For a fair and effective youth justice system

OFF BALANCE: YOUTH, RACE & CRIME IN THE NEWS

Prepared by Lori Dorfman, DrPH Berkeley Media Studies Group, Public Health Institute

Vincent Schiraldi, Justice Policy Institute

April 2001 OFF BALANCE: YOUTH, RACE & CRIME IN THE NEWS

This is the fourth in an ongoing series of analyses published by Building Blocks for Youth, a multi-organizational initiative whose goal is to promote a fair and effective juvenile justice system. In January, 2000, Building Blocks issued its first report, “The Color of Justice” which found that 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 national study, “And Justice for Some”, reported that youth of color are treated more severely than White youth at each stage of the justice system, even when charged with the same offenses. In October, 2000 Building Blocks’ third report, “Youth Crime, Adult Time” an in-depth study of youth prosecuted as adults in 18 of the largest jurisdictions in the country, found racial disparities similar to the earlier reports, and raised serious concerns about the fairness and appropriateness of the process.

The initiative has five major components:

(1) Research on the disparate impact of the justice system on minority youth, on the effects of new adult-court transfer legislation in the states, and on the privatization of juvenile justice facilities by for-profit corporations;

(2) Analyses of decisionmaking at critical points in the justice system, including arrest, detention, adjudication, and disposition;

(3) Direct advocacy on behalf of youth in the justice system, particularly on issues that disproportionately affect youth of color such as conditions of confinement in jails, prisons, and juvenile facilities; access to counsel and adequacy of representation in juvenile court; and "zero tolerance" and other issues relating to school suspensions and expulsions;

(4) Constituency-building among African-American, Latino, and Native-American and other minority organizations, as well as organizations in the medical, mental health, legal, law enforcement, child welfare, civil rights, human rights, religious, victim's rights, and domestic violence areas, at the national, state, and local levels;

(5) Development of communications strategies to provide timely, accurate, and relevant information to these constituencies, public officials, policymakers, the media, and the public.

The partners in the initiative are the Youth Law Center, American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Center, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, Juvenile Law Center, Minorities in Law Enforcement, National Council on Crime and Delinquency and Pretrial Services Resource Center.

The initiative is supported by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Annie E. Casey, Ford, Mott, MacArthur, Rockefeller and William T. Grant foundations, and the Center on Crime, Communities & Culture of the Open Society Institute. This project was supported by award No. 98-JN-FX-K003 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or the supporting foundations.

www.buildingblocksforyouth.org INTRODUCTION juvenile justice systems they analyzed found that there was a “race effect” at Race and the Juvenile Justice System some stage of the juvenile justice process that affected outcomes for minorities for 5 In January 2000, the Building Blocks for the worse. Their research suggested that Youth initiative issued its first report, The “the effects of race may be felt at various Color of Justice, which found that youth of decision points, they may be direct or color in California were more than eight indirect, and they may accumulate as times as likely to be incarcerated by adult youth continue through the system.” They courts as White youth for equally serious suggest that the race effect in the juvenile crimes.1 Building Blocks’ comprehensive justice system may be more common than national study, And Justice for Some, in the adult system. reported that youth of color are treated more severely than White youth at each There is evidence that stereotyping is stage of the justice system, even when affecting the treatment young people charged with the same offenses.2 In experience at the hands of the juvenile October, 2000, Building Blocks’ third justice system. According to a 1998 report, Youth Crime, Adult Time, an in- analysis by University of Washington depth study of youth prosecuted as adults researchers, court reports prepared prior in 18 of the largest jurisdictions in the to sentencing by probation officers country, found racial disparities similar to consistently give more negative portrayals the earlier reports, and raised serious of Black youth even when controlling for concerns about the fairness and offense behavior and prior record, thus appropriateness of the process.3 leading to harsher sentencing recommendations for Blacks.6 Professor These reports have built upon a growing George Bridges concluded that “The body of research showing that youth of children would be charged with the same color receive disparate treatment in crime, be the same age and have the same America’s juvenile justice system. In the criminal history, but the different ways most recent reporting to the Office of they were described was just shocking.” Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the US Department of More Fear, Less Crime, Fear of Minority Justice, every state but one that reported Crime data found disproportionate confinement of minority youth.4 More than two-thirds Despite sharp declines in youth crime, the of youths confined in America are minority public expresses great fear of its own youth, even though minorities make up young people. Although violent crime by only about one-third of America’s youth youth in 1998 was at its lowest point in population. the 25-year history of the National Crime Victimization Survey7, 62% of poll In a seminal meta-analysis conducted by respondents felt that juvenile crime was researchers Carl Pope and Richard on the increase.8 In the 1998/99 school Feyerherm, two-thirds of the carefully year, there was less than a one-in-two- constructed studies of state and local million chance of being killed in a school

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 3 in America, yet 71% of respondents to an categories of juvenile crime did not NBC/Wall Street Journal poll felt that a increase during that period, and the school shooting was likely in their public had unrealistic perceptions about community. Despite a 40% decline in crime long before those increases. school associated violent deaths between 1998 and 1999 and declines in other At the same time as Americans are fearful areas of youth violence, respondents to a of youth crime, they are more likely to USA Today poll were 49% more likely to exaggerate the threat of victimization by express fear of their schools in 1999 than minorities. Twice as many White in 1998.9 Americans believe they are more likely to be victimized by a minority than a White, This response is not simply an artifact of despite the fact that Whites are actually highly publicized school shootings. A 1996 three times more likely to be victimized by CBS/New York Times poll, taken prior to Whites than by minorities.13 any of the highly publicized school shootings, showed that 84% of What Is The News Media’s Role? respondents believed juvenile crime was on the increase. In a 1996 California poll, More than 70 years ago Walter Lippmann 60% of respondents reported believing wrote a now-classic work, Public Opinion.14 that juveniles were responsible for most In that book he described the impossibility violent crime, when youths were actually of knowing through direct experience responsible for about 13% of violent crime everything that it was necessary to know that year.10 to function as a citizen in our modern democracy. Instead, Lippmann explained, In an environment in which fear of youth we depend on “pictures in our heads,” crime and actual crime are so out of sync, many of them delivered by the news policies affecting young people are bound media, to tell us about the world. Our to be influenced. Since 1992, 47 states decisions about how to behave and how to have made their juvenile justice systems construct our society have to be based on more punitive by eroding confidentiality those pictures, Lippmann believed, protections or making it easier to try because the world was too vast to juveniles as adults. For example, crime by experience personally. youth fell more during the 1980’s and 1990’s than adult crime in California, yet The public depends on the media for its California voters overwhelmingly passed pictures of crime. Three quarters (76%) of proposition 21 in 2000, requiring that the public say they form their opinions youth as young as age 14 be automatically about crime from what they see or read in tried as adults for certain offenses.11 In the news, more than three times the one estimate, more than 200,000 youths number who state that they get their were prosecuted in adult court in America primary information on crime from in 1998.12 Some of the policy changes may personal experience (22%).15 In a Los have been in response to the jump in Angeles Times poll, 80% of respondents juvenile homicides with guns from the stated that the media’s coverage of violent mid-1980’s to the early 1990’s but other crime had increased their personal fear of

4 Off Balance 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.

being a victim.16 A 1998 report by Public quite small. Consequently, America’s Agenda found that daily TV news viewers dominant voting and opinion setting block were more likely to think that crime and – its White adult population – depends on drugs were Baltimore’s number one the news to explain minority youth crime problem than were those who watch the to them. news less frequently (67% vs. 42%).17 Despite declining crime rates in Baltimore, The news media should help as many one woman there stated, “I get more citizens as possible make sense of the nervous and worried the more I see, so the world around them. But does the current less I see, the less crime I would feel is approach to covering youth and crime going on out there.”18 maximize public understanding? What information on youth and crime does the These survey results are consistent with American public get from the news? In communications research finding that the view of the powerful impact news coverage news media largely determine what issues of crime has on public opinion and the we collectively think about, how we think dependence of most Americans on the about them, and what kinds of policy news media for depictions of crime, there alternatives are considered viable.19 News are several important questions we have portrayals of juvenile justice issues are about the accuracy of the picture significant for how they influence policy Americans are receiving from the news makers and the public regarding what media: should be done to ensure public safety. Issues are not considered by the public 1. Does news coverage reflect actual crime and policy makers unless they are visible, trends? and they are not visible unless the news 2. How does news coverage depict brings them to light. minorities and crime? 3. Does news coverage disproportionately Most people have little or no personal depict youth of color as perpetrators of experience with juvenile crime because crime? adults commit most of the crime in the nation: about 89% of all crimes cleared by The remainder of this study will seek to arrest are committed by adults.20 answer these three questions.

The public depends on the media even METHODS more for its pictures of crime done by or to minority youth, since most of the public Our objective was to compile and examine has no direct personal experience with the best social science that has analyzed crime by minority youth. Eighty-six the content of crime news to answer the percent of White homicide victims are questions above, particularly analyses killed by other Whites, and overall, Whites that included examinations of race and are three times as likely to be victimized youth. This report assesses and by other Whites as by minorities. The consolidates the findings from those chances that a White adult will be the content analyses on crime news. victim of a crime by a Black youth are

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 5 Collecting the Universe of Studies on published in a peer-reviewed journal. We Crime News focused our attention on the 65 articles published in peer-reviewed journals To identify scientific content analyses of because we believed these studies would crime news, we conducted searches of provide us with evidence put through the criminal justice and communications most rigorous scrutiny. These articles databases for articles containing the were the best that social science has to following key words: “content analysis,” offer on the topic of race, crime, youth and “crime,” “media,” “race,” “violence,” and/or the news. We dubbed these “Level 1” “youth.” Communications and criminal studies. justice databases included the Criminal Justice Abstracts, SocioFile, the Missouri The remaining 45 articles included School of Journalism’s study of Race & empirical analyses published by the Media, the DialogWeb(TM) database, organizations or researchers without the MERLIN’s OVID database (the Current benefit of peer-review. While these articles Contents and Periodical Abstracts do not offer the same level of confidence as databases) and the JSTOR online database. the peer-reviewed studies, we believed Phyllis Schultze, Information Specialist, that the findings warrant examination and Rutgers Law Library, conducted the initial discussion here. We called these “Level 2” search of the criminal justice databases. studies. We augmented the electronic search with pertinent articles cited in the references of Several of the 110 Level 1 and Level 2 these articles that had not turned up in studies were ultimately eliminated from our keyword searches. our analysis because they were primarily about single events (e.g., O.J. Simpson), Analyzing the Universe of Studies on “reality” shows which we deemed Crime News entertainment rather than news21, media effects, photographs only, non-US news, The search yielded 146 articles. The or topics other than analyses of general authors, with the assistance of University news that included crime news content. of Missouri journalism graduate student Ultimately, 33 studies were eliminated for Maria Len-Rios and Justice Policy Institute one of the reasons listed above (see intern Alea Brown, read, abstracted and Appendix 1). Our conclusions are based categorized all 146 articles for their on the findings synthesized from the relevance to the issues of youth, crime and remaining 77 published studies. race. Thirty-six of the articles were newspaper accounts or reports that did We also excluded from our analysis the not offer primary data analyses. We elim- several books that have been written on inated these articles from our analysis. the subject of race and crime because we wanted to focus on studies that had been Level 1 and Level 2 studies. Our first peer-reviewed. However, in the case of task was to determine whether the study studies of youth depictions, because there presented original data on news content. were so few studies, we wanted to include We also determined whether the study was any available analyses. Therefore, we 6 Off Balance 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.

included findings from studies reported in data to compare to the content of the books when the methodology was well news. We collected the relevant criminal described and/or we could contact the justice data from the Federal Bureau of authors with questions. We note in the Investigation and US Department of text if the study we are discussing is from Justice and state or local law enforcement a book. surveys, where applicable.23

