About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

48 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 397 (2006-2007)
The News Media's Influence on Criminal Justice Policy: How Market-Driven News Promotes Punitiveness

handle is hein.journals/wmlr48 and id is 411 raw text is: William and Mary
Law Review
VOLUME 48                                                      No. 2, 2006
THE NEWS MEDIA'S INFLUENCE ON CRIMINAL
JUSTICE POLICY: HOW MARKET-DRIVEN NEWS
PROMOTES PUNITIVENESS
SARA SUN BEALE*
ABSTRACT
This Article argues that commercial pressures are determining the
news media's contemporary treatment of crime and violence, and
that the resulting coverage has played a major role in reshaping
public opinion, and ultimately, criminal justice policy. The news
media are not mirrors, simply reflecting events in society. Rather,
* Charles L.B. Lowndes Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law,
sun@law.duke.edu. I would like to acknowledge the Eugene T. Bost, Jr., Research
Professorship of the Charles A. Cannon Trust No. 3, for its support of my work. I would like
to thank my research assistants Randy Cook, Scott Edson, Juliet Karastelev, Kimberly
McCaughey, Michael Meyer, Melanie Merry Roewe, and Johanna Stein. Their work was of
the highest quality, and this Article would not have been possible without them. Thanks
also to James Hamilton, Maxwell McCombs, Ted Chiricos, and Sarah Eschholz for
generously sharing their research, and to Darryl Brown, Dan Filler, Tim Kuhner, Richard
McAdams, Marc Miller, Robert Mosteller, Eric Muller, Sam Pillsbury, Andy Taslitz, Ronald
Wright, and the participants in the faculty workshops at Boston College, the University of
Illinois, Florida State University, and the University of Texas for their helpful comments
on drafts of this manuscript. Earlier versions were also presented at the Hoffinger
Colloquium, Center for Research in Crime and Justice of the New York University School
of Law, and at the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law's Conference on
Politics, Crime and Criminal Justice in Canberra, Australia.

397

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most