thors ma inta in th at th is is appropr ia te

since th e vas t m ajority of you th between

the ages of 5 an d 17 a t tend school an d

abou t h alf contin u e after h igh sch ool. But

violen ce stories m ad e u p 2 5% of all you th

coverage, when only three you n g people in

100 perpetrate or become victims of

violence.98

The c ircum stan ces in which you th are

seen on t elevision n ews a re sim ilar. A

stu dy of you th on local television n ews in1993 examined 214 hou rs of local

television news broadcast over 11 days on

26 sta tions th roughou t Californ ia. 99 More

than two-thirds of violence stories involved

you th while mor e th an h alf of all st ories

th at in clu ded you th involved violence.100

One out of every two (53%) TV news

stories concern ing ch ildren or you th

involved violen ce, wh ile Ca liforn ia cr ime

dat a s how th at one ou t of every 50 (2%)

you n g people in Ca liforn ia were eithervictims or perp etra tors of violen ce in 199 3.

(See Gra ph 3.) Near ly seven in 10 n ews

st ories (68%) on violen ce in Californ ia

in volved you th , whereas youth ma de u p

14.1 % of violence a rres ts in Californ ia th at

year.101 (See Gra ph 4).

You n g people h ad to per form

extraordina ry feats to app ear on local

television n ews in n on-violence-related

circu ms tan ces. For exam ple, in th e fall of

199 3, a story ran on local sta t ions a crossth e stat e on th e youn gest p erson to fly

solo across th e cou nt ry. Stories ab out

youth accomplishments accounted for

1.2% of th e total news t ime in th e stu dy,

an d th ese stories ra rely featu red local

you n g people m ost were s tories

pr ovided to local stat ions in ta ct via t h eir

satellite feed services.

In a m ore recent s tu dy of you th depictions

on n etwork an d local TV n ews,

research ers foun d a s imilar p au city of

st ories on you th active in comm u n ity life

or ach ieving su ccess. On local TV n ews,

th e top two leading su bjects involved

you th a nd violence an d th e third most

frequ ent topic was accident s, often car

c rashes .102 Overall, th e research ers fou nd

twice as m an y discu ss ions of crime a nd

violen ce as t h ere were of edu cationa l

issu es and s tud ent achievement .103

Amon g the 9,6 78 n etwork a n d local TV

stories th e researchers a na lyzed, they

found only nine instances of teens

pra ised for th eir involvemen t in

community service or humanitarian work,

an d ju st six stu dents who were sin gled out

for their exceptional educational

achievements.104

Once again, it is importan t to note tha t

some cr imes are worse tha n others .Homicide logically deserves more attention

th an delinqu ency or th eft . But it is also

imp ortan t to consider the backd rop

behind th e h omicide stories. When it

comes to st ories a bout you th , th ere is lit t le

else of consequ ence in t he n ews. When

news coverage about productive,


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Off Ba la nce2 0

non violent you th are th e exception, n otth e ru le, violence fills t h e void. Au dien ces

with out other conta ct with you n g people

are p art icularly vu ln erable to the

perception th at youth are violent a nd out

of control. Crime and violence coverage

m ay displace other t ypes of coverage ab ou t

children an d you th , or d iminish the

im porta n ce the pu blic places on ch ildrens

issues .105 The bias t oward th eft an d

violence may be influencing legislators toena ct inapp ropriate policy as a

cons equ ence of believin g the u n derlying

mes sa ges in th e news coverage.106 Further ,

when you th crime receives a far larger

sh are of al l crime coverage tha n you th s

actu ally commit, and wh en you th crime

coverage dra m at ically in creas es wh ile

actu al youth crime is decreasing, the

public that relies on media coverage as its

primar y source of in forma tion abou t youth

crime is misinformed.

Yout h of Color Fare Worse th an t he ir

White Counterparts. The one s tu dy that

examined you th portrayals in ma gazin es

ha d the m ost to say about race .107 A

qualitative analysis of all cover stories in

Time a n d Newsweek between 1946-1995

determ ined th at th e term youn g Blackma les becam e synonymou s with th e word

crimina l du ring th e late 19 60s wh en

Black s were s tru ggling for equ ality. A

March 196 5 Newsweek article was th e

first to conn ect crime with Black crime.

The first use of young Black male in a

Time or Newsweek cover s tory was in

1970 when Time reported tha t th ough

Graph 4: Seven out of 10 local TV newsstories on violence in California involvedyouth, but young people only made up

14.1% of violent arrests

14.1%

68%

* Dorfman & Woodruff 1998. The study examined 214 hours of local TV newsduring October-November 1993.** Youth arrest data come from the California Department of Criminal Justice'sCalifornia Criminal Justice Profile, 1995. Population data come from the CaliforniaDepartment of Finance, Race/Ethnic Population with Age and Sex Detail, 1970-2040, December 1998.

