A Look into Media Trends and Influences on Public Perception of Crime

This research examines popular culture’s influence on public perceptions of criminality and criminal justice reform. I have a two-pronged focus: first, I examine how specific cultural texts present criminal behavior, policing, and the criminal justice system; second, I show how these texts’ portrayals of criminal behavior, policing, and the criminal justice system, influence public perceptions about criminal justice reform. Throughout the era of filmmaking and the heightened growth of media consumption, the representation of crime and criminals has had a profound presence in film and media, but with little guidance or fact-checking from the general public and its creators (Welsh, Fleming and Dowler, 2011). Despite this, public perception of the law and reality continues to find its line being constantly blurred, with legal theorist, Richard Sherwin asserting that “The majority of American citizens form their opinions about the criminal justice system through the mass media, and more often than not, from fictional accounts of the trial process” (Alford, 2000). This in turn leads to a culture of preconceived notions that later form into political and social opinions with an unknown negative bias against reform efforts and legal accuracy (Sarat, 2015).