Most studies analyze the type of crime FINDINGS reported in the news and the characteristics of that coverage. Some The studies we surveyed covered a range studies compare the type and frequency of of media24 — local and network television, crime coverage to crime statistics. A few newspapers, and broadcast and print studies compare crime coverage to public news magazines — from 1910 through opinion about crime. Several studies 2001. Most studies analyzed newspapers tested media effects (e.g., whether news (N=53), followed by local television (N=26). stories changed attitudes or opinions of Twenty studies analyzed network audiences) but did not analyze content, television news. Only three studies though several of these studies are analyzed print news magazines and two referred to in the body of the report analyzed the content of TV news magazine because of the insight they offer as we programs. (The numbers add to more than interpret the various content analyses. 77 because several studies analyzed more Appendix 1 lists all 110 Level 1 and Level than one medium). 2 studies. A complete bibliography is available in the References. 22 Overall, the studies taken together indicate that depictions of crime in the Comparison of news content to crime news are not reflective of either the rate of statistics. Once we had summarized and crime generally, the proportion of crime condensed the findings about news which is violent, the proportion of crime content, we compared those findings to committed by people of color, or the crime trends reported by law enforcement proportion of crime committed by youth. agencies. For example, if studies of the The problem is not the inaccuracy of news showed an ever larger proportion of individual stories, but that the cumulative the “news hole” — the amount of choices of what is included — or not newspaper or television time devoted to included — in the news presents the news — occupied by violent crime, was public with a false picture of higher that simply a reflection of actual increases frequency and severity of crime than is in violent crime during the same time actually the case. period? According to the best scientific analyses of media content, is the news Furthermore, the studies show that crime providing an accurate reflection of crime is depicted as a series of distinct events trends? We ascertained whether the unrelated to any broader context. Most studies themselves made the relevant studies that examine race and crime find comparisons to crime trends, and, if they that the proportion of crime committed by did not, we collected the appropriate crime people of color (usually African Americans) is over-reported and that Black victims are Youth, Race & Crime in the News 7 under-represented. Other studies find that is the inverse of crime frequency. That is, crimes committed by people of color are murder is reported most often on the news covered in proportion with arrest rates, though it happens the least.36 As we but that crimes committed by Whites are discuss later in this report, this is not undercovered. surprising since homicide is a crime with much greater consequences than property Finding #1: The news media report crimes and embodies many aspects crime, especially violent crime, out reporters seek in a “good story.” of proportion to its actual occurrence. The more unusual the crime or violence, the more likely it is to be covered. Studies of newspapers and television In some studies, the number of victims was the strongest predictor of identified three clear patterns. First, and 37 most consistent over time, is that whether or not a crime would be covered. Other factors that increase the likelihood newspapers and television emphasize of a homicide being reported in the news violent crime. Second, the more unusual are multiple victims, multiple offenders, the crime, the greater the chance it will be an unusual method, a White victim, a covered. Third, the rate of crime coverage child, elderly, or female victim, or increased while real crime rates dropped. occurrence in an affluent neighborhood.38,39 While all media emphasize violence in For example, a study of five years of their news, newspapers do it to a lesser homicide coverage in the Los Angeles degree than network television, which Times from 1990 through 1994 found that does it less than local TV news.25 There are fewer studies of Spanish language the least common homicides received the 40 That is, homicides newspapers and television news broadcast most coverage. between strangers and interracial in the US, but those that exist also homicides received more coverage when, demonstrate an emphasis on crime in reality, most murder victims in Los consistent with studies of English- Angeles County were killed by someone language US news.26,27,28,29,30 they knew and someone of the same race. Violent Crime Dominates Crime Coverage. Crime is often the dominant The disproportionate coverage of homicide topic on local television news31, network was also prevalent in television news. For news32, and TV newsmagazines.33 On example, Rocky Mountain Media Watch’s network newscasts, crime and violence are one-day snapshot of local television news covered more than any other topic on the in 55 markets around the country on news. Crime is a newspaper staple as well. February 26, 1997, the Kaiser Family When the news media cover crime, they Foundation analyses of national television cover little other than violent crime.34 news in 1996, and Gilliam et al.’s studies While crimes against property occupy of the evening news on KABC-TV in Los most of law enforcement’s attention, Angeles from 1993 to 1994 were violent crimes occupy television remarkably consistent. All three found producers, newspaper editors, and that homicides made up more than a reporters’.35 In general, TV crime reporting quarter of the crimes reported on the 8 Off Balance evening news (27% - 29%) while from one- Local television news has not been to two-tenths of one percent of all arrests monitored for as long as the networks. in those years was for a homicide. On one However, several studies done in the mid- Los Angeles local station this amounted to 1990’s by Rocky Mountain Media Watch 14 homicide stories for every homicide (RMMW) provide similar evidence for local committed.41 As the authors note, “the TV news.45 RMMW volunteers collect late seriousness and newsworthiness of night news broadcasts from local TV murder cannot be denied, but the level of stations on the same night around the ‘distortion’ is impressive.” Other violent country. All RMMW studies show high crime categories were also portrayed out of levels of crime reporting, so much so that proportion to their actual share of arrests. RMMW created a measure dubbed the “mayhem index” to account for local TV Crime coverage has increased while real news attention to crime, violence and crime rates have fallen. Overall the rate disaster coverage. In every year examined, of crime coverage in the news did not crime stories dominate the local TV reflect crime trends. For example, one of newscasts, and violent crime, particularly the few studies of newsmagazines found murder, dominates the crime stories. For that increases in crime reporting in Time example, in 1997, RMMW found that magazine reflected increases in crime crime topped the list of subjects covered during 1975 and 1979.42 But it also found on local evening news, was one-third of all a 55% increase in crime coverage in Time local news stories, and appeared three from 1979 through 1982 when the actual times as much as the next closest subject. crime rate increased by only 1%. RMMW suggests that crime coverage not only persists out of proportion to actual On network television news, crime crime, but that it also uses up time that coverage doubled from 1992 to 1993, from could be devoted to other important topics. 830 to 1,698 stories. This made crime the leading TV news topic for the first time The Kaiser Family Foundation (1998) has since 1987. The coverage continued rising, recently begun tracking news agendas, reaching 1,949 stories in 1994 and 2,574 with an interest in health issues. Its in 1995, more than triple the total studies of network and local TV news in recorded in 1992. Crime news peaked in 1996 found that crime was the most 1995 primarily because of the O.J. common story on local news. Of the Simpson trial coverage, but never dropped 17,000 local news stories broadcast to its pre-O.J. levels.43 From 1990 through during a three month period, the number 1999, Center for Media and Public Affairs of violent crime stories broadcast, 2,035, researchers catalogued 135,449 stories on was almost double the number of health ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts. stories (1,265), three times the number of Crime was the biggest topic of the decade foreign news reports (630), and four times with 14,289 crime stories. Crime news the number of education stories (501). In declined for the first time in 2000, contrast to the local news findings, crime dropping 39% from the previous year, but ranked sixth on the network news agenda remains the third most frequent topic on during the same period.46 network news.44

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 9 Graph 1: Nationally, crime dropped by 20% from 1990 to 1998 while network television showed an 83% increase in crime news.

100% Crime news increase

Percent 83% Change

0% -20%

National crime drop

Source: Center for Media & Public Affairs,2000a, US DOJ 2000

Summary & Implications continued focus on the most serious crimes leaves the public with an The news media has proven to be a poor incomplete picture. Additionally, whether vehicle for discerning crime trends. While it is more newsworthy or not, reporting there was a 1% increase in crime from more frequently on a category of crime 1979 to 1982, crime coverage in Time (murder) that is declining is likely to lead increased by 55% during that time the public to form erroneous beliefs about period.47 Nationally, crime dropped by 20% crime trends. from 1990 to 1998 while network TV showed an 83% increase in crime news.48 Furthermore, if the most unusual While homicide coverage was increasing homicides get the only news attention, on network news—473% increase from audiences will assume those are the 1990 to 1998—homicides were down typical homicides, or that they are more 32.9% from 1990 to 1998.49 (See Graphs 1 prevalent than they actually are. Based on & 2). the news, the public may (and indeed, does, according to public opinion Of course, homicide is a far more serious surveying) assume that interracial crime than car theft or robbery. It deserves murders by strangers are typical, yet that serious attention from journalists — it’s is not the case in the US. The repetition of appropriate to report more intensely on the unusual has consequences for how murders than vandalism. Yet the audiences interpret crime. The steady diet

10 Off Balance of violent crime, coupled with the absence local TV news in particular. Even some of nonviolent crime and general context, who produce the news claim to hate the means that the rare crime looks like the mandate, sometimes feeling they have no normal crime; homicide is the prototypical choice. “Yes, the crime reporting around crime in the news. Further, increased the local stations is disproportionate to coverage of crime in general and reality,” KTLA-TV news director David homicides in particular while crime and Goldberg told the Los Angeles Times. “It homicides are declining gives the viewing helps drive the fear in our communities. public a skewed view of crime trends. We You would think [Los Angeles] was one of believe this explains, to a large extent, why the most dangerous places on earth. But the public consistently overestimates the unfortunately, newsrooms find crime very rate of crime. easy to cover. It’s their way of not having to work hard.”50 Criticism of the news for its emphasis on violent crime is certainly not new. Violence stories are easy to do and readily Periodically, pundits, critics, community available, perfect for a deadline driven groups, and others bemoan the “if it newsroom. They are often about life and bleeds, it leads” edict that seems to govern death — “good stories,” full of drama and

Graph 2: From 1990-1998, homicide coverage was increasing on network news by 473% while homicides were down 32.9%

Homicide news 500% increase

Percent Change 473%

National homicide 0% drop

-32.9% -100%

Source: Center for Media & Public Affairs,2000a, US DOJ 2000

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 11 emotion — that keep audiences attentive. crime news is episodic, describing crime All of these reasons contribute to the events as if they are isolated from larger consistency of the findings in the studies social, historical, or environmental of news. contexts. Studies spanning almost 100 years — 1910 to 2000 — are consistent in Another important factor in the current their findings that news reports describe emphasis on crime coverage is the advent what happened with little reporting about of 24-hour news. Stations have a lot of why the crime and violence happened or time to fill, and crime coverage is easy, what could be done about it.52 In one cheap and available. In his book critiquing example, researchers found that the routine crime coverage, former crime nation’s dominant news magazines reporter and editor David Krajicek portrayed the race riots of the late 1960’s suggests that a “Murdock effect” pushed as “random, unpredictable, and most of crime coverage further into the all, unjustified” events outside a larger sensational. During the 1980’s, stations social context53, despite Kerner owned by media mogul Rupert Murdock Commission findings that there were began broadcasting sensationalistic news- many identifiable — and justifiable — like programs such as “A Current Affair.” reasons for the riots.54 Paul Klite of RMMW The programs pursued topics in a manner notes that local TV news covers all the most traditional news outlets eschewed. elements of the crime: the search, the But, Krajicek argues, in the late 1980’s, scene, the arrest, and the trial, with mainstream news outlets began to cite “A dramatic video of flashing lights, yellow Current Affair” as a news source, allowing crime-scene tape and grieving relatives, them to report on celebrity scandals and but little of the “context, consequences, other crime that had previously been patterns or solutions that surround the reserved for the tabloids. Now, according events.”55 The lack of explanations for to Krajicek, the networks included in their crime and violence complicates the broadcasts stories that they previously problem of exaggerated frequency in news would not have investigated or reported. stories by leaving the impression that the As local and network TV news repeatedly violence is inevitable. aired tape from shows like “A Current Affair,” Krajicek maintains, the “definition Finding #3: The news media, of legitimate news had changed.”51 particularly television news, unduly connect race and crime, especially Finding #2: The news media report violent crime. crime as a series of individual events without adequate attention to its Several studies examine race in crime overall context. news, but the findings are less straightforward. People of color are Presumably, if the emphasis on crime is depicted more often in crime stories than satisfying viewers’ desire to know about it, in non-crime stories,56 but not all studies then print and broadcast journalists differentiate between victims and should also be explaining it. Yet most perpetrators. Some count depictions of

12 Off Balance people of color; others don’t count how color, especially African Americans. often perpetrators or victims of color African American perpetrators are appear but analyze the characteristics of depicted as dangerous and the portrayals and the circumstances in indistinguishable as a group, they appear which they appear. Other studies examine more frequently in crime news stories how much attention was paid to people of than Whites, and interracial crime is color in crime stories by counting the covered disproportionately. The strongest number of words in stories with evidence shows that people of color, again perpetrators or victims of color. These primarily African Americans, are different research approaches make it underrepresented as victims in crime more difficult to draw conclusions across news. 57 studies. Invisible Black Victims versus Visible Nonetheless, there is some consistent Black Suspects evidence that a disproportionate number of perpetrators on the news are people of While many crime stories do not identify race, there is some evidence that Table 1: Nineteen* studies mention the newspapers are more likely to identify race race of victims and perpetrators in a crime story when an African American is the suspect.58,59 In nine of 12 (75%) Six out of seven (86%) studies that clearly studies, minorities were overrepresented identify the race of victims find an 60 underreporting of minority victims as perpetrators of crime. Six out of seven (86%) studies that clearly identify the race Studies finding the Studies finding no underrepresentation underrepresentation of victims found more attention was paid of minority victims: of minority victims: to White victims than to Black victims.61 Hawkins et al 1995Fedler (See& Table 1).Jordan 1996 Johnstone et al 1994 Pritchard & Hughes 1997 Romer et al. 1998 Victims. Several studies found that Black Sorenson et al. 1998 Weiss & Chermak 1998 victims are less likely to be covered in newspapers than are White victims62, and Among studies that document the race of one found that newsworthiness increases perpetrators, nine out of 12 (75%) find 63 minorities overrepresented when the victim is White. Homicides of White victims resulted in more and longer Studies finding minority 3 studies document no 64 overrepresentation overrepresentation as articles than homicides of Black victims. as perpetrators: perpetrators: The news media’s preference for stories of Barlow 1995Fedler & White homicideJordan victims over1996 Black victims Barlow 1998 Rodgers et al. 2000 Dulaney 1969 Sorenson et al. 1998 is part of what motivated Sorenson et al. Gilliam & Iyengar 2000 (1998) to coin the term “worthy victim” to Gilliam et al. 1996 Entman 1990 describe who gets attention in newspaper Grabe 1999 stories about homicide. They found that Romer et al. 1998 Weiss & Chermak 1998 murders of Blacks and Latinos were substantially underreported in the Los *24 studies mention the race of victims and/or suspects Angeles Times in a special seven-part but not all present the data clearly differentiated. series that reported five years of homicides

