Reference no: EM133796778

Assignment:

ABSTRACT The CSI Effect: The Relationship Between Exposure to TV Crime Dramas and Perceptions of the Criminal Justice System Susan Huelsing Sarapin and Glenn G. Sparks This study reports the results of a survey designed to explore the relationship between exposure to TV crime programs and perceptions about crime as well as perceptions about America's criminal justice system. Telephone interviews were conducted on a random sample of residents in a small Midwestern city in Indiana during the summer of 2009. In general, the survey results indicate that exposure to TV crime programs is associated with a tendency to overestimate the frequency of serious crimes, misperceive important facts about crime and overestimate the number of workers in the criminal justice system.

For example, in comparison to respondents who reported no exposure to TV crime programs, those who did report exposure estimated more lawyers in the work force, more deaths in society due to murder and more rapes committed by strangers. These findings persisted after controlling for a number of demographic variables including sex, age and education level. The results are consistent with current theory in mass communication, especially George Gerbner's theory of media cultivation, and they support extension of his theory into niche genres of television programming. The findings are discussed in the context of the "CSI effect," and possible policy implications are also considered.