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This paper compares police, newspaper, television, and public images of crime trends for the seven FBI index crimes over time, the relative frequency of occurrence of these offenses, and the characteristics of persons committing them. Media presentations of crime trends over time are found generally unrelated to trends in police statistics. Newspaper presentation of the relative distribution of crimes approximates police figures more closely than does the television presentation. Public views of the relative distribution of crimes but not of crime trends more closely approximate media presentations than police presentations. Television's impact on public views of crime is apparently minor. Reasons for these findings and their implications for crime news reporting are discussed.
Sheley et al. (1981) studied this question.