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 13 There are more crimes committed each year than the news media have space to cover. As in all other fields, the media must make choices. The following summary digested from Kids and Guns: How Politicians, Experts, and the Media in the county (1990-1994). For example, Fabricate Fear of Youth (Common Courage Press 2000) by they found that 80% of homicide victims Mike Males, Ph.D., discusses which homicides were and in Los Angeles were Black or Hispanic. Yet weren’t chosen for national coverage. Blacks were half as likely to be depicted as From May 1997 to November 1999, in Ventura, California, three affluent suburban adults in their 40’s killed 10 people in Los homicide victims as Whites in the multiple-victim shootings — six children and four adults. That’s Angeles Times, and Hispanics were two- more than the combined toll of school shootings in Pearl, thirds as likely to be depicted as homicide Mississippi; West Paducah, Kentucky; and Jonesboro, victims as Whites. Put another way, when Arkansas — all in just one county. Yet none of the Ventura a White person is murdered in Los grownup shootings made national headlines. All the usual big Angeles, it is three times as likely that story ingredients were there: well-off perpetrators killing there will be a story about it in the Los innocent children in communities where “murder just does not happen.” The only big-story ingredient missing: the Angeles Times than if the victim is Black. murderers were not youths. Asians and Whites, conversely, make up Consider the dozen mass shootings in the last half of 1999. 3.8% and 12.9% of victims in Los Angeles. All involved middle class adults. The toll was 90 casualties: Nearly 9% of homicide victims depicted in 59 dead (including 21 minors) and 31 wounded. Thus, just the Los Angeles Times in Los Angeles were 25 weeks of middle-aged mass shootings killed and injured Asian, and fully 20.9% of homicide victims far more people than three years of highly publicized school depicted in the Los Angeles Times were shootings (Columbine 16; Jonesboro 4; West Paducah 3; White. They concluded that the paper’s Springfield 2; Pearl 2; Mt Morris Township 1). All occurred where “such things are not supposed to happen”: professional homicide coverage “focused on the ‘worthy offices, churches, community centers, upscale hotels, or victim’ — the White, youngest and oldest, suburban homes. A few received press attention (e.g. the women, high socioeconomic status, who Atlanta office mass-murder) but the media quickly wearied of were killed by strangers.”65 Researcher the sheer number of middle-aged killings. Mike Males found that the only school Likewise, the news media made choices about coverage shootings not prominently covered during even within the category of school shootings. According to the 1997-99 school years were those the National School Safety Center, from 1997 - 1999, there were 30 school killings that received practically no publicity. involving minority victims (see sidebar). The deaths fell into two categories. Twenty-two involved minority student victims or students of unknown races Perpetrators. The coverage of perpetrators attending mostly-minority schools. Eight involved white victims of color is less out of balance than the — of those, seven involved adult perpetrators, and one student coverage of victims. Some studies found died from an aneurysm after a fist fight with another student. distinct disparities, while others found In the super-charged 1999 school year when the media perpetrators of color represented in feverishly awaited any new school shooting, three were virtually numbers that matched their local arrest ignored. A 14-year-old Elgin, Illinois, teen was shot to death in his classroom in February. Not news: he was Latino and in rates, but found Whites underrepresented. Special Ed. On June 8, two girls were gunned down in front For example, a study of murder coverage of their high school in Lynwood, California. Not news (even in in Indianapolis newspapers found that the the Los Angeles Times which ran a modest story on an inside percentage of articles about Black page): they were Latinas. On November 19, a 13-year-old suspects reflected the percentage of boy shot a 13-year-old girl in a Deming, New Mexico, middle Blacks arrested for murder (60% and 61%, school. Both were also Latinos. respectively), but if the suspect was Black, Several of the unheralded school killings had death tolls equaling or exceeding nationally headlined killings. Why then the average article length was longer than 66 did the news media deem white-suburban-student killings an for a White suspect. apocalypse and white adult, minority student and inner-city killings of no import? To ask the question is to answer it: in the crass logic of the newsroom things like that are “supposed 14 to happen” to darker-skinned youth. Off Balance RMMW’s study of local TV news across the How are African Americans depicted in country in 1995 found that 37% of crime stories? In his extensive work on perpetrators on local TV news were Black, portrayals of African Americans on local 32% were Latino, 27% were White, and 4% television news71, Professor Robert were Asian. Whites dominated most other Entman documents that Blacks are most roles on local TV news in the nation that likely to be seen in television news stories day, comprising 89% of the anchors, 78% in the role of criminal, victim, or of the reporters, 87% of the official demanding politician. Black suspects were sources, and 80% of the victims.67 Nine less likely to be identified by name as were months later the numbers were nearly White suspects; were not as well dressed identical.68 as White suspects on the news; and were more likely to be shown physically Close looks at local TV news in a major restrained than Whites. In sum, Black media market and large urban center suspects were routinely depicted as being found disparities as well. Blacks were 22% poor, dangerous, and indistinct from other more likely to be shown on local TV news non-criminal Blacks. He also found that in Los Angeles committing violent crime Blacks are more frequently reported in than nonviolent crime, while according to connection with violence, and that Black police statistics, Blacks were equally likely suspects and their defenders were to be arrested for violent crime and substantially less likely to speak in the nonviolent crime. Likewise, Hispanics were stories than were their White 14% more likely to be depicted as counterparts, reinforcing their absence of committing violent crime than a individuation.72 nonviolent crime, whereas Hispanics were 7% more likely to be arrested for a violent Are Blacks blamed for crime? Romer et crime than a nonviolent crime.69 Some al. (1998) wanted to find out whether the might argue that this is simply because overrepresentation of people of color, violent crime is more newsworthy than especially African Americans, in stories non-violent crime. But Whites were 31% about crime and other problems was more likely to be depicted committing a simply an accurate reflection of the crime nonviolent crime than a violent crime, that Blacks committed or the consequence whereas Whites were in fact only 7% more of journalists’ interpreting Black crime as likely to be arrested for a nonviolent crime intergroup conflict. They posited that if than a violent crime. Thus, while Blacks Blacks are shown accused of crimes, but and Hispanics were overrepresented as not affected by crime or active in violent offenders, Whites were prevention efforts, the blame underrepresented as violent offenders on interpretation would persist in viewers. the evening news. In addition, researchers The authors examined more than 3,000 found that when stories featured a Black stories from 14 weeks of local TV news in perpetrator, reporters included sources Philadelphia. They found Blacks hostile to the perpetrator half the time, overrepresented in crime stories and more whereas with White perpetrators, likely to be shown as perpetrators in reporters included hostile sources only violent and nonviolent crime (though one 25% of the time.70 station had a more balanced portrayal,

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 15 Despite much higher rates of Black victimization according to the FBI, White victims are shown at a much higher rate on the news.

with higher rates of Blacks in nonviolent 1990-1994.78 On local television news in roles). They found Whites represented as Chicago, 76% of Chicago news about victims at a greater rate than as Blacks was crime or politics, with stories perpetrators, ranging from 30-70%73, all of about Black victimizations of Whites being which were greater than Whites’ rate of especially prominent.79 These findings are victimization according to police statistics disturbing since people of any racial group in Philadelphia. Despite much higher rates are far more likely to be killed by someone of Black victimization according to the of the same race. FBI, White victims are shown at a much higher rate on the news. They found that Contradictory Evidence. The evidence of “persons of color are represented in the distorted news portrayals of race and crime category primarily for their crime is strong, but there are some contribution to crime,” whereas Whites exceptions. A content analysis of the St. “are shown primarily for their reaction to Louis Post-Dispatch did not find African and suffering from crime.”74 Romer et al. American portrayals limited to stereotyped conclude that these depictions roles of perpetrator or entertainer.80 The overemphasize the harm people of color authors suggest that this may be the inflict on White victims, perpetuate result of a heightened awareness by the tension between groups, and inhibit newspaper staff to combat such cooperation. stereotypes. Another study found that homicides allegedly committed by Blacks Interracial Crime. Our nation has an or Hispanics tended to be covered less ugly history of treatment of interracial extensively than homicides allegedly crime, dating from slavery through the committed by Whites.81 Another found no “Jim Crow” era to the well-documented significant difference in the depictions of fact that today Blacks have a higher risk African Americans and Whites in the of receiving the death penalty for killing [Orlando] Sentinal Star in news coverage Whites than any other victim-offender during 1980, though crimes considered racial mix.75 That history is reflected in newsworthy most often involved African public opinion polling on race and crime Americans, and so it was those crimes that shows that Whites overestimate their that were more likely to appear in the likelihood of being victimized by minorities paper.82 A reporter told those researchers by three to one.76 The research we that racial identification in a crime story examined found that depictions of "was something I was told to leave out".83 interracial crime were emphasized. On Finally, researchers conducted a local TV news in Philadelphia, four in ten "baseline" content analysis of 1980 stories about non-White perpetrators newspapers to determine the prominence depicted a White person as a crime victim, of coverage of Mexican Americans, their whereas only one in ten homicides with a representation, characterization, and minority perpetrator actually involved a whether there is any variability in those White victim.77 Likewise, interethnic depictions.84 Though Mexican Americans homicides were 25% more likely to be are generally underrepresented in reported in the Los Angeles Times than American newspapers, the researchers did their actual occurrence in Los Angeles in not find an overemphasis on crime

16 Off Balance 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. reporting.85 However, more recent research consistent, there are fewer of them. Of the indicates that Latinos rarely appear in the 146 articles we originally identified, only news, and when they do it is likely to be in 16 examined whether and how youth were stories about crime or immigration.86 portrayed on television news or newspapers.90 Despite the small number of Summary and Implications. Despite studies, the findings are consistent with some evidence to the contrary, 75% of the emphasis on violent crime in news studies that investigated the race of coverage generally. Thus, when youth perpetrators conclude that people of color appear in the news, it is often connected are disproportionately associated with to violence. There is also evidence that violent crime as suspects in news stories. youth appear in violent contexts, as we Six out of seven studies that examined the might expect since most crime news is race of victims found a consistent under- violence-related. A few of the studies also reporting of people of color as victims of parallel the general findings on race and crime. In news coverage, Blacks are most the news. Young people of color seem to often the perpetrators of violence against fare as poorly as adults on the news — Whites and other Blacks, whereas in perhaps worse. Finally, some studies find reality Whites are six times as likely to be that violence perpetrated by adults upon homicide victims at the hands of other youth is underreported. Whites.87 Other summaries of content analyses have found that African News Involving Youth is Violent. Stories Americans and Latinos are more often about youth in newspapers and on portrayed as criminals and less frequently television news are scarce. When they do shown as victims.88 Consequently, it appear in the news, youth usually are in appears that most Americans are given an stories about education or violence.91 erroneous picture of racial violence and Relatively few youth are arrested each year who suffers most often from crime, as for violent crimes, yet the message from attested to by public opinion surveys. In the news is that this is a common particular, the absence of Black victims, occurrence. The earliest study we found to coupled with the repeated presence of focus on youth and crime in the news was Black suspects across different sources of an examination of Minnesota newspapers news, reinforces stereotypes about African published between July 1, 1975, and June Americans as a group audiences should 30, 1976.92 Overall the study found that fear. images of boys emphasized theft and violence primarily because status offenses Finding #4: Few studies examine were not included in coverage. By failing portrayals of youth on the news. to report on status offenses, which Those that do find that youth rarely represent the more common problems appear in the news, and when they facing a greater number of young people, do, it is connected to violence. the news picture of youth, like adults, is focused on the more unusual yet far less frequent crimes. As with crime coverage There is substantially less research that generally, theft and violence committed by focuses on portrayals of youth in the youth are more serious than status news.89 Though the findings are Youth, Race & Crime in the News 17 Graph 3: One out of every two (53%) local TV news stories concerning children or youth involved violence, while California crime data show that one out of every 50 (2%) young people in California were either victims or perpetrators of violence in 1993

1 out of every 50 (2%) of youth in California were victims or perpetrators of violence**

53% One out of every two stories about youth involved violence*

* 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 Justice Profile 1995. Population data come from the California Department of Finance, Race/Ethnic Population with Age and Sex Detail, 1970 - 2040, 1998. Youth in these data were defined as up to age 18.

