Crime in TV, the News, and Film provides a fresh look at the interplay between criminal events and the media outlets that cover them. The authors’ diverse backgrounds— a criminologist researcher, a documentarian and media professor, a police officer, and a criminologist who is a former TV reporter— allow for frank discussion. Combining field experience with criminological research, the book gives insight to the everyday media operations that can produce most people’s views on crime and profoundly influence public opinion— public opinion that often frames public policy.

Viewers of crime dramas and consumers of news will gain a new understanding of the way their programs are produced. Readers will become more aware of the issues and biases that sometimes cloud perceptions of crime and criminals. Finally, both experts and scholars interested in the subject will improve their discernment of media stories and media depictions, shining a light on crime in a hazy field. This book can be used in the classroom for an array of courses in the fields of media and communications, criminology, sociology, and more.

"

This timely work shows how media portrayals of crime in the news and in entertainment, including film and television, shape society's views and biases about crime, criminals, victims, and justice. In 12 chapters, authors from the fields of journalism, criminal justice, and film provide readers and researchers with a clearer understanding of how media portrayals of crime are created, produced, and depicted. The chapters provide relevant and impactful examples of how well-known, crime-based media productions reconcile with actual crime statistics and research. Readers will gain insight into how US news media outlets, television, and film depict crime, criminals, victims, police, and the criminal justice system. This book would make an especially good addition to course readings for criminal justice, communication studies, and film and television studies at both undergraduate and graduate levels of study. Recommended for undergraduates through faculty and general readers.