Media Representations of Crime in Retail Settingsusers.clas.ufl.edu/tjohns/AcademicPaperExProj6.doc · Web viewThe keyword variables “violent,” “scared,” “business leader,”

Section

The first analysis examines measures of the impact of news

stories by the type of crime detailed in the articles. The results of this

analysis are presented in Table 1.

The results indicate substantial differences among the measures of

potential impact of news stories by the type of crime covered. The

crime that was covered most in the articles examined in this research

was robbery. A total of 58 articles, over 46% of those analyzed,

reported on a criminal event which included robbery in a retail setting.

The second highest level of coverage was for murder or homicide in a

retail setting, with a total of 29 articles. Thus, about 23% of the

articles in the study reported on a criminal event that included murder

or homicide as part of the crime. There were 18 stories each that

included the crimes of theft and kidnapping. The lowest number of

stories was for larcenies, with only 5 of the 125 articles detailing a

crime classified as larceny. There were 42 stories for “other” type

crimes, which primarily included “carjacking” and drug and weapon

offenses, among other crimes.

The average length of the stories varied from 450 to 554 words. Five of the types of crime had articles with average lengths of greater than 500 words. These crimes were theft, burglary, murder, kidnapping, and other crimes. The average story location scores varied a great deal, ranging from 2.4 for larceny to 6.8 for murder. So, as we might expect, unusual violent crimes like murder, robbery, rape,

and kidnapping seem to be accorded more prominence in terms of article placement, length, and coverage.

The story impact score “Percentage of Total Articles” is

particularly interesting when compared to actual crime rates (see

Table 2). The most common Index crime in the U.S. is larceny/theft –

nearly 60% of all Index crime in America can be classified as such (FBI

2000). Only 18.4% of the articles on crime in retail settings, however,

related to larcenies or thefts. Even extrapolating to retail settings, we

can make some generalizations about crime rates. Only 12% of violent

crime occurs in commercial establishments, and only 34% of burglaries

are of non-residences. Thus, crime in these settings is comparatively

rare. As predicted by the literature, newspaper coverage of crimes in

retail settings does not seem to mirror reality.

Kidnappings and abductions (particularly of adults) are so rare

that they are generally not even indexed with other violent crimes

(only 220 federal arrests for kidnapping were made in 1999), but over

14% of the articles under study focused on a kidnapping or abduction.

Likewise, murder constitutes only 0.1% of all crime in the U.S. (and if

12% of this crime occurs in retail settings, then less than 0.01% of

overall crime is murder in retail settings). Over 23% of the newspaper

articles analyzed in this research reported on a homicide in a retail

setting.

Actual crime rates for each city from which articles were

analyzed were also compared to levels of crime reporting in the

articles. Pearson correlations between reporting on a given crime and

actual levels of that crime (for the specified city) further confirmed that

there was no relationship between actual and reported crime. These

analyses revealed only one significant correlation – there was a weak,

significant negative correlation between actual burglary rates and

reports of burglary, indicating an inverse relationship between

reporting and actual occurrences.

An important goal of this research is to develop a multivariate

model that identifies factors related to the dependent measures of the

potential impact of a news article about crime in retail settings. We

selected story length and story location score as our dependent

variables for OLS regression modeling.

In implementing the multivariate analysis we examined a large

number of independent variables. The bulk of the independent

variables that will be related to the impact measures described above

were constructed as dichotomous variables based on the categories

that appeared on the coding sheets. Variables assessing the “event”

(classification of the reported crime, whether a description of the event

was relayed, the level of violence described, and whether similar

events were noted); the “offenders” (whether there were multiple

offenders, whether a description was included, what personal elements

of description were used, whether a picture was included and whether

the offender’s prior crimes were noted); the “victims” (whether there

was a victim or if it was a property crime, whether there were multiple

victims, whether a description was included, what personal elements of

description were used, and whether a picture was included); the

“location of the event” (the city and state of the crime, whether this is

local to the newspaper, whether the business name was given, if an

individual store or shopping area/mall was involved, and whether the

crime scene was inside or outside the business); the “quotes” that

appeared (what types of people were quoted – police, businesspeople,

experts, victims, bystanders, others, whether statements were made

confirming that crime is a problem, confirming that fear is

present/appropriate, criticizing popular conceptions of crime, criticizing

official statistics and trends, conveying alarmist reactions and whether

statistics were cited); and, how many times certain “key words”

appeared in the text (armed, dangerous, violent, fear, threat, random,

bloody, gang, inner-city, crime, evil, scared, business leaders,

community leaders, happen to anyone, gun, safe/safety,

secure/security).

In addition, two variables were constructed based on the

secondary data collected for each city. The cities represented by the

newspapers included in the research were divided into size categories

based on their populations. Cities with populations of 90,000 and

below were classified as “small” cities, those with populations between

90,001 and 299,999 were classified as “medium” cities, and those

above 300,000 were classified as “large” cities. The cities represented

by the newspapers included in the research were also divided based on

their crime rates. Utilizing FBI data on crimes known to police for the

nation as a whole, for the South, and for the particular cities, the cities

were classified as having a crime rate that was “low to average,”

“above average,” or “high” in relation to the rest of the region. [This

regional comparison is especially important given that the South has

higher crime rates than other regions of the country.]

The first multivariate analysis examines the impact of the various

independent variables on the dependent variable that measures the

length of the articles on crime in retail settings. The results of this

analysis are presented in Table 3.