offenses. Still, the authors were concerned the rest of the country, Hawaii saw its that the absence of the lesser offenses in juvenile crime rates decline or remain the picture means that delinquents “are stable during the same period. The presented as inevitably bad, and, if left authors conclude that since most Hawaii untreated, they will inevitably go wrong.”93 residents “believe the media do a fairly good job reporting crime news” and news Studies of how juvenile crime was covered media are the primary source for that over 10 years in Hawaii’s major dailies, news, it appears that many people The Honolulu Star Bulletin and The perceive the nature of juvenile crime in Honolulu Advertiser, showed extreme Hawaii to be typified by violent and/or distortions of juvenile crime.94 From 1987 gang-related offenses.95 In fact, in Hawaii to 1996, the newspapers’ coverage of most youth are arrested for less serious juvenile delinquency increased 30-fold. offenses such as vandalism, running away The newspapers’ coverage of gangs from home, drug possession and fighting.96 increased 40-fold; the most frequent type of juvenile crime story reported by the An analysis examining 840 newspaper newspapers was “gang activity.” This stories and 109 network news segments in exploding coverage did not simply reflect 1993 showed that 40% of all newspaper higher rates of crime and violence among stories on children were about violence, as Hawaii’s youth. On the contrary, unlike were 48% of network television news 18 Off Balance stories.97 Nominal attention was given to Young people had to perform topics of family, health, or economic extraordinary feats to appear on local concerns. There was more overall coverage television news in non-violence-related of crime and violence than of all other circumstances. For example, in the fall of policy issues combined. In a later study 1993, a story ran on local stations across that examined 3,172 randomly selected the state on the youngest person to fly stories on youth in one year of the Los solo across the country. Stories about Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, and San youth accomplishments accounted for Francisco Chronicle, researchers found 1.2% of the total news time in the study, that the newspapers focused largely on and these stories rarely featured local two topics: education and violence. No young people — most were stories other topic rated even a third as much provided to local stations intact via their attention. Education stories comprised satellite feed services. 26% of all stories involving youth. The authors maintain that this is appropriate In a more recent study of youth depictions since the vast majority of youth between on network and local TV news, the ages of 5 and 17 attend school and researchers found a similar paucity of about half continue after high school. But stories on youth active in community life violence stories made up 25% of all youth or achieving success. On local TV news, coverage, when only three young people in the top two leading subjects involved 100 perpetrate or become victims of youth and violence and the third most violence.98 frequent topic was accidents, often car crashes.102 Overall, the researchers found The circumstances in which youth are “twice as many discussions of crime and seen on television news are similar. A violence as there were of educational study of youth on local television news in issues and student achievement.”103 1993 examined 214 hours of local Among the 9,678 network and local TV television news broadcast over 11 days on stories the researchers analyzed, they 26 stations throughout California.99 More found only nine “instances of teens than two-thirds of violence stories involved praised for their involvement in youth while more than half of all stories community service or humanitarian work, that included youth involved violence.100 and just six students who were singled out One out of every two (53%) TV news for their exceptional educational stories concerning children or youth achievements.”104 involved violence, while California crime data show that one out of every 50 (2%) Once again, it is important to note that young people in California were either some crimes are worse than others. victims or perpetrators of violence in 1993. Homicide logically deserves more attention (See Graph 3.) Nearly seven in 10 news than delinquency or theft. But it is also stories (68%) on violence in California important to consider the backdrop involved youth, whereas youth made up behind the homicide stories. When it 14.1% of violence arrests in California that comes to stories about youth, there is little year.101 (See Graph 4). else of consequence in the news. When news coverage about productive,

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 19 Graph 4: Seven out of 10 local TV news stories on violence in California involved youth, but young people only made up 14.1% of violent arrests

Young people made up 14.1% of violence arrests in California in 1993. **

14.1%

68%

In 1993, seven out of 10 (68%) of local TV news stories on violence in California involved youth. *

* Dorfman & Woodruff 1998. The study examined 214 hours of local TV news during October-November 1993. ** Youth arrest data come from the California Department of Criminal Justice's California Criminal Justice Profile, 1995. Population data come from the California Department of Finance, Race/Ethnic Population with Age and Sex Detail, 1970- 2040, December 1998.

nonviolent youth are the exception, not public that relies on media coverage as its the rule, violence fills the void. Audiences primary source of information about youth without other contact with young people crime is misinformed. are particularly vulnerable to the perception that youth are violent and out Youth of Color Fare Worse than their of control. Crime and violence coverage White Counterparts. The one study that may displace other types of coverage about examined youth portrayals in magazines children and youth, or diminish the had the most to say about race.107 A importance the public places on children’s qualitative analysis of all cover stories in issues.105 The bias toward theft and Time and Newsweek between 1946-1995 violence may be influencing legislators to determined that the term “young Black enact inappropriate policy as a males” became synonymous with the word consequence of believing the underlying “criminal” during the late 1960’s when messages in the news coverage.106 Further, Blacks were struggling for equality. A when youth crime receives a far larger March 1965 Newsweek article was the share of all crime coverage than youths first to connect crime with Black crime. actually commit, and when youth crime The first use of “young Black male” in a coverage dramatically increases while Time or Newsweek cover story was in actual youth crime is decreasing, the 1970 when Time reported that “though 20 Off Balance victims of Black crime are overwhelmingly A study of youth crime portrayals in the Black, it is chiefly young Black males who New York Times revealed a similar commit the most common interracial imbalance. In that study, researchers crime: armed robbery.”108 The author found Black or Latino youth were never argues that the story cemented the quoted directly while White youth were connection by focussing on Washington, quoted in all five stories in which they DC, which had the highest proportion of appeared. Furthermore, defense attorneys Blacks in US cities and high rates of for White youth were quoted 13 times but crime. Two years later Newsweek made only twice for youth of color.113 the same connection. In later stories in the 1970’s, both Time and Newsweek Crime news is where all youth are most portrayed crime as “largely perpetrated by likely to be seen on TV news, but youth of ‘young Black males’”.109 Later, Hispanic color appear in crime news far more often males were added to the picture. The than White youth — 52% and 35%, author suggests that a combination of respectively. White youth were present modern racism110, media framing, and more often in health or education stories public discourse of crime as a problem of (13%) than were youth of color (2%).114 the Black urban poor has led to the racialization of crime, concluding that, as In some cases, reporters may revert to a consequence of news coverage, any stereotypes when they face language discussion of crime today is essentially a barriers or rely too heavily on one source. discussion about race. For example, in a qualitative analysis of 44 newspaper articles and 18 TV news One study examined the speakers and broadcasts of a hostage-taking incident in speaking roles in local TV news stories a “Good Guys” electronics store, about youth and violence.111 The premise researchers found an emphasis on Asian was that young people speaking on the gangs. The researchers discovered, news are the images in the stories likely to however, that the young people were not leave the most lasting impression among gang members.115 For most of the news audiences.112 The study found that youth stories, reporters relied heavily on seldom speak for themselves in any story. information from law enforcement officers Although most stories about violence who speculated inaccurately on the involve youth, the predominant speakers youths’ gang memberships and the spread in stories were adults, usually men. of Asian gang activity in other However, with every violence-related role communities.116 in which youth spoke – whether victim or witness of violence, victim or witness of Youth Victims & Perpetrators. Only a threat, or criminal or suspect – youth of few studies distinguished between youth color were represented more often. By victims and perpetrators. One found that contrast, a higher percentage of White homicide victims under age 15 received youths who spoke were in the role of more coverage in the Los Angeles Times victims of unintentional injury, a more than would be expected based on the limited and sympathetic role. frequency of homicides in that group.117 Researchers examining the San Francisco

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 21 Chronicle found more depictions of youth found youth homicides were nearly three perpetrators than youth victims118; this times more likely to be reported in the Los finding concerned the researchers since Angeles Times, despite the fact that adults youth are victims of crime at much higher commit and are victims of far more levels than they are perpetrators of crime. murders. The authors conclude that the Adults commit 1.5 times more violent Times’ misplaced focus scapegoats youth, crimes against juveniles than juveniles since they commit far fewer crimes than commit against each other; three times adults.123 more children and youth are murdered by adults than by other juveniles.119 Effects on Public Perceptions

There was other evidence that youth A detailed study of the coverage of perpetrators get more news attention than Denver’s “Summer of Violence,” provides youth victims. In another examination of an opportunity to explore the influence the the Los Angeles Times researchers found news media has on the public’s perception that nearly one in four murder suspects of youth violence.124 The study compared (23.9%) whose ages were identified in the coverage of youth homicides in the Denver Los Angeles Times in 1997 were youth, Post during the summer of 1993 to while only one in six homicide arrestees coverage in the summers of 1992 and (15.8%) in Los Angeles actually were youth 1994. The study also provides interviews that year.120 The overrepresentation of with journalists, as well as elected officials youth in homicide reporting occurred and criminal justice personnel, to despite the fact the adult homicide ascertain journalists’ motivations and arrestees killed more victims than their impact on policy making during that juvenile counterparts. watershed period for juvenile justice legislation in Colorado. Violence Against Youth is Under- reported. Two studies assessed whether The study found that, while youth violence crimes against young people were being was a growing problem for many years in covered; both studies found that crimes Denver, the news media shaped and perpetrated by adults against youth are highlighted the problem of youth violence under-reported.121 Several other studies during the “Summer of Violence” by giving that examined depictions of youth in the high visibility coverage to several youth news generally did not detect substantial killings. This brought youth violence to the coverage on youth as victims of violence.122 public’s attention, even though homicides by youth in Denver were slightly higher in The relative lack of reporting on violence 1991, 1992, and 1994 than in 1993.125 The against youth can be juxtaposed with the Governor called a special session of the over-reporting of homicide by youth as legislature that year and the legislature compared to adults. In a comparison of passed several punitive pieces of juvenile youth portrayals in 327 stories from the justice legislation, many of which had 1997 Los Angeles Times (Orange County previously been considered and rejected. edition) to crime reports from the Los After the “Summer of Violence” the news Angeles Police Department, researchers media moved on to other issues, and

22 Off Balance coverage of juvenile crime subsided White or Asian; or c) no racial identity. A dramatically, even though juvenile fourth control group saw a broadcast homicides increased the next year, and without a crime story. Researchers found over the next summer. There was a that “a mere five-second exposure to a 168.5% increase in the number of articles mug shot of African American and about youth crime between the summers Hispanic youth offenders (in a 15-minute of 1992 and 1993, and then a 220% newscast) raises levels of fear among decline in articles about youth crime in viewers, increases support for ‘get tough’ the summer of 1994, despite a 17% crime policies, and promotes racial increase in the youth homicide rate in the stereotyping.”127 While the stories with summer of 1994 versus the previous perpetrators of color increase fear among summer. Similarly, there were 14 times as all viewers, White and Asian viewers have many “A” section articles in the summer of an increased desire for harsher punitive 1993 than in the summer of 1992 and policies than African American or Hispanic four times as many in 1993 as in 1994. audiences, who, the authors suggest, are More than three times as many column reminded of injustice and prejudice by the inches were devoted to youth crime in the crime stories. Thus, the authors argue, summer of 1993 as in either 1992 or when mug shots of African Americans and 1994. Ultimately, the study concludes that Latinos are shown, local TV news crime it is not data, but news coverage, that stories expand the divide between racial galvanizes policy action about youth groups. In a similar experiment, violence. researchers found that students rated Black suspects as more guilty, deserving The Denver study shows us that of punishment, more likely to commit heightened news coverage can focus future violence, and less likable than the attention and catapult policy action, a White suspects, about whom they were typical agenda-setting effect of the news. A given precisely the same information.128 second media effect, framing, can also have a profound impact on how news Survey research on racial stereotyping and stories are interpreted by the public. crime helps explain the experimental Relevant here are experiments researchers findings. Researchers have found that have conducted to examine whether when Blacks are placed in a violent television news audiences respond context, Whites who hold stereotypical differently to stories that include “mug attitudes that consider African Americans shots” of alleged youth perpetrators of generally violent (and lazy) were far more different races: Anglo, Asian, African likely to believe that the Blacks were guilty American or Hispanic.126 and prone to violence. But the same people did not have the same reaction if In the experiments, audiences were Whites were the ones placed in the violent chosen at random in a Los Angeles context.129 shopping mall to watch a news broadcast that contained a story with a close-up Thus several researchers conclude that a photo of an alleged murderer who was discussion about crime in America is either a) African American or Hispanic; b) essentially a discussion about race.130

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 23 Several researchers conclude that a discussion about crime in America is essentially a discussion about race

Evidence from a later study strongly of race and poverty do not explain supports that conclusion, as 60% of the completely why there is such a people watching a news story without an preponderance of Blacks in news photos image of a perpetrator falsely remembered about poverty. Gilens maintains that some seeing one, and in 70% of these cases they combination of photo editors’ own “remembered” the perpetrator as African conscious or unconscious stereotypes, or American, even though they never saw their conscious or unconscious him.131 “indulgence of what they perceive to be the public’s stereotypes” explains the rest.135 The findings about race and crime In other words, photo editors choose catalogued in this report are eerily similar photos with Black poor people in them to research on news depictions of poverty. because they think their viewers or Martin Gilens compared network television readers will more easily interpret the and news magazine portrayals of poverty photograph as being about poverty. to who is poor in America, what Americans Readers will recognize the familiar image, believe about the poor, and what those what they “know” to be true. editing news photographs believe about the poor. He found that pictures in the Crime news may suffer from similar news about poor people in America factors of urban geographic concentration disproportionately feature African and stereotyping by news editors and Americans, especially when depicting “less reporters. Most youth violence in which sympathetic” poor adults, as opposed to youth are the perpetrators occurs in the working poor or the elderly.132 Gilens urban centers. In fact, in 1994, 30% of the concludes that the disproportionate homicides committed by youth occurred in number of Black faces in news images just four cities — Chicago, Detroit, Los about poverty may exist because network Angeles, and New York — cities which bureau and news magazine photographers contained only 5% of America’s youth largely operate in urban centers, where population.136 In 1997, 94% of counties in poor African Americans are more America had either one or no juvenile geographically concentrated than poor homicides, most of those being rural or Whites. When the story assignment suburban counties. Editors and producers comes, photographers go where it will be may be making choices about which easiest to take pictures of poor people — crimes to include that reflect their own inner city African American internalized understanding of what crime neighborhoods.133 “Because poor Blacks consists of and what their audience cares are disproportionately available to news about: violent Black perpetrators and photographers,” Gilens suggests, “they White victims — the image that is being may be disproportionately represented in reinforced by selection choices. In most the resulting news product.”134 parts of the country, the primary news audience is White137, a group that is However, Gilens notes that geographic statistically very unlikely to form their concentration of African Americans in the opinions about minority youth crime from inner city and photo editors’ own personal experience. Those making news misperceptions of the overall distribution selections might assume that viewers and

