Such media representations tend to create distorted perceptions of crime among the majority of the public, exaggerate its threat and unnecessarily increase the public’s fear of crime. Charges that the mass media create unwarranted levels of fear of crime are almost as old as the media themselves. Much of this concern is generated around crime and drugs.

Charges that the mass media create unwarranted levels of fear of crime are almost as old as the media themselves. The fear of crime, along with fear of the streets and the fear of youth, is said to have been in Western culture for "time immemorial". The media can cause crime and deviance through labelling. Fear of crime has been a serious social problem studied for almost 40 years. The fear of crime refers to the fear of being a victim of crime as opposed to the actual probability of being a victim of crime. Researchers entered the fray in large numbers in the 1960s, documenting the effects of television, newspapers, and movies on perceptions of crime and fear of criminal victimization. Media consumption and fear of crime Sarah Eschholz (1997) has carefully detailed the research evidence, from which it can be deduced that of 14 studies of the effects of newspaper consumption on fear of crime, and 25 studies of the effects of television consumption on fear of crime, a total of 73 attempts to discover a general relationship Valerie Callanan’s research interests include media and public opinion of crime, fear of crime, corrections, and suicide. Her recent work examines reciprocity and suicide, media construction of the criminal justice system, media and attitudes toward the police, and race and gender differences in media’s effect on fear of crime. Large amounts of local crime news increased fear among those who lived in the area while large amounts of non-local crime …

Even if much of what is reported is untrue or exaggerated it may be enough to whip up a moral panic.

Such media-fanned fears promote more fear communication and control by authorities. While fear of crime can be differentiated into public feelings, thoughts and behaviors about the personal risk of criminal victimization, distinctions can also be made between the tendency to see situations as fearful, the actual exper This research also found that while crime rates had been declining, fear of crime rates had stayed relatively stable. The latest example is the “Amber Alert” program, which has been adopted by most states in the U.S., as well as federal legislation. Early researchers focused on operationalization and conceptualization of fear of crime, specifically focusing on what fear of crime was (and was not) and how to best tap into the fear of crime construct. Author Biographies. Heath and Gilbert (1996) suggest that the relationship between the mass media and the fear of crime is contingent on the audience and the message.