Elsevier

Journal of Criminal Justice

Volume 35, Issue 2, March–April 2007, Pages 193-203
Journal of Criminal Justice

Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.01.006Get rights and content

Abstract

The media portrayal of policing is juxtaposed with both positive and negative representations. As a result, a complex relationship exists between media consumption and public attitudes towards the police. The purpose of this study was to test the impact that media consumption had on attitudes toward police misconduct and discrimination. The findings revealed that heavy consumers of network news were more likely to believe that police misconduct was a frequent event. This was especially true for minority respondents. Similarly, minority respondents that frequently viewed network news were more likely to believe that Whites received better treatment by the police. Finally, the findings revealed that frequent viewers of police dramas believed that the wealthy received preferential treatment from the police. Conversely, frequent viewers of crime solving shows believed that the wealthy did not receive preferential treatment.

Introduction

The popular media is of fundamental importance in the construction of attitudes toward criminal justice and criminal justice agents. The majority of public knowledge about crime and justice is derived from media consumption (Ericson et al., 1987, Graber, 1980, Roberts and Doob, 1990, Surette, 2007). As such, the perception of victims, criminals, and law enforcement officials is largely determined by their portrayal within the media. There was a plethora of research studies that examined attitudes toward the police (Schafer, Huebner, & Bynum, 2003). There were, however, relatively few studies that examined the media impact on those attitudes (Weitzer and Tuch, 2004, Weitzer and Tuch, 2005a, Weitzer and Tuch, 2005b). There was even less research on media's influence on citizens' attitudes toward police misconduct and discrimination. As a result, the purpose of this research study was to address the gap by testing the impact of media consumption on public attitudes toward the police.

The majority of research conducted on the police-media relationship was centered on determining the portrayal of police within the media. Literature on media portrayals of police revealed two contradictory observations. Some research revealed that the police were presented favorably, while other research implied that the police were negatively represented (Surette, 2007). Various researchers posited that the news media engaged in negative presentations of policing. For example, print and broadcast media characterized the police as ineffective and incompetent, while reality police shows and news tabloid programs presented the police as heroes who fight evil (Surette, 2007). The media offered little information to evaluate police, and the focus was on negative events rather than positive or successful crime prevention (Graber, 1980). Essentially, crime presented by the media was punished; however, the police were rarely the heroes (Lichter & Lichter, 1983).

Nevertheless, the majority of research suggested that the police were favorably presented. For instance, in crime dramas, crimes were solved and suspects were successfully arrested (Carlson, 1985, Dominick, 1973, Doyle, 2003, Estep and MacDonald, 1984, Kooistra et al., 1998, Zillman and Wakshlag, 1985). Similarly, television news exaggerated the proportion of arrests, which portrayed the police as more effective than official statistics exhibited (Marsh, 1991, Roshier, 1973, Sacco and Fair, 1988, Skogan and Maxfield, 1981). Public relation strategies endorsed by police agencies might partially explain a favorable view of the police. The presentation of proactive police activity builds the image that the police were effective and efficient investigators of crime (Christensen, Schmidt, & Henderson, 1982). The media-police relationship is mutually beneficial. The police have an interest in preserving a positive public image, while the reporters require quick, reliable, and relatively easy sources of crime news (Ericson et al., 1987, Fishman, 1981, Hall et al., 1978).

More recent research suggested that images of policing created unrealistic public expectations about real policing and disappointment when police did not perform like their media portrayals (Perlmutter, 2000). Surette (2007) revealed nine police narratives within fictional police images, which included rogue cops, corrupt cops, honest cops, buddy cops, comedy cops, action comedy cops, female cops, and aging cops. Surette (2007) argued that with the exception of female police narratives, hyper masculinity was the familiar pattern within the narratives and the narratives were individualized. In addition, police reality programs have become highly popular in television programming and provided different images of policing. According to Cavender and Fishman (1998), the popularity of police reality programs was due to the social context, in which crime was viewed as a serious social problem that was getting steadily more problematic and dangerous, while Surette (2007) reported that the attraction of these shows was voyeuristic. The final edit of these shows was controlled by the cooperating police department, thus any negative portrayals of the police would not be included in the final product. Donovan (1998) suggested that reality television programs recreated the law and order ideology and that the police were portrayed as knowledgeable, sensitive, caring, and competent. Moreover, Doyle (2003) argued that crimes of violence and the proportion of crimes solved were overrepresented on these shows. Other research argued that stereotypes about racial minorities and crime were common in police reality shows (Kooistra et al., 1998, Oliver and Armstrong, 1998). Finally, Surette (2007, p. 108) argued that the end result was that “crime control is applauded, due process is disparaged. Individual causes of crime, assumed guilt of suspects, and an ‘us’ versus them portrait dominates” the construction of crime and justice.