24 Off Balance readers want to hear stories about people these news editors live, you know that like themselves. If the news outlet’s deeply troubles them. When the crime audience, or target demographic, is was centered solely on the inner city primarily White, then editors and pro- if we had minority editors, people who ducers may “naturally” (that is, without lived in the inner city, we might have critical examination) choose stories that covered it. But we didn’t and we still feature Whites in sympathetic roles. don’t. Inner city crime is not nearly as shocking as suburban crime and Journalists ponder why. There are the only reason why is look at who is reasons the coverage looks as it does. One writing the stories and look at who is is that crime news is easy — everyone assigning the stories. knows what it looks like, how to gather it, and how to report it. Some journalists The White, middle class lens means that argue that audiences want news about some murders are more important than violence, though most polls dispute that others, as explained by this Rocky argument. Another reason is that news is Mountain News reporter: a business, and reporters, producers, and editors have learned to choose the news There are homicides and then there they believe will draw the most attractive are homicides on the police beat. There audience for advertisers. are homicides I can work hard on and only get this much into the paper. And The study of Denver’s “Summer of then there are the kind that all you Violence” offers some insight into have to do is mention to the editor, newsroom decision-making about which “Gotta former district attorney who homicides warrant coverage.138 After just killed his wife,” and we’re all over interviewing editors, producers, and it…And as a colleague of mine once reporters, the researcher concludes that, said, he had this theory that there in covering Denver’s “Summer of Violence” were misdemeanor murders. That’s in 1993, journalists viewed these mostly not a theory I subscribe to, but he had White, middle class victims killed by a point. Obviously, there are some minority youth through a predominantly murders that don’t count as much as White middle class lens. Denver Post others. A misdemeanor homicide reporter Steven Lipscher said, for example: according to Tony was typically a drug dealer [who] wipes out another drug Take a look at our editors over there. dealer in an alley somewhere over a Take a look at the news editors at the business deal gone bad. That is TV stations. Most of them are White considered a low interest homicide middle class. Most of them are men (Emphasis in original). but that doesn’t make a whole lot of difference here. They live in these nice Ultimately, individual news workers make middle class neighborhoods and when decisions about what to include in the those neighborhoods start having news of the day based on whether they random crime…and it gets close to the personally care about the story. Reporters, suburbs or even in the suburbs where editors, and producers have finely honed,

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 25 The studies reviewed here confirm that the news media’s cumulative coverage of youth, race and crime misrepresents crime, who suffers from crime, and the real level of involvement of young people in crime

internalized mechanisms that are Non-representative portrayals of youth are triggered by their personal values and especially problematic. The fact that emotional responses, tempered by news violence against children and youth is a judgement, experience, and expectations much larger problem than violence of audience response.139 Standard committed by youth143 has gone largely selection criteria for news stories — unreported by the news media. controversy, conflict, novelty, proximity, significance, timeliness, visual appeal, The public relies on news for its practicality — are processed through the knowledge of crime. We suggest that a personal filters of journalists.140 “misinformation synergy” occurs in crime news that profoundly misinforms the DISCUSSION public. The synergy results from the simultaneous and consistent presentation There has been concern about the effect of of three significant distortions in print and crime reporting on public understanding broadcast news. It is not just that African since long before television. The FBI crime Americans are overrepresented as index was created in the 1930’s in order to criminals and underrepresented as control the public interpretation of crime victims, or that young people are statistics via the FBI, specifically to avoid overrepresented as criminals, or that “the way the press seemed to manufacture violent crime itself is given undue ‘crime waves.’”141 Noncontextual news coverage. It is that all three occur together, reports have also been long lamented. combining forces to produce a terribly Thirty years ago, the Kerner Commission unfair and inaccurate overall image of noted that “By failing to portray the Negro crime in America. Add to that a majority of as a matter of routine and in the context readers and viewers who rarely have any of the total society, the news media have, personal experience with crime by Black we believe, contributed to the Black-White youth, and a White adult population who schism in this country.”142 must rely on the media to tell them that story and we have the perfect recipe for a This analysis tells us that these concerns misinformed public and misguided power are still warranted. The studies reviewed structure. here confirm that the news media’s cumulative coverage of youth, race and Each study’s findings, taken alone, may crime misrepresents crime, who suffers not be cause for alarm. After all, crime is a from crime, and the real level of involve- serious problem that demands news ment of young people in crime. With the attention and political action. consistent underrepresentation of White perpetrators and over-representation of But if news audiences are taking the crime Blacks and Latinos in violent crime coverage at face value, they are accepting stories, local TV news in particular a serious distortion. They are likely to regularly reinforces the erroneous notion believe that most crime is extremely that crime is rising, that it is primarily violent and that perpetrators are Black violent, that most criminals are nonwhite, and victims White. If news audiences have and that most victims are White. little contact with young people, they are

26 Off Balance likely to believe that youth are dangerous make those choices, how can the media threats, in part because there are so few add more context to crime coverage so as other representations of youth in the news to improve the viewers’ understanding of to the contrary. the causes and solutions to violent crime?

As noted in the Introduction to this report, RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE the public believes just that. Seventy-six NEWS MEDIA percent of Americans say they get their 144 opinions about crime from the news. A The overwhelming evidence is that in the 1998 poll found that nearly two-thirds aggregate, crime coverage is not reflecting (62%) of the public believes that juvenile an accurate picture of who the victims and 145 crime is on the increase, even though perpetrators are. The most consistent there has been a 56% decline in homicides finding across media and across time is 146 by youth between 1993 and 1998 and the gross distortion of the types of crime the National Crime Victimization Survey reported in the news. Rather than reports youth crime at its lowest since that informing citizens about their world, the survey began (1973). Rather than news is reinforcing stereotypes that inhibit informing citizens about their world, the society’s ability to respond to the problem news is reinforcing stereotypes that inhibit of crime, including juvenile crime. This is society’s ability to respond effectively to an admittedly difficult problem to fix, the problem of crime, particularly juvenile given the many constraints of daily crime. journalism. Nonetheless, it is way past time to try to create a more accurate Journalists, too, are among the largest overall picture of crime, who suffers from consumers of news. If the picture is it, and what can be done to prevent it. To distorted, it affects them as well. begin to address this dilemma, we suggest Reporters, editors, and producers making that reporters, editors, and producers selections about what to cover are expand their sources; provide context for completely saturated by the images in crime news; increase enterprise and their own storytelling. It appears that they investigative journalism; balance stories have come to believe that the images they about crime and youth with stories about present on their pages and over the air youth generally; conduct and discuss 147 reflect the world accurately. content audits of their own news; and examine the story selection process, Since every news outlet can’t cover every adjusting if necessary. crime, the question then becomes, how should reporters choose which crimes to Expand Sources cover? How can the overall picture be made more accurate? How can print and Reporters depend primarily on law broadcast journalists make choices that enforcement or criminal justice sources for minimize the distortions documented by crime news. Several studies document the researchers since 1910? How can their danger of limiting sources to criminal cumulative choices better reflect the crime justice and police departments. Numerous and violence they cover? And when they analyses we examined show the Youth, Race & Crime in the News 27 misrepresentation that can occur when and reporters propelled crimes against the police statistics are reported elderly to the top of the media agenda. All unquestioned.148 Asian, Latino and of this means the journalists’ role as Hawaiian youth, these studies found, were watchdog over public institutions and cast in stereotypical roles that did not their ability to check police activity against reflect the population of youth, and other sources is important. They can only misrepresented the level of gang activity. do that well if they have a good familiarity The lack of other non-violence-related with sources other than law enforcement. portrayals of youth exacerbates this problem. Second, police look good when the focus is on violent crime because they have a The dependence on traditional police better record of solving homicide and sources hampers the full story on crime in sexual assault than they do with property at least two ways. First, the police benefit crimes.149 For example, researchers found from some control over public a 200% increase in crime prevention understanding of crime statistics. stories between 1980 and 1985 in Depending on the temper of the times, if Louisiana newspapers, mostly covering they can show an increase in crime, they “Crime Stoppers” and “Neighborhood have reason for higher budgets. If they Watch” programs.150 They note the mutual show crimes being addressed, they can interest police and reporters have in engender public support. When efforts are reporting like this. The police benefit from made to count, the numbers go up, which public acknowledgment of their work to may simply reflect unrecognized instances prevent crime; reporters benefit by from before or a redefinition of old crime maintaining good relationships through patterns to the new “countable” — and such stories with police, whose access to fundable — category. crime information they need if they are to report breaking news. This phenomenon was well-documented by Fishman (1980), who tracked a A good example of journalists’ ability to manufactured “crime wave” against the expand sources occurred in the coverage elderly that was created in part because of the shootings at Columbine High the main source for information was law School. While official police reports were enforcement. After local police created a included in the Columbine coverage, the task force on crimes against the elderly, news media reached beyond law journalists tuned in, and were enforcement for interpretation and subsequently primed for stories on crime explanation.151 In the 12-month period against the elderly. Fishman witnessed a prior to the Columbine shooting, criminal process whereby news workers in a local justice sources were quoted in 77% of television newsroom “manufactured” a stories; in the Columbine coverage they crime wave by continuing to report on were sources in 45% of stories. In the crimes against the elderly despite police Columbine coverage, the number of statistics that showed an overall decrease sources per story increased as we heard in those crimes compared to the previous more from witnesses, independent year. The close relationship between police experts, issue advocates, politicians, and

28 Off Balance It is way past time to try to create a more accurate overall picture of crime, who suffers from it, and what can be done to prevent it youth themselves.152 The same questions Provide Context for Crime News in journalists sought to answer after Regular Reporting Columbine — How could something like this happen? What can we do to prevent Robert Entman suggests that local it? — Can also be asked of a wider range television attention to crime is a function of sources when more common violence of news workers’ need to appeal to a wide happens locally. audience that crosses political jurisdictions. TV uses violent crime stories Reporters should not cease using the to arouse emotions rather than presenting police as sources for crime stories, but analyses to help people deliberate local that should not be the only place they policy choices because emotional reactions look. Some media researchers suggested are the same across political boundaries, that news organizations use interns to though policy may be different.154 Thus routinely query other sources for news, reporters are drawn to homicide because just as they do now with “beat checks,” everyone in their audience can appreciate the calls made routinely to police the drama. But interpreting violence stations.153 Law enforcement perspectives narrowly in terms of homicide, and limit the questions a reporter might interpreting homicide in terms of personal pursue. Most crime beats are focused on altercations or failure of restraint misses cops and courts and the details of a the larger story of violence. For example, specific event. Reporters are focused on in a study provocatively titled, “Violence in what happened, and whether the American cities: Young Black males is the perpetrators have been apprehended. answer, but what was the question?,” Community-based sources, public health racial differences for homicides departments, and others have data and disappeared when researchers controlled information that can balance a law- for “marginal urban landscapes,” defined enforcement-only approach. For example, specifically as proximity to LULU’s (Locally hospital admission data, though not Unwanted Land Uses, such as waste always available for a breaking story, can incinerators, landfills, airports, refineries, help reporters put crime and its etc.) and TOADS (Temporarily Obsolete consequences in perspective. Health Abandoned Derelict Sites, such as departments and coroner’s offices are good deserted factories, power plants, mines, sources of homicide data. Other social vacant garbage-strewn lots, etc.).155 Local agency employees and community disintegration is the key risk factor for residents can have information about violent death, not age or race.156 neighborhood life pertinent to crime stories. Reporters need to cultivate these Certainly excellent reporting on this issue sources the same way they cultivate the has been done157, but in general, the local beat cops. studies here confirm that it is the drama of single crimes that is regularly made vivid, not the links to larger social and physical environments and precursors.

