The press and the not‐so‐mean streets: The relative influence of the news media on public knowledge of crime rates

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which news media use predicts the public's ability to correctly estimate crime rates. The research found that the public seriously overestimates the extent of the crime problem, and the news media do little to help the public understand the extent of the problem. Few of the relationships were significant, suggesting that in general news coverage neither improved nor hindered people's abilities to make correct crime estimates. However, four of the five significant betas were negative, indicating that increased exposure to the media was more likely to hamper the public's ability to accurately estimate crime rates than to help it.