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Media Use and its Impacts on Crime Perception, Sentencing Attitudes and Crime Policy

The German statistics of police-recorded crime show a decline in total offences over the 10 years up to 2003. In contrast to that trend, survey-based evidence shows that the German public believes or assumes, on balance, that crime has increased. Moreover, the proportion of people who are in favour of tougher sentencing has increased, and multivariate analyses show that the belief that crime is rising is the factor most strongly associated with a preference for stiffer penalties. Further analysis of survey data shows that the pattern of television viewing is associated with the belief that crime is rising. This pattern of results suggests that television broadcasts that include fictional or factual treatment of crime stimulate this biased perception of reality. The article discusses the significance of these findings for national and international developments in crime policy.