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 29 By context we do not mean the particular the unusual — that the unusual is what, details of an individual crime (the “blood- in fact, makes the crime stories soaked shirt” and the like). Instead we are newsworthy. While this might be true, it referring to the relationship of the single does not explain the absence of context incident to the larger social fabric, be that that would help citizens understand how neighborhood conditions, the risk factors to interpret the rare event. In other areas for violence, or crime rates — all the of reporting, integrating context is things that help explain the status of expected. In almost every area of a crime, race and youth. The challenge is to newspaper or broadcast — sports, add the social context to the storytelling business, politics, entertainment — and give audiences some guideposts for general information is integrated with spot interpreting the crime. news and events are made sense of for audiences by placing them in a larger For example, no reporter would investigate context, if not in the same article, then a car crash scene, late at night, and not with additional graphics or sidebars or ask whether the driver or passengers had standing reports. With every other topic, been drinking. It is an appropriate newspapers are including information that question because alcohol is a known risk depicts the status of issues, along with the factor for vehicle crashes. But alcohol unusual events.160 Stories on crime and contributes to homicide at almost youth could be treated with equal depth precisely the same rate it contributes to and breadth. fatal car crashes — 32% and 33% respectively.158 If it make sense to ask the There is some evidence that including question, “Was alcohol involved?” At the context as we’ve defined it here makes a scene of a crash, it makes sense to ask it difference to news consumers. In a 1993 at the scene of a crime. Questions experiment, researchers found that when generated from the risk factor research on accidents were reported with more violence can help crime beat reporters ask attention to the “causal chain of events, better questions. Then they could link described in the human context of specific crimes to larger issues and antecedents and aftermath, and weekly prevention. For more than 15 years, accounts of local accident statistics were epidemiologists have been identifying given (including date, location and violence risk factors, including the severity),” then newspaper readers’ had a availability of firearms and alcohol, racial better understanding overall of accidents’ discrimination, unemployment, violence in relationship to other community issues.161 the media, lack of education, abuse as a child, witnessing violent acts in the home An excellent example of providing context or neighborhood, isolation of the nuclear occurred with the Washington Post’s family, and belief in male dominance over coverage of a 2000 shooting in Mt. Morris females.159 Township, Michigan, of a six-year-old girl by a six-year-old boy. To be sure, the Post Another explanation print and broadcast covered the tragedy, as did most papers, journalists could offer for the picture of the day it occurred. But four weeks later, crime reported here is that they focus on the Post ran an extensive, front page

30 Off Balance article on the factors that contributed to from the news, it is not surprising that the boy’s involvement in the shooting, they would think the world is an including the impoverished neighborhood increasingly dangerous place, and that he lived in, his ready access to guns, and African Americans are more likely to the neglect he received at the hands of his victimize Whites than are other Whites. If drug-involved caretakers — all factors the few studies of youth in the news are which are highly associated with correct, the public learns that young violence.162 Other reports connected the people are more violent than ever before, consequences of welfare reform to the that most youth are violent, and that incident, since the boy’s mother had been people under age 18 commit almost as forced back to work despite the lack of much violent crime as adults do. Yet none adequate child care arrangements for her of these conclusions is true. son.163 Instead, reporters should be telling stories Providing context means that news about typical events, and telling them with organizations must reinvest in the practice more depth. Continuous coverage of rare of journalism. Resources must be events, even with a disclaimer alerting available so that journalists can do the news consumers about the rarity, is not work to understand the landscape of sufficient. violence in the region they cover. Reporters need time to cultivate relationships with The remedy is enterprise journalism. key sources, get to know neighborhoods, Enterprise journalism means reporters and do “gumshoe” journalism. It takes don’t work from news releases or police much more work, and time, on the part of scanners, but get out from behind their reporters to draw out the drama in those desks, into the community, where a stories and connect them meaningfully to variety of sources and perspectives can be the larger context. News organizations reported. Reporters can then do the need to support this time, which leads to digging to find true exemplars of real our next recommendation. trends, rather than chasing the easy, but rare, high profile event.164 They can enlist Bolster Enterprise and Increase organizations such as the National Investigative Journalism Institute for Computer-assisted Reporting which can help with collection and Reporting the unusual is of interest to analysis of trend data. Then they will reporters and the population at large. But know what they are looking for, and be a news focus almost exclusively on the able to recognize a potentially newsworthy unusual has detrimental consequences. event –– newsworthy because it is a good First, to the uninitiated news consumer, example of the real problems the region those unaware that reporters and editors faces, not because it is rare. News pro- make a series of choices about what goes ducers hope their audiences will connect into the newspaper or TV broadcast, the with the human drama of the story, and regular diet of unusual over time seems the human drama exists in the routine usual. If the only information people violence as well as the unusual. It simply receive about crime, violence, and youth is requires good reporting to uncover that drama. Youth, Race & Crime in the News 31 Investigative journalism — digging deeper, country. Experts on children and over longer periods of time — can help journalists themselves noted that uncover important stories and explain new children’s issues are undercovered and trends. It holds the potential to reveal audiences underserved as a consequence. juvenile crime stories that have gone “Traditionally,” writes Shaw, “most completely unnoticed by the general children have been in the news only when public. For example, in its award-winning they’ve done something bad or when series on abuses at the state’s boot camps, others have done bad things to them. the Baltimore Sun awoke state leaders and Even though most kids don’t fit into either citizens to abuses at the camps and lax category, this coverage can adversely — after care of delinquent youth upon and unfairly — influence public release. The result — five top juvenile perceptions and public policies that affect justice officials lost their jobs, the boot children, especially teenagers.”166 camps were permanently closed, and the Department of Juvenile Justice received To remedy this, some news organizations its largest single-year budget increase in have created special beats to cover history. children and youth. Organizations like the Casey Journalism Center for Children, Balance Stories about Crime and Youth Youth, and Families at the University of with Stories about Youth in General Maryland provide training for reporters and editors on key issues. NewsLab, a News organizations must pull back their project affiliated with the Project for lens to get a broader picture of what else Excellence in Journalism, provides young people are doing. When it comes to suggestions for reporters who want to youth, violence is as prominent in the bring more substance and better news as education.165 Portraying the two storytelling to local TV news. And, young subjects nearly equally exaggerates the people themselves have made reasonable rate of violence and gives short shrift to suggestions that would result in more education, particularly since 52 million comprehensive coverage. In San young people go to school but only Francisco, the UNYTE Youth Team, after 125,000 are arrested for violent crimes careful study of youth depictions in the each year. What issues affect them? What San Francisco Chronicle, suggested that other newsworthy activities are they the news media could balance crime engaged in? Without such coverage to coverage of youth by: balance reporting on crime and violence, the public sees a narrow, inaccurate 1. presenting news reports about youth reflection of youth. crime in proportion to crime that youth commit; Journalists themselves are reaching this 2. producing in-depth stories that connect conclusion. In an extensive article on how the conditions and underlying causes youth are covered in newspapers, Los for crime among youth; Angeles Times reporter David Shaw 3. hiring youth reporters for youth issues documented similar critiques — and self- and soliciting youth commentaries for critiques — from journalists around the editorial pages;

32 Off Balance 4. linking the consequences of policy content analysis and in-depth discussion decisions to conditions and events in the newsroom.168 Using an innovative involving youth (e.g., critically examine newspaper content analysis, reporters and the effectiveness of incarceration editors were able to identify serious policies); limitations in the way Latinos appeared in 5. reporting on the link between poverty the paper. The research helped reporters and violence; and and editors understand the deficiencies of 6. involving young people in monitoring their own reporting, and the paper was their coverage of youth.167 willing to hire a special group of reporters to focus on Latinos in Los Angeles. The Heeding this advice may have the added results from the Times are promising. value of attracting younger audiences to After months of work, Latinos now appear the news. in the paper more frequently and in a greater diversity of roles, rather than being Conduct Internal Audits of the News concentrated in low-income or criminal depictions as they were previously. Print and broadcast journalists can compare their outlet’s news reports to Examine the Selection Process, and actual trends in the region they cover. Exercise Restraint When Necessary What are the data on race, age, and gender in relation to violence? Based on Sometimes, the news media should not the news, would regular readers and cover certain stories, or not cover them viewers see an overall distorted picture of prominently, because they inflame but do crime, race, and youth? News organiza- not inform. Of course, news outlets cannot tions can and should examine and publish stop telling unusual stories, but they need their own statistics on the race, age and not tell every one, thereby overwhelming gender of offenders and victims they re- readers and viewers with a cumulative port on and let readers and viewers know misrepresentation, especially when it how that compares to other indi-cators means there is not room for less from criminal justice or public health sensational but more important news. sources. Such analyses can foster pro- ductive newsroom discussion and spawn Some news organizations have already mechanisms for correcting the cumulative begun to apply criteria for story selection, distortion of story choices. Publishing the like KVUE-TV in Austin, Texas, which analyses can also educate audiences to be does not air crime stories unless they meet better consumers of the news. one of the following five criteria:

When a newspaper pays attention to how 1. Does action need to be taken? it portrays a group or an issue, and makes 2. Is there an immediate threat to safety? a concerted effort to change, it can end up 3. Is there a threat to children? with a better news product. For example, 4. Does the crime have significant the Los Angeles Times succeeded in community impact? expanding the roles in which Latinos 5. Does the story lend itself to a crime appeared in the paper after careful prevention effort?

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 33 If reporters limit themselves to reporting what just happened without considering how that crime fits into larger patterns, the news is doomed to be distorted

KVUE-TV applied these criteria and child abuse is a frequent cause of death remained the top-rated news program in for young people, journalists should report its market. Following the shooting in on that at least as frequently as other Springfield, Oregon, the Chicago Sun- types of assaults or homicides. Times editorialized that it would no longer cover out-of-state shootings on its front The special case of race. In particular, page out of concern that the prevalence of reporters should ask themselves whether such shootings was being exaggerated and the race of the victim or suspect would frighten children. The New York determines whether a story gets reported. Times’ coverage of the shooting in Mt. One researcher noted that a Chicago Morris Township, Michigan on March 1, newspaper reporter told him that “his 2000, ran on page A14, given equivalent newspaper considered news of Negro space and prominence with a study on crime to be ‘cheap news’,” especially when racial disparities in school suspensions. both the victim and suspect were Black.170 In another study, four White reporters Who Gets Attention in the Newsroom? interviewed believed race played no role in story selection, while the Black reporter Is perceived victim “worthiness”169 the who was interviewed believed race did play unspoken criteria for whether a murder is a role.171 All the reporters interviewed selected for the news? Reporters should equated race with location (inner city ask themselves: Who qualifies as a worthy versus suburbs). victim in my newsroom? Who doesn’t? By making these criteria explicit and sharing Editors and producers may choose to give decisions with readers and viewers, space to certain crimes over others reporters will give them some indication of because of who in their audience is what they are choosing from, what the affected. Writing in Editor & Publisher, field of possibilities is on a given day or in veteran journalist Nat Hentoff suggested a given week. that we don’t see much reporting of victims of color because “too many If reporters limit themselves to reporting newspapers treat such crimes as so what just happened without considering ‘routine’ as to be not worth the space to how that crime fits into larger patterns, report on them.”172 The research reviewed the news is doomed to be distorted. The here reveals a more complicated picture: best reporters can do in that situation is It’s not just that victims of color are less say, “This is unusual.” However, in the visible, but also that suspects of color are absence of a picture of the usual, the more vividly depicted. repeated image of unusual crimes will fill Race has powerful salience in news and is the void. One way out of this trap is to be worth special attention in newsrooms. sure the newspaper, magazine, or Discussion about crime and race among broadcast turns as much attention — or journalists has primarily been centered at least some — to the usual victims and around whether or not racial identifiers perpetrators of crime. If, for example, are appropriate in stories describing domestic violence is a frequent type of suspects.173 Recommendations have assault in the area the outlet covers, or if included being sure the racial reference is

34 Off Balance relevant, explaining that relevance, crime. Journalists make the ultimate avoiding euphemistic adjectives (e.g., decisions about what stories will be told “inner city”), using racial identifiers only and how the information will be conveyed. when they add value to the story, and But journalists rely on their sources for being informed generally about people of information, verification, and explanation. races other than one’s own.174 If those with the most information about and access to young people refuse to talk There is some evidence that news with journalists, the picture of youth on consumers remember more about what the news will be incomplete. We they see than what they hear.175 Iyengar, recommend that advocates build for example, found that TV news viewers relationships with journalists, talk to them were more likely to attribute responsibility about their coverage, and help them get for fixing problems to government and the information they need to do more institutions after they watched TV news complete stories, be it hard data or young stories that included contextualizing people to interview. information, except when the story focused on an African American.176 In that Work With Reporters To Give A More case, viewers attributed responsibility for Accurate Picture fixing the problem to the victim. Race trumps everything else in news stories as Because of the juvenile justice system’s viewers revert to demeaning and historic confidentiality protections, many inaccurate stereotypes. Gilliam and child advocates refuse to talk to reporters Iyengar refer to this as the “crime script”, about the context of individual cases. This the expected sequence of events from places a serious and sometimes which news consumers derive meaning insurmountable burden on reporters when and draw conclusions based on their they try to tell a more complete story. It experience with previous or similar events. can also result in monolithic depictions of When it comes to crime, they argue, young people as criminals whose television news has taught viewers that delinquency is presented without the pattern to expect is “crime is violent, important contributing antecedents. and criminal behavior is associated with 177 race/ethnicity.” Over the past decade, 43 states have diminished confidentiality protections, so RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHILD that the news media now have ADVOCATES, YOUTH GROUPS AND unprecedented access to information CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS about delinquency proceedings. Defense attorneys and child advocates must learn While most of this report and these new ways to work with members of the recommendations have focused on what news media to allow a fuller story to be the news media can and should do to told about troubled young people, without improve crime coverage, there is much abandoning confidentiality protections. that juvenile justice advocates can do to Over the past year, conferences held by help generate a fairer depiction of youth the American Bar Association’s National

