Most of the common misperceptions about crimes are portrayed in the mass media. There is probably no issue that more consistently, over a longer period and with greater emotion, influences, and public opinion than crime. Year after year crime in general or a specific crime-related issue has captured public attention. Whether the issue is drug-related crime, violent crime, juvenile crime, child abductions, serial killers, youth gangs, or crime against the elderly, a public consensus exists that crime is rampant, dangerous, and threatening to explode. The dangers of crime are seemed as immediate, omnipresent, and almost inescapable. A public thirst for mor

The threat of violence is over reported and exaggerated by the media, but that the coverage of that violence is also hopelessly distorted to present an entirely false view of that phenomenon. In a study of 9,422 homicides in Los Angels County occurring between 1990, and 1994, researchers found that despite the fact that homicides were over reported in the press, only specific types of homicides were selected for media’s excessive attention. With such heavy exposure to crime themes, entertainment mediums, and through news programs it would appear to be common sense that more media exposure should be directly related to a greater fear of crime. Unfortunately, unlike media analyst and news anchors, social scientists are constrained by their craft to be more circumspect in their claims. Certainly a correlation between media exposure and concerns about crime is easy to demonstrate. But, correlation is a very long way from causation and direct relationship are not easy to prove. For example, it is difficult to demonstrate whether greater media exposure causes fear of crimes because people are staying home watching crime on television.

In addition to producing or reproducing ideology the media also acts as “amplifiers.” This means that the media tends

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