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23 Brit. J. Criminology 159 (1983)
Bias in the Newspaper Reporting of Crime News

handle is hein.journals/bjcrim23 and id is 167 raw text is: BRIT. J. CRIMINOL. Vol. 23 No. 2 APRIL i983 BIAS IN THE NEWSPAPER REPORTING OF CRIME NEWS JASON DiTroN* and JAms DurFFt (Glasgow) MEMBERS of the general public pay for crime in two different ways. As victims they suffer the direct consequences, and as tax-payers and rate- payers they finance the police, courts and prisons to control it. For both these reasons it seems that the general public has a right to know on what, and how successfully, their money is spent. However, the responsibility for informing them rests almost exclusively with a competitive and commercial press. Indeed, it has been noted by Hauge (1965) that the near monopoly of the daily press as a source of crime news therefore presumably makes it an important influence on public opinion on the subject of crime (p. 148). Accordingly, it is important to monitor regularly the newspaper coverage of crime to assess whether or not the overall picture of crime which news- papers collectively produce is informative and balanced. Previous research in this field has frequently discovered that the news- paper coverage of crime news is, in some way, biased. Hauge (1965), Roshier (I973), Croll (I974) and Beardsworth (i975) have discovered an over-emphasis on crimes of violence, and Sherizen (1978) discovered an additional over-emphasis on crimes involving indecency. Yet whilst there has been an upsurge in analytic interest in the media in the last decade (Glasgow University Media Group, 1976 and i98o; Murphy, 1976; Chibnall, 1977; Brunsdon and Morely, 1978; Hall et al., 1978; Hurd, 1979; Jones, i98o), systematic analysis of the newspaper coverage of crime has been relatively neglected. Indeed, no previous research of this sort has ever been carried out in Scotland. Sample The aims of the research in part reported here were to assess whether or not the newspaper coverage of crime in Scotland is selective (or are all crimes reported in the press?); and whether or not this selection, if one exists, is distorted (or is the published selection faithfully representative of the corpus from which it is taken?). In order to examine this problem, data related to one major Scottish administrative Region were analysed. The Strathclyde Region is by far the largest local authority in Scotland; it covers over half the Scottish population, contains the largest city and the biggest police force, and registers the greatest number of crimes and offences. A sample of Scottish newspapers was obtained for the whole of March i981; and * B.A. (Hons.) Duneim, Ph.D, Dunelm; lecturer in sociology, University of Glasgow. t M.A. (Hons.) Glasguensis; research officer, Social Work department, Strathclyde Regional Council. The authors wish to express their thanks to the Nuffield Foundation for funding the research reported here; the Scottish Home and Health Department for financing the provision of computer- ised statistical data; Dr. M. Titterington of the Statistics Department at the University of Glasgow; Jacqueline Tombs and Frank Thomas of the Scottish Home and Health Department; and Superintendent I. McKie, Force Information Officer, Strathclyde Police. 159

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