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 35 Juvenile Defender Center and the National Make Data Available Legal Aid And Defender Association have sought creative ways to do just that. Other Journalists need local data to make resources are available for advocates national problems relevant for their interested in better understanding the audiences. Share information with constraints of the news business and journalists so they can learn about local improving their skills in communicating patterns, incorporate that information into with reporters.178 daily stories, and give citizens the information they need to make better Engage Reporters, Editors, and decisions about violence prevention policy. Producers In Dialogue About Their Coverage Prepare Young People To Speak for Themselves, and Let Them Do So. Child advocates, youth groups and civil rights groups need to begin to engage Youth are becoming involved in advocacy news outlets as consumers to educate the efforts about juvenile justice and violence news media about their needs and to prevention from coast to coast. Give young jointly seek solutions to the complex people the training and support they need issues raised in this and other reports to speak confidently about the work they about coverage of youth crime. We are doing to improve their communities for Interrupt This Message, an advocacy themselves and others. Increasing the group that conducted two of the studies visibility of young people in the news will discussed in this report, took its findings help balance the current picture. Create on disproportionate youth crime situations where young people can portrayals directly to the San Francisco interact with journalists so they can begin Chronicle and the New York Times. In establishing themselves as sources on 2000, Suffolk University’s law school held their own. a forum which brought together reporters from the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, Make Yourself Available to Reporters and several electronic media with lawyers and community groups that work with Youth advocates and researchers cannot young people for a productive exchange of have an impact on the coverage of youth ideas about coverage of youth crime. In crime if journalists don’t know they exist, recent years, civil rights groups like the if they cannot find spokespeople when NAACP and the National Council of La they need them, or if advocates do not Raza have highlighted the scarcity of respond to their requests for information minority representation on network in a timely manner. Sometimes, this will programming. Although these efforts be difficult, because breaking stories concerned entertainment media, similar about youth crime do not always arise at efforts to educate news media about convenient times. But advocates’ depictions of minority offenders and availability as experts or alternative voices victims may also be well received. prior to deadline can help shape coverage and put violence among youth into its proper context. 36 Off Balance CONCLUSION

If the public and policy makers have internalized a distorted picture of crime, race, and youth from the news, journalists are likely to have done so as well. After all, journalists consume more news than anyone. A quick trip to any newsroom makes that instantly clear: Twenty-four hours a day journalists are under pressure to be aware of current news or anything that might become news. To meet the pressure, news organizations stay tuned in to each other, via the wire services, radio, print, or TV, which is available in newsrooms overhead and in every direction. News organizations watch each other closely, and mimic each other’s news. Unfortunately, many of them are repeating a terrible distortion. In whatever way they can, reporters have to break through complacency and question their own news and news gathering habits. When it comes to young people, race, and crime, readers and viewers require a more complete accounting of what is happening to whom. Without print and broadcast journalists’ better efforts, the public will never know enough about why violence happens, what is happening to prevent it, and what, as a society, we should do next.

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 37 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRINT & BROADCAST JOURNALISTS

1. Expand sources beyond police and courts. Health departments and coroner’s offices are good sources of homicide data. Hospital admission data, though not always available for a breaking story, can help reporters put crime and its consequences in perspective. Other social agency employees and community residents have information about neighborhood life pertinent to crime stories. Reporters need to cultivate these sources the same way they cultivate the local beat cops.

2. Provide context for crime in regular reporting. In almost every area of news — sports, business, politics, entertainment — general information is integrated with spot reports and the news makes sense of events for audiences by placing them in a larger context, if not in the same article, then with additional graphics or sidebars or standing reports. Stories on crime and youth could be treated with equal depth and breadth.

3. Bolster enterprise and increase investigative journalism. This recommendation requires adequate investment in the practice of journalism. Reporters need the time and resources to cultivate sources, investigate leads, and identify the connections between seemingly isolated events. They need support for understanding the patterns in a community so that they recognize when an event is important and interesting, not just interesting.

4. Balance stories about crime and youth with stories about youth in general. News organizations must pull back their lens to get a broader picture of what else young people are doing. When it comes to youth, violence is as prominent in the news as education. This exaggerates the rate of violence, particularly since 52 million young people go to school but only 125,000 are arrested for violent crimes each year. What issues affect them? What other newsworthy activities are they engaged in?

5. Conduct periodic audits of news content and share the results with readers and viewers. Newspapers and television newsrooms should periodically pause to examine their content. An audit would look beyond the evening ratings and sales numbers to ask the question: If the only information our readers and viewers got was from our news, what would they know about youth and violence? What wouldn’t they know? Assess whether the news gives readers and viewers enough information to deliberate their community’s problems.

6. Examine the story selection process, and use restraint when necessary. Who qualifies as newsworthy in the newsroom? Who doesn’t? Of course, news outlets cannot stop telling unusual stories, but they need not tell every one, thereby overwhelming readers and viewers with a cumulative misrepresentation, especially when it means there is not room for less sensational but more important news. Is perceived victim "worthiness" the unspoken criteria for whether a murder is selected for the news? Reporters should ask themselves: Who qualifies as a worthy victim in my newsroom? Who doesn’t? If reporters limit themselves to reporting what just happened without considering how that crime fits into larger patterns, the news is doomed to be distorted.

38 Off Balance RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHILD ADVOCATES, YOUTH GROUPS AND CIVIL RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS

1. Work With Reporters To Give A More Accurate Picture. Because of the juvenile justice system’s historic confidentiality protections, many child advocates refuse to talk to reporters about the context of individual cases. This places a serious and sometimes insurmountable burden on reporters when they try to tell a more complete story. Child advocates and lawyers must develop more creative ways to tell a more contextual story about youth crime without jeopardizing their clients’ confidentiality.

2. Engage Reporters, Editors, and Producers In Dialogue About Their Coverage. Child advocates, youth groups and civil rights groups need to begin to engage news outlets as consumers to educate the news media about their needs and to jointly seek solutions to the complex issues raised in this and other reports about coverage of youth crime. We Interrupt This Message, an advocacy group that conducted two of the studies discussed in this report, took its findings on disproportionate youth crime portrayals directly to the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times. In 2000, Suffolk University’s law school held a forum which brought together reporters from the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, and several electronic media with lawyers and community groups that work with young people for a productive exchange of ideas about coverage of youth crime. In recent years, civil rights groups like the NAACP and the National Council of La Raza have highlighted the scarcity of minority representation on network programming. Although these efforts concerned entertainment media, similar efforts to educate news media about depictions of minority offenders and victims may also be well received.

3. Make Data Available. Journalists need local data to make national problems relevant for their audiences. Share information with journalists so they can learn about local patterns, incorporate that information into daily stories, and give citizens the information they need to make better decisions about juvenile justice policy.

4. Prepare Young People To Speak for Themselves, and Let Them Do So. Give young people the training they need to speak confidently about the work they are doing to improve their communities for themselves and others. Create situations where young people can interact with journalists so they can begin establishing themselves as sources on their own.

5. Make Yourself Available to Reporters. Youth advocates and researchers cannot have an impact on the coverage of youth crime if journalists don’t know they exist, if they cannot find spokespeople when they need them, or if advovcates do not respond to their requests for information in a timely manner. Advocates’ availability as experts or alternative voices prior to deadline can help shape coverage and put violence among youth into its proper context.

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 39 ENDNOTES 23 Local law enforcement statistics cited in this report include data from the Chicago 1 Males & Macallair 2000 Police Department and the California 2 Jones & Yamagata 2000 Department of Criminal Justice. 3 Juszkiewicz 2000 24 We found no studies of crime on radio 4 US OJJDP 1999 news. 5 Pope & Feyerherm 1995 25 Sheley & Askins 1981 6 Bridges & Steen 1998 26 We did not include studies published in 7 The National Crime Victimization Survey languages other than English or about news is an annual survey of over 40,000 distributed outside the US However, several Americans inquiring about victimizations studies turned up in our literature review they have experienced in the previous year. that indicate the patterns in other countries It is generally considered highly reliable by are similar to the findings described here criminologists because, unlike the FBI’s (c.f. Williams and Dickinson 1993). Fishman Uniform Crime Reports, it does not rely only and Weimann (1985), the only study we on crimes that become known to police, and found with a detailed examination of crime therefore is less affected by differential rates and gender on the news, investigated how of citizen reporting over time. women and criminality were portrayed in 8 Belden, Russonello & Stewart, 1999 the major Israeli daily newspapers. They 9 Brooks, Schiraldi, & Ziedenberg 1999. found that gender depictions vary with 10 When asked “Who commits most of the different crimes, and when stereotypes violent crime these days?” 60 percent of about gender roles are violated, news respondents chose young people (Fairbank, reports use lenient language that treats Maslin, Maullin and Associates and the female victims as “exceptional,” perhaps Tarrance Group, conducted for The reinforcing stereotypes about aggression in California Wellness Foundation, May 1996). women and men. In California in 1996, juveniles made up 27 Subervi-Vélez 1999 13% of the state’s violent arrests, according 28 Chavez and Dorfman 1996-7 to the California Attorney General’s Office. 29 Vargas and dePyssler 1999 11 Males & Macallair 1999 30 Turk et al. 1989 12 Snyder & Sickmund 1999 31 Dorfman et al. 1997; Gilliam et al. 1996; 13 Updegrave 1994 Klite 1998a, 1998b, 1995b; Bliss 1994; 14 Lippmann [1922]1965 Romer et al. 1998 15 ABC News 1996 32 Center for Media & Public Affairs 1999, 16 Braxton 1997 1997a, 1997b, 1997c, 1996, 1995; 17 Farkas & Duffet 1998 Dominick 1978 18 quoted in Farkas & Duffet 1998 33 Grabe 1999, Barlow 1995, Windhauser 19 cf. McCombs & Shaw 1993 et al. 1990 20 Snyder & Sickmund 1999 34 Antunes and Hurley 1977 21 see Oliver 1994 35 Davis 1952 22 Though we did our best to make the 36 Sheley and Ashkins 1981 database search exhaustive, there is no way 37 Chermak 1998 to ensure that 100% of relevant studies 38 Johnstone et al. 1994 were captured in our search. The authors 39 Sorenson et al. 1998 would appreciate any information on 40 Sorenson et al. 1998 published studies that are not referenced in 41 Gilliam et al. 1996:10 this report. 40 Off Balance 42 Barlow et al. 1995 62 Romer et al. 1998, Smith 1991, 43 Center for Media & Public Affairs 2000a Johnstone et al. 1994, Sorenson et al. 1998 44 Center for Media & Public Affairs 2001 63 Pritchard & Hughes 1997 45 Klite 1998a, 1998b, 1995a, 1995b 64 Weiss & Chermak 1998 46 Kaiser Family Foundation 1998 65 Sorenson et al. 1998:1514. Note: 47 Barlow 1995 Sorenson et al. controlled for the 48 US Department of Justice 1999 overwhelming frequency of stories about the 49 US Department of Justice 1999 O.J. Simpson murder trial by counting all 50 Braxton 1997 Simpson stories as one. 51 Krajicek 1998:42 66 Weiss & Chermak 1998 52 Bliss 1994, Dorfman et al. 1997, 67 Klite 1995a Dorfman & Woodruff 1998, Fenton 1910, 68 Klite 1995b McGill N.D., McManus & Dorfman 2000, 69 Gilliam et al. 1996 Perrone & Chesney-Lind 1997 70 Gilliam et al. 1996 53 Barlow 1998 71 Entman 1990, 1992, 1994a 54 US National Advisory Commission on 72 Entman 1992 Civil Disorders 1968 73 Romer et al. 1998:296 55 Klite 1995c:4 74 Romer et al. 1998:298-9 56 Romer et al. 1998 75 USGAO 1990 57 See the University of Missouri School of 76 Updegrave 1994 Journalism’s Guide to Research on Race and 77 Romer et al. 1998 NOTE: Romer et al. the News for a comprehensive catalogue of used the FBI rate for homicides to compare all aspects of research on race and the news to the vicitimization in crime stories (not (beyond the crime and violence category). just homicide stories). Their comparison is 58 Dulaney 1969 not exactly parallel, but we have included it 59 DeLouth & Woods (1996) found that here because homicides dominate media when suspects were from an ethnic minority crime coverage, and because in other group, disclosure of the victim’s ethnicity categories of crime Whites are more likely to (most often White) was more common. be victimized by other Whites, though at a However, the authors cautioned that their lower ratio than for homicide. numbers were too small to be conclusive. 78 Sorenson, et al. 1998 60 Barlow 1995, 1998; Dulaney 1969; 79 Entman 1990 Gilliam & Iyengar 2000; Gilliam et al. 1996; 80 Rodgers et al. 2000 Entman 1990; Grabe 1999; Romer et al. 81 Pritchard 1985 1998; and Weiss and Chermak 1998 all 82 Fedler and Jordan 1996 found minority overrepresentation of 83 quoted in Fedler and Jordan 1996 perpetrators; Fedler and Jordan 1996; 84 Greenberg et al. 1983 Rodgers et al. 2000, and Sorenson et al 85 Greenberg et al. 1983 1998 found no overrepresentation of 86 Alvear 1998, Carveth & Alverio 1996, minority perpetrators. Subervi-Vélez 1999, Vargas & dePyssler 61 Hawkins et al. 1995, Johnstone et al. 1999 1994, Pritchard & Hughes 1997, Romer et 87 US Department of Justice 2000 al. 1998, Sorenson et al. 1998, and Weiss & 88 Entman 2000 Chermak 1998 all found Black victimization 89 Since juvenile proceedings were underreported compared to Whites; only confidential in most states prior to the Fedler & Jordan 1996 found no disparity. 1990’s, detailed articles about youth crime

