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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/8/6/2019 DORFMAN Off Balance Youth, Race & Crime in the News
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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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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 5
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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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 7
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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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 9
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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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
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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%
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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
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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 1 3
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.
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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.
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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 1 5
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 ,
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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.
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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 1 7
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**
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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 1 9
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. **
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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 2 1
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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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
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You t h , Ra ce & Crim e in t h e New s 2 3
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