In 1993, seven out of 10(68%) of local TV newsstories on violence in

California involved youth. *

Young people made up14.1% of violence arrests in

California in 1993. **


21/56


victims of Black crime are overwhelmingly

Black , it is chiefly you n g Black m ales wh o

commit the most common interracial

crime: ar med robbery.108 The au thor

argues tha t the s tory cemented th econnection by focussing on Washington,

DC, which h ad th e highes t proportion of

Blacks in US cit ies an d h igh rates of

crime. Two years lat er Newsweek m a d e

th e sam e con nection. In later stories in th e

197 0s, b oth Time a n d Newsweek

portrayed crime as largely perpetrated by

you n g Black m a les.109 Lat er, Hisp an ic

ma les were added to th e pictu re. Th e

au thor su ggests tha t a combina t ion of

modern racism 110, media fram in g, an d

pu blic discou rse of crime a s a p roblem of

the Black u rban poor h as led to the

ra cialization of crime, conclud in g tha t, as

a consequ ence of n ews coverage, any

discu ss ion of crime toda y is es sen tially a

discus s ion about race .

One s tu dy exam ined th e speakers and

sp eak in g roles in local TV n ews s tories

abou t you th an d violence.111

Th e prem isewas th at you ng people speaking on th e

news a re th e ima ges in th e stories l ikely to

leave th e most last ing imp ression am ong

audiences .112 The s tu dy foun d th at you th

seldom spea k for th ems elves in a ny st ory.

Although most stories about violence

in volve youth , the pr edominan t sp eakers

in s tories were adu lts , u su ally m en.

However, with every violence-rela ted role

in which youth spoke whether victim or

witness of violence, victim or witness ofth reat , or crimina l or su spect you th of

color were repres ent ed m ore often . By

contrast, a higher percentage of White

you th s wh o spoke were in th e role of

victims of unintentional injury, a more

limited a nd sympa th etic role.

A stu dy of you th crim e portrayals in th e

New York T im es revealed a similar

imba lan ce. In tha t s tu dy, researchers

fou n d Black or Lat in o you th were never

qu oted directly while Wh ite you th werequ oted in a ll five st ories in which t h ey

appeared. Furthermore, defense attorneys

for White youth were qu oted 13 t imes b u t

only twice for youth of color. 113

Crime n ews is wh ere all you th are m ost

likely to be seen on TV n ews, bu t youth of

color ap pea r in crime n ews far m ore often

tha n White youth 52% an d 35%,

res pectively. Wh ite youth were pres ent

more often in h ealth or edu cation stories

(13 %) th an were you th of color (2%).114

In some cas es, reporters m ay revert to

stereotypes when they face langu age

ba rriers or r ely too h eavily on one s ou rce.

For examp le, in a qu alita tive an alysis of

44 n ewspaper a rt icles an d 18 TV n ews

broadca sts of a h ostage-tak in g in cident in

a Good Gu ys electronics st ore,

researchers foun d an emph asis on Asiangangs. The resear chers discovered,

however, that the young people were not

gan g memb ers .115 For most of th e n ews

st ories, r eporters relied h eavily on

inform ation from law en forcemen t officers

who speculated in accu rately on th e

youth s gan g memberships an d th e spread

of Asian gang activity in other

communit ies .116

Yout h Vict im s & Perpetrators. Only afew stu dies d ist inguish ed between you th

victims and perpetrators. One found that

h omicide victims u n der a ge 15 received

more coverage in the Los Angeles Times

tha n wou ld be expected ba sed on th e

frequency of homicides in that group.117

Researchers examining the San Francisco


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Off Ba la nce2 2

Chronicle foun d m ore depictions of you th

perpetrators than youth victims 118; th is

find in g con cerned th e researchers since

you th ar e victim s of crim e at m u ch h igher

levels th an th ey are perpetra tors of crime.Adu lts com m it 1.5 times m ore violen t

crimes again st ju veniles t ha n ju veniles

comm it against each other; three t imes

more chi ldren an d you th a re mu rdered by

adu lts th an by oth er ju veniles.119

There was other evidence th at youth

perpetrators get more news attention than

you th victims . In an other exam in ation of

th e Los Angeles Times researchers foun d

tha t near ly one in fou r m u rder su spects

(23 .9%) whose ages were iden tified in th e

Los Angeles Times in 1 997 were youth ,

while only on e in s ix h omicide a rres tees

(15.8%) in Los Angeles actually were youth

th at year.120 The overrepresentation of

you th in hom icide reporting occur red

despite the fact th e adu lt h omicide

arr estees killed m ore victims th an th eir

ju venile coun terpar ts .