Youth, Race & Crime in the News 41 were more difficult to write, and therefore, 107 Barlow 1998 there was less to analyze in this respect. 108 Barlow 1998:172 90 Alequin et al. 2001; Baizerman & Hirak 109 Barlow 1998:173 1980; Barlow 1998; Bervera et al. 1998; 110 “Modern racism” is defined by Entman Dorfman et al. 1997; Dorfman and Woodruff as a more subtle discrimination than 1998; Gilliam & Iyengar 1998; Humphries blatant racism, which is typified by refusal 1981; Kunkel 1994; Males 1998; McManus of services, denied voting rights, verbalized and Dorfman 2000; Perrone and Chesney- hostility and the like. Modern racism, on the Lind 1997, 1998; Song & Dombrink 1996; other hand, is evident in attitudes that Stensaas 1961; Zatz 1987 assume Blacks as a group are lazy, 91 Kunkel 1994, Dorfman et al. 1997, dangerous, demanding, or otherwise McManus and Dorfman 2000, Center for inferior. Cf. Entman 1990 & 1992. Media and Public Affairs 2000b 111 Dorfman and Woodruff 1998 92 Baizerman and Hirak 1980 112 Graber 1990 93 Baizerman and Hirak 1980:21 113 Alequin et al. 2001 94 Perrone and Chesney-Lind 1998, 1997 114 Center for Media and Public Affairs 95 Perrone and Chesney-Lind 1997:104 2000b 96 Crime Prevention and Justice Assistance 115 Song and Dombrink 1996 Division 1998 116 Similarly, Zatz (1987) argues that a 97 Kunkel 1994 “Chicano gang crisis” was created in part by 98 McManus and Dorfman 2000 Phoenix newspapers, which uncritically 99 Dorfman et al. 1997 reported police department statements 100 In this study, the youth category about increases in the number of Chicano included people through age 24. gangs. However, Zatz does not present the 101 Crime statistics here are for youth news content analysis data and so is not under age 18 whereas the study analyzed included in this discussion. young people age 24 and under. This does 117 Sorenson et al. 1998 not affect the analysis dramatically since 118 Bervera et al. 1998 percentages are used for both cohorts. For 119 Cf. FBI Uniform Crime Reports 1999 example, a similar percentage of young which shows that there are three times people under age 24 would be expected to more under-18 murder victims killed by have been victims or perpetrators of violence adults than by other youth; Office of in 1993. While we would expect that young Juvenile Justice and Delinquency people age 24 and under would make up a Prevention, Juvenile Offenders and Victims: higher percentage of overall violence arrests 1999 National Update (same finding, p 20), than young people under age 18, they would and Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 by no means make up 68% of violence National Report which shows that 60% of arrests. the violent victimizations of juveniles are 102 Center for Media and Public Affairs perpetrated by adults, p 29; and Bureau of 2000b Justice Statistics, Murder in Families, July 103 Center for Media and Public Affairs 1994 which shows that parents are six 2000b:6 times more likely to murder teenage 104 Center for Media and Public Affairs children than the other way around. 2000b:4 120 Males 1998 105 Kunkel 1994 121 Bervera et al. 1998, Alequin et al. 2001 106 Baizerman and Hirak1980

42 Off Balance 122 Kunkel 1994, Dorfman et al. 1997, 147 Gilens (1996) for example, found that Dorfman & Woodruff 1998, McManus & photo editors from Time and Newsweek Dorfman 2000. The Center for Media and overestimate the number of Blacks in Public Affairs (2000b) study of youth finds poverty, though not as much as the general “crime vicitimization” the top category for public does. youth portrayals, but they do not 148 Song & Dombrink 1996, Zatz 1987, and differentiate between youth or adult Perrone & Chesney-Lind 1998 perpetrators in those victimizations. 149 Magar 1992 123 Males 1998 150 Windhauser et al. 1990 124 Greiner 1997 151 McManus and Dorfman 2000 125 Although the juvenile homicide rate in 152 McManus and Dorfman 2000 the summer of 1993 (6.5 per 100,000 youth) 153 Gant and Dimmick 2000 was higher than in the summer of 1992 (4.6) 154 Entman 1990 and lower than the summer of 1994 (7.6). 155 Greenberg and Schneider (1994) 126 Gilliam & Iyengar 1998 156 Deteriorating physical conditions have 127 Gilliam & Iyengar 1998:46 been associated with other public health 128 Peffley et al. 1996 problems such as Gonorrhea (cf. Cohen et 129 Hurwitz & Peffley 1997 al. 2000). 130 Barlow 1998 157 Cf. Solis 1997; Monmaney and 131 Gilliam & Iyengar 2000 Krikorian 1998; Richisson 1999. 132 Gilens 1996 158 Smith et al. 1999 133 Gilens is careful to point out that urban 159 See Winett 1998 for a comprehensive poor are not more Black than rural poor – summary of public health research on 29% and 30% respectively – but that poor violence to date. Whites are less geographically concentrated, 160 Stevens 1998 “spread around,” he says, in both poor and 161 Wilde 1993 nonpoor neighborhoods. 162 Brown 2000 134 Gilens 1996:533 163 Associated Press 2000 135 Gilens 1996:537 164 Cf. Zillmann and Brosius 2000 136 Lotke & Schiraldi 1996 165 McManus and Dorfman 2000 137 This is less true, of course, for parts of 166 Shaw 2000: A8 California, Texas and other states with great 167 Bervera et al. 1998 racial/ethnic diversity. 168 Cf. Rodgers and Thorson 2000 138 Grenier 1997 169 Sorenson et al. 1998, Pritchard and 139 Dorfman 1994 Hughes 1997 140 Cf. Gant and Dimmick 2000 170 Dulaney 1969:604 141 Maltz 1977 171 Pritchard and Hughes 1997 142 US National Advisory Commission on 172 Hentoff 2000 Civil Disorders 1968:383 173 Cf. Montaño 1998 143 Miller et al. 2001 174 Hyman 1998 144 ABC news poll, 1996, published by 175 Grabe 1999 Public Agenda 176 Iyengar 1991 145 Brooks et al. 2000 177 Gilliam and Iyengar 2000:561 146 US DOJ FBI 1993 & 1998 178 Cf. Wallack et al. 2000

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52 Off Balance Appendix. Author and Year of Level One and Level Two Studies (Full citation is available in References.)

Level One Studies N=65 Level Two Studies N=45 Antunes & Hurley 1977 Alequin et al 2001 Barlow 1998 Alvear 1998 Barlow et al 1995 Baizerman & Hirak 1980 Chavez and Dorfman 1996-7 Bervera et al 1998 Chermak 1998 Carveath & Alverio 1996 Cohen 1975 Center for Media & Public Affairs 2001 Davis 1952 Center for Media & Public Affairs 2000 DeLouth & Woods 1996 Center for Media & Public Affairs 1999 Dennis & Sadoff 1976* Center for Media & Public Affairs 1997a Dorfman et al. 1997 Center for Media & Public Affairs 1997b Dorfman & Woodruff 1998 Center for Media & Public Affairs 1997c Dulaney 1969 Center for Media & Public Affairs 1996 Entman 1994a Center for Media & Public Affairs 1995 Entman 1992 Chesney-Lind et al 1997 Entman 1990 Dominick 1978 Estrada 1997* Elias 1994* Ettema & Peer 1997 Entman 1994b Fedler & Jordan 1996 Entman 2000 Fenton 1910 Farkas & Duffet 1998 Fishman & Weimann 1985* Gandy et al. 1996* Gant & Dimmick 2000* Garofalo 1981 Gilliam & Iyengar 2000 Gilliam & Iyengar 1998* Gilliam et al. 1996 Greiner 1997 Grabe 1999 Kaiser Family Foundation 1998 Grabe 1996 Klite 1998a Greenberg et al. 1983 Klite 1998b Hawkins et al. 1995 Klite 1995a Humphries 1981 Klite 1995b Jerin & Fields 1998 Klite 1995c Jones 1976 Krisberg 1995* Johnstone et al. 1994 Kunkel 1994 Lester 1994 Lee 1994 Liska & Baccaglini 1990* Lester & Miller 1996* Lule 1995* Lowry & Nio 1999* Martindale 1990* Magar 1992* Neild & Paylor 1996* Males 1999 Oliver 1994* McLeod et al 1995* Oliver 1999* McManus & Dorfman 2000 Peffley et al. 1996* McGill N.D.* Perrone & Chesney-Lind 1997 Osborn 1994 Pride & Clarke 1978* Perrone & Chesney-Lind 1997 Pritchard 1985 Reeves & Campbell 1994* Pritchard & Hughes 1997 Smith 1991 Ramaprasad 1996* Turner N.D.* Requillo 1997* Wade 1998* Roberts 1975 Rodgers et al. 2000 Romer et al. 1998 Sanchez-Jankowski 1994* Sentman 1983* Sheley & Ashkins 1981 Song & Dombrink 1996 Sorenson et al. 1998 *These studies were ultimately eliminated from our Subervi- Vé lez 1999 analysis because they were primarily about single Stensaas 1961* events (coverage of Mike Tyson, O.J. Simpson, Tucker 1997* etc.), "reality" shows, media effects, photographs Turk et al. 1989 only, non-U.S. news, or other topics rather than Valentino 1999* Vargas & dePyssler 1999 analyses of general news that included crime news Welch et al. 1997 content or coverage of youth. Weiss & Chermak 1998 Williams & Dickinson 1993* Windhauser et al. 1990 Wright & Ross 1997* Zatz 1987 THE AUTHORS

Lori Dorfman is Director of the Berkeley Media Studies Group where she directs the group's work with community groups, journalists and public health professionals. Dr. Dorfman's current research examines how local television news and newspapers portray youth and violence. She edited Reporting on Violence, a handbook for journalists illustrating how to include a public health perspective in violence reporting, published by BMSG. Based on this work, she is part of an interdisciplinary team that is conducting workshops on violence reporting for newspapers and local TV news stations. Dr. Dorfman teaches a course for masters students on mass communication and public health at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. She has published articles on public health and mass communication, and co-authored Public Health and Media Advocacy: Power for Prevention, (Sage Publications, 1993) and News for a Change: An Advocates' Guide to Working With the Media (Sage Publications, 1999). Dr. Dorfman consults for government agencies and community programs across the U.S. and internationally on a variety of public health issues including violence prevention and injury control, alcohol control, tobacco control, children's health, child care, childhood lead poisoning, affirmative action, nutrition and exercise, and women and HIV/AIDS.

Vincent Schiraldi is founder and president of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and its research and public policy arm, the Justice Policy Institute. He has a 20-year history of research, public education, and direct services in the criminal/juvenile justice field. Mr. Schiraldi served on the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Inmate Population Management, the National Criminal Justice Commission, and the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Commission and as an advisor to the California Commission on the Status of African American Men. His research findings and commentaries have been covered in print and on electronic media throughout the country including Nightline, the Today Show, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, evening newscasts for ABC, CBS, and NBC; National Public Radio, CNN, and the BBC, among others. He is a regular commentator on Washington, DC's public radio station, WAMU. Mr. Schiraldi has a Masters Degree in Social Work from New York University. Berkeley Media Studies Group

The Berkeley Media Studies Group operates out of the belief that the mass media, especially the news, have a significant influence on people's beliefs and actions regarding public health and social issues and that the news media can be a powerful force for change. BMSG works with community groups, journalists and public health professionals to harness the power of the media to advance healthy public policy. BMSG studies the news and news gathering to support professional education for journalists and media advocacy training for grass roots and public health leadership groups. BMSG is a project of the Public Health Institute.

Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice/Justice Policy Institute

The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice is a private, non-profit organization devoted to reducing society's reliance on incarceration as a solution to social problems. The Center provides advocacy services and direct services on behalf of youth and adults facing incarceration throughout the country, with offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) is the research and public policy arm of the Center. Among other research topics, JPI has produced analyses of the disproportionate confinement of minorities in adult and juvenile institutions, the growing impact of America's drug war, the tradeoff between funding prisons and universities, and the impact of imprisoning youth with adults.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Diane Camper, Annie E. Casey Foundation; Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii; Frank Gilliam, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles; Mike Males, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz; John McManus, PhD, Berkeley Media Studies Group; Mark Soler, President of the Youth Law Center; Susan Sorenson, PhD, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles; Lawrence Wallack, DrPH, Portland State University; Jason Ziedenberg, Senior Researcher at the Justice Policy Institute and staff from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Department of Justice for their review of and advice on this research. We would also like to thank Alea Brown, intern with the Justice Policy Institute, and Maria Len Rios, School of Journalism, University of Missouri, for their research assistance for this report, Jill Herschman, Systems Administrator for the Justice Policy Institute for layout, graphics work, and internet posting of this report, and Phyllis Schultze, Information Specialist, Rutgers Law Library, for her database search assistance. Youth Law Center 1010 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Suite 310 Washington, DC 20005-4902 202 637-0377 www.buildingblocksforyouth.org