The Influence of Media Representations of Police Wrongdoing on Police Performance Rating

• In Event: Media, Police, and the Public

Abstract

A common correlate of individual perception of the police is fear of crime. As fear of crime increases, likelihood of strong satisfaction with police performance decreases. However, empirical data show that there are cases where both fear of crime and rating of police performance are high and other cases where both are low, which is counterintuitive. Understanding why this might be so is important to police administrators, who are trying to make strides in alleviating police-public tension.
To ascertain what factors influence the unexpected positive correlation between fear of crime and attitudes toward police, we surveyed about 300 residents in a township in Central Pennsylvania. We found that exposure to media coverage of police misconduct partly explains this phenomenon. Other important findings and implications will be discussed.

Authors

• Jonathan Lee, Penn State Harrisburg

• Jennifer Gibbs, Penn State Harrisburg