Violence Against Yout h is Unde r-

reported. Two studies assessed whether

crimes against young people were being

covered; both stu dies foun d th at crimes

perpetra ted by adu lts a gains t you th are

under-repor ted.121 Several other stu dies

th at exam in ed depictions of you th in t he

news generally did not detect sub sta n tial

coverage on youth as victims of violence.122

Th e relat ive lack of report ing on violen ceagains t you th can b e ju xtaposed with the

over -reporting of h omicide by youth as

comp ared to adu lts . In a comp arison of

you th portrayals in 327 s tories from th e

1997 Los Angeles Times (Oran ge Coun ty

edition) to crim e rep orts from th e Los

Angeles Police Department, researchers

foun d youth h omicides were nea rly th ree

times m ore likely to be reported in t h e Los

Angeles Times , despite th e fact th at a du lts

commit and are victims of far more

mu rders . The au thors conclu de that theTimes misplaced focus s capegoats you th ,

since they commit far fewer crimes than

adu l t s .123

Effects on Public Perceptions

A detailed study of the coverage of

Denvers Summer of Violence, provides

an opportun ity to explore th e influ ence th e

n ews m edia h as on th e pu blics p erception

of yout h violen ce.124 The study compared

coverage of you th h omicides in th e Denver

Postdu ring the su mm er of 1993 to

coverage in th e su mm ers of 1992 a nd

19 94. The s tu dy also provides in terviews

with jou rn alist s, as well as elected officials

an d crimina l ju stice personn el, to

as certain jou rn alists motivations an d

imp act on p olicy m aking du ring th at

waters h ed per iod for juvenile ju st ice

legislation in Colorado.

The study found that, while youth violence

was a growin g problem for m an y years in

Denver, the n ews m edia s ha ped an d

h ighlighted th e pr oblem of you th violen ce

du rin g th e Su m m er of Violence by givin g

h igh visibility covera ge to severa l you th

killin gs. Th is b rou ght you th violen ce to the

pu blics at ten tion , even th ough h omicides

by you th in Denver were slightly higherin

1991 , 1992 , and 1994 than in 1993 . 125 Th e

Govern or called a sp ecial ses sion of th e

legislatu re th at year a n d th e legislatu re

pa ss ed s everal pu n itive pieces of juvenile

jus tice legislation, m an y of which h ad

previous ly been considered an d rejected.

After t h e Su m m er of Violence th e n ews

media moved on to oth er iss u es, an d


23/56


coverage of juvenile crime subsided

dramatically, even though juvenile

homicides increased th e next year, and

over the n ext su mm er. There was a

168.5% increas e in th e nu m ber of art iclesabout you th cr ime between th e sum mers

of 1992 an d 1993 , and then a 220%

decline in articles about youth crime in

the su mm er of 1994, despi te a 17%

in crease in th e youth h omicide rate in th e

su mm er of 199 4 versu s th e previous

su mm er. Similarly, th ere were 14 t imes as

m an y A section ar ticles in th e su m m er of

1993 than in th e sum mer of 1992 an d

four t imes a s m an y in 1 993 as in 19 94.

More tha n three t imes a s m an y colu mn

in ches were devoted to youth crime in th e

su mm er of 1993 a s in e ither 1992 or

1994 . Ultima tely, th e stu dy conclu des th at

it is not da ta, bu t n ews coverage, th at

galvan izes p olicy action ab ou t yout h

violence.

The Denver s tu dy shows u s th at

heightened news coverage can focus

atten tion a n d cata pu lt policy action, atypical agen da -settin g effect of th e n ews. A

second media effect, framing, can also

ha ve a profoun d im pact on h ow news

stories a re int erpreted by th e pu blic.

Relevan t h ere are experimen ts res earch ers

ha ve con du cted to exam in e wheth er

television n ews au diences respon d

differen tly to stories th at inclu de m u g

sh ots of alleged youth perp etra tors of

differen t ra ces: Anglo, Asia n , African

American or Hispanic.126

In th e experiments , au diences were

chosen at r an dom in a Los Angeles

sh opping ma ll to watch a n ews broadcast

th at conta in ed a story with a close-up

ph oto of an alleged m u rderer who was

eith er a ) African Am erican or Hispa n ic; b)

