Images of Crime and Justice in Early Commercial Radio—1932 to 1958

Abstract

Between 1929 and 1962, radio reached audiences comparable to those of contemporaneous pulp magazines or motion pictures and was one of the most significant mass media in the construction of America’s fundamental values and attitudes. This study examined radio logs and over 200 hours of radio programming drawn from 97 crime-related programs broadcast between 1932 and 1958 and confirmed that crime-related programs were a significant portion of radio programming to the American public. An analysis of the programs themselves found that three subgenres dominated crime radio: Outsider or Detective programs (over 50% of the total), Police or Criminal Justice Dramas, and Mystery programs. Radio programs continued a tradition derived from pulp magazines and dime novels and distorted the actual nature of crime and criminal justice. In the programs, the criminal justice system was presented as strongly front end loaded, with police work being the sum of crime fighting. The characteristics of crime and criminals were inverted in radio (as in older pulp magazines and more recent visual media), with murders planned and carried out by middle-to-upper class White males being common. These images were repetitive and stereotypical, as were images of race and gender, in early commercial radio.