Citation

Ditton J, Chadee D, Farrall S, Gilchrist EA, Bannister J. Br. J. Criminol. 2004; 44(4): 595-610.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjc/azh028

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Although a connection between media reports and dramatizations of crime and peoples' fear of crime is intuitively attractive, an actual relationship has been discovered surprisingly infrequently. This study (which analyses the quantitative responses of 167 respondents, and the qualitative responses of a sub-sample of 64 of them) is no exception. The qualitative material indicates that respondents' perceptions and interpretations are more important than the frequency of media consumption and/or any objective characteristics of media material. "It is not easy to make people afraid" (Altheide 2002: 59).