White or Asian; or c) no racial identity. A

fourt h control grou p sa w a broadcas t

with out a crime s tory. Research ers foun d

th at a m ere five-second exposu re to a

m u g sh ot of African Am erican a n dHispa nic youth offenders (in a 15-m inu te

n ewscas t) ra ises levels of fear a m ong

viewers, increa ses su pp ort for get tough

crime policies, a nd prom otes ra cial

stereotyping.127 While the stories with

perpetrators of color increase fear among

all viewers, White a n d Asian viewers h ave

an increa sed desire for har sh er pu nit ive

policies t h an African Am erican or Hispa n ic

au diences , who, the au thors su ggest , a re

remind ed of inju stice and preju dice by the

cr ime s tor ies . Thu s , th e au thors a rgu e,

when mu g sh ots of African Americans an d

Lat inos a re s h own, local TV n ews crime

stories expa nd th e divide between r acial

grou ps. In a similar experimen t,

researchers foun d that s tu dents ra ted

Black su spects as more guilty, deserving

of punishment, more likely to commit

fu tu re violence, an d less l ika ble th an th e

White su spects, ab out whom t hey weregiven p recisely th e sa m e in form at ion .128

Su rvey research on ra cial stereotyping and

crime h elps explain th e experimen tal

find ings. Researchers ha ve foun d th at

when Blacks are placed in a violent

context, Whites who h old s tereotypical

att i tu des th at consider African Am erican s

gener ally violen t (an d lazy) were far m ore

likely to believe that the Blacks were guilty

an d pron e to violence. Bu t th e sam epeople did n ot ha ve the s am e reaction if

Wh ites were the on es placed in t h e violent

context. 129

Thus several researchers conclude that a

discus sion abou t crime in America is

essen tially a discu ss ion ab out ra ce.130


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Off Ba la nce2 4

Evidence from a later study strongly

su pports tha t conclu s ion, as 60% of the

people watching a n ews story with out a n

im age of a p erpetr ator falsely rem emb ered

seein g on e, and in 70% of th ese cases th eyrem emb ered th e perpet ra tor as African

American, even th ough t hey never sa w

him.131

The find ings a bout race an d crime

cata logu ed in th is report a re eerily sim ilar

to research on news depictions of poverty.

Martin Gilens compa red n etwork television

an d news ma gazine portrayals of poverty

to who is poor in Am erica, wh at Am erican s

believe abou t th e poor, an d wha t th ose

editing news photographs believe about

th e poor. He foun d th at pictures in th e

n ews ab out poor people in Am erica

dispr oportion ately featu re African

Am erican s, especially when depicting less

sympa th etic poor adu lts , a s opposed to

th e working poor or th e elderly.132 Gilens

concludes that the disproportionate

nu mb er of Black faces in news ima ges

abou t poverty may exist b ecau se n etworkbu reau a nd n ews m agazine ph otograph ers

largely operate in u rba n centers, wh ere

poor African Am erican s a re m ore

geograp hically concen trat ed th an poor

Whites. When th e story as sign men t

comes, p h otogra ph ers go where it will be

eas iest t o tak e pictu res of poor people

inner city African American

neighborhoods.133 Becau se p oor Black s

ar e disproport iona tely availab le to news

photographers, Gilens suggests, theyma y be disproportionat ely represented in

the result ing news product.134

However, Gilen s n otes th at geogra ph ic

concen tra tion of African Am ericans in th e

in n er city an d p h oto editors own

m isp erceptions of th e overall dist ribu tion

of ra ce an d p overty do n ot explain

completely wh y there is su ch a

prepond eran ce of Blacks in news p hotos

about poverty. Gilens maintains that some

comb in ation of ph oto editors ownconsciou s or u n con scious stereotypes, or

th eir con scious or u ncons cious

in du lgence of wha t th ey perceive to be t h e

pu blics s tereotypes explain s th e rest .135

In other words, p hoto editors choose

photos with Black poor people in them

becau se th ey th in k th eir viewers or

readers will more easily interpret the

ph otograph as bein g about p overty.

Readers will recognize the familiar image,

wha t th ey kn ow to be tru e.

Crime n ews m ay su ffer from similar

factors of u rba n geograp hic concentra tion

an d stereotyping by news editors an d

report ers. Most yout h violen ce in which

youth are th e perpetra tors occurs in

u rba n cen ters. In fact , in 1 994, 30 % of th e

h omicides comm itted by you th occur red in

jus t fou r cities Chicago, Detroit, Los

An geles, a n d New York cities wh ichcontained only 5% of Americas youth

population.136 In 199 7, 94 % of coun ties in

Am erica ha d either on e or no ju venile

h omicides, m ost of th ose bein g ru ral or

su bu rban cou nt ies . Editors and producers

ma y be making choices abou t which

crimes t o in clu de th at r eflect th eir own

int ern alized u nd ersta nd in g of wha t crime

consists of an d wha t their au dien ce cares

abou t: violent Black perpetra tors an d

Wh ite victims th e im age th at is b ein greinforced by s election ch oices. In m ost

par ts of th e cou n try, th e prima ry news

au dience is White137, a grou p th at i s

statistically very unlikely to form their

opinions abou t m in ority youth crim e from

person al experience. Th ose m aking n ews

select

dorfman off balance youth, race & crime in the news

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