Abstract

Subjects' initial apprehension about crime was manipulated via exposure to a specially edited crime documentary or control film. They were then given an opportunity to select films to be viewed from a list. This list contained film descriptions that varied (according to a pretest) in the degree to which they featured victimization and justice restoration. Analysis of the victimization scores of the films selected indicated that apprehensive subjects (those exposed to the crime documentary) chose films with less victimization than their counterparts in the control group. Analysis of the justice restoration scores indicated that apprehensive subjects chose films that featured more justice than their counterparts in the control group. These findings are consistent with several selective exposure rationales for the well-documented relationship between exposure to television—and crime drama in particular—and fear of crime. These rationales are fully discussed and the findings of the present study are reconciled with earlier research on the relationship between television exposure and fear of crime, including research on the cultivation of fear via television exposure.

Full Text
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