Although there were mixed views about whether the police were negatively or positively presented by the various media types, some researchers posited that public attitudes toward the police were influenced by exposure to media (Huang and Vaughn, 1996, Maguire, 1988). There were very few studies, however, that tested this assumption. In one study, viewing police reality shows and television news increased confidence in police. Racial differences, however, existed among respondents. White viewers of “reality” police programs were more likely to have positive attitudes toward the police, while there was no relationship with African American viewers. Conversely, an increase in confidence towards the police was exhibited in both African Americans and Whites after viewing the news (Eschholz, Blackwell, Gertz, & Chiricos, 2002). Moreover, Dowler (2002) found that media consumption had a limited impact on attitudes toward the police. Heavy television viewers with previous police contact were more likely to have negative attitudes toward the police.

In terms of police misconduct, there were a handful of important studies that examined public attitudes toward police transgressions. Many of these studies tested the impact of a single, publicized incident of police corruption or misconduct on public perceptions of police. In brief, they found that news coverage of brutality incidents or police corruption increased negative attitudes toward the police (Kaminski and Jefferis, 1998, Sigleman et al., 1997, Tuch and Weitzer, 1997, Weitzer, 2002). To further test this relationship, Weitzer and Tuch (2004) examined the impact that frequent exposure of separate incidents of police misconduct had on citizen attitudes toward the police. They found that repeated media exposure to police abuse increased respondents' beliefs in the frequency of police misconduct. This was true for Whites, African Americans, and Hispanics, however, minorities were more strongly affected. In another study, Weitzer and Tuch (2005b) found that exposure to media accounts of police misconduct increased perception of police bias against minorities. Despite the importance of their findings, Weitzer and Tuch, 2004, Weitzer and Tuch, 2005b employed a single-item self-report measure of media exposure. It is vital that a media exposure is measured with a multi-measure item that explores different types of media. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to test the impact that varying types of media consumption had on attitudes toward police misconduct and discriminatory practices in policing.

Section snippets

Theoretical orientation

The textual encoding of a media presentation and the subsequent polysemic decoding of the text by the audience generated an array of diverse interpretations by the viewing audience (Hall, 1980). Media reception research proposed that the cultural system of codes and conventions used by media producer and audience needed to be understood. Fiske (1986), however, took this further, by suggesting that there were eight positions of subjectivity that should be considered when studying an audience

Sample

The data were derived from the 2000 Law and Media Survey. The Law and Media Survey was a nationally representative, random telephone survey of adults (n = 1,011) who resided in the United States. The project was designed and conducted by the Center for Survey Research and Analysis, and the Roper Center for Opinion Research provided the data. The purpose of the Law and Media Survey was to examine American attitudes toward crime and justice, exploring issues such as courts, corrections, and

Independent variables

There were several different media forms, and each type might portray the police in different manners. As a result, this research was unique in that media consumption included different types of crime shows and television newscasts. Exposure to media was separated into crime show and news consumption. Crime shows were measured with three questions which included: (1) “Some shows on television feature police officers and prosecutors such as NYPD Blue and Law and Order. How often do you watch

Results

Table 1 provides the descriptive characteristics of the sample.

Table 2 presents multivariate results. Model 1 examined the full sample and the results indicated that two media variables were related to perceptions of police misconduct.

Frequent viewers of network news and crime solving shows were more likely to report that police misconduct was a common or frequent occurrence. The findings also revealed that race and experience within criminal justice system were significant predictors of

Discussion

Overall, the results suggested that the media had little impact on attitudes toward police misconduct and discrimination. Nevertheless, there were several findings that require further explanation.

Compared to other types of news, the consumption of network news had the most impact on respondents' attitudes toward police misconduct and discrimination. Heavy viewers of network news were more likely to believe that police misconduct was a frequent occurrence. Police abuse or misconduct was

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