The results of the regression analysis are easy to interpret. The

“parameter estimate” corresponds to the number of word increase (or

decrease) in the dependent variable for a one-unit increase in the

independent variable. Many of the variables are dichotomous

variables. For example, the variables that indicate whether a picture

of the victim was included in the article, whether quotes from the

police were included, whether statements were included which confirm

crime is a problem, and whether statistics were cited are all coded as

either “0” or “1.” A zero indicates, for example, that there are no

quotes from the police while a “1” signifies that a statement by a law

enforcement officer is cited in the article. Thus, in interpreting the

model, we can say that including a statement by a police officer

increases the number of words in the article, on average, by 72.6

words.

Other variables, such as keywords, are coded as continuous

variables – they are given a numeric value that corresponds to the

number of times they appear in the article. The keyword variables

“violent,” “scared,” “business leader,” “gun,” and “secure/security”

are examples for these types of variables. If the word “gun” is used

once in the article it has a coded value of “1,” if “gun” is used twice in

the article it has a coded value of “2.” The interpretation of the

parameter estimates for these variables is similarly straightforward.

Each time, for example, the term “gun” is used in an article, the

number of words increases, on average, by 31. The adjusted R-square

value shows that these variables, taken together, account for 33% of

the variation in story length for specific articles about crime in retail

settings.

The results of the multivariate OLS regression analysis for the

dependent variable “story location score” are presented in Table 4.

Again, the “parameter estimate” corresponds to the amount of increase in the story location score for every one-unit increase in the

independent variable. Therefore, we can say that including a picture of the offender increases the story location story by nearly two points. Similarly, including statements that indicates that fear of crime is justified or appropriate increases the story location score by three

points; including quotes from bystanders increases the score by nearly two and a half points; and, including quotes from people other than police, experts, businesspeople, victims, or bystanders increases the score by three points. Referencing a criminal event that includes a

murder increases the story location score by over two points. Again, we see that the variables most predictive of prominent placement

within the newspaper are those that relate to unusual, violent crimes

and fear. When taken together, these five independent variables explain 20% of the variance in story location scores.

Media Representations of Crime in Retail Settings

Tracy L. Johns, University of FloridaMichael J. Scicchitano, University of Florida

Read Hayes, University of Florida

While crime rates have dropped or held steady for decades, extensive media coverage of crime persists. Disproportionate media coverage of violent crimes may lead readers to conclude that relatively rare incidents of crime occur frequently. Given that perceptions of crime in retail settings affect shopping behavior and have a substantial impact on businesses and local economies, research focusing on how the media represent crimes in these settings is important. This research examines newspaper articles about crime in retail settings. The data for the study were collected from an extensive content analysis of newspaper articles in the Southeast, and both descriptive and multivariate analyses were performed. The results indicate that violent crimes in retail settings, such as murder and kidnappings, receive more attention in the media than less violent, more typical crimes such as burglary or larceny. Moreover, violent crimes such as murder or kidnapping receive more attention in the media relative to their actual Index crime rate.

Section

Despite media reports that often focus on the “epidemic” of

crime in America, overall rates of crime are declining. The Crime Index

is an official measure used by the FBI to gauge fluctuations in the

volume and rate of crime reported to law enforcement in the U.S. It is

composed of selected offenses that include the violent crimes of

murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and

aggravated assault, and the property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft,

motor vehicle theft, and arson (FBI 2000). In 1999 the Crime Index

total was estimated at 11.6 million offenses, the lowest total since

1978. This number represented an 8% decrease over the preceding

year, and marked the eighth consecutive decline in the Crime Index.

In fact, this number was 16% lower than in 1995 and 20% lower than in

1990 (FBI 2000).

The highest volume of offenses reported to police is, by far,

larceny-thefts and the lowest is murder. More specifically, statistics

show that most thefts are from motor vehicles. Shoplifting, however,

constitutes about 14% of thefts (Pastore and Maguire 2000).

Aggregated by location, 34% of burglaries known to police in 1999

occurred at non-residences (stores, offices, etc.), mostly at night. The

vast majority of robberies reported in 1999, however, occurred on a

street or highway (48%). The remaining robberies occurred at

commercial houses (14%), gas or service stations (2%), convenience

stores (6%), residences (12%), banks (2%), and miscellaneous other

locations (16%) (Pastore and Maguire 2000). In addition, the Bureau of

Labor Statistics notes that 80% of the 566 workplace homicides

reported in 1998 occurred during the commission of a robbery or other

crime (Pastore and Maguire 2000).

The content of crime news diverges widely from the patterns shown in the official statistics. Most studies show that crime in the media bears little resemblance to actual known crime (Heath and Gibert 1996; Katz 1987; Stacco 1995; Tunnell 1992). More importantly, the differences between official statistics and media reports of crime do not appear to be random (Chermak 1994; Katz 1987; Sorenson, et al. 1998). Katz (1987: 57) notes that, “in many respects, the picture one obtains about crime from reading the newspapers inverts the picture about crime one gets from reading police statistics.” The news media consistently feature particular violent crime rather than property crime (Best 1999; Boulahanis and Heltsley 2004; Heath and Gilbert 1996; Katz 1987; Tunnel 1992). “Street crime” (like the Index offenses noted above) is disproportionately featured over “white collar” crime despite the fact that fraud is the most common crime in America (Welch et al. 1997).

While the statistics show that actual crime has dropped or

remained relatively consistent in recent years, coverage of crime

stories on television news has gone up dramatically. During the 1990’s

crime became the number one story covered by the network nightly

news, and, in local markets, crime stories consume one-quarter to one-

third of total news time (Doi 1998). From 1990 to 1995, for example,

homicide arrests dropped by 13% while coverage of homicide on NBC,

ABC, and CBS nightly news increased by 336% (Doi 1998).

Newspapers also devote a large amount of coverage to crime

stories. Crime stories typically fill about one-fourth to one-third of a

newspaper’s space (Stepp 1998). Graber’s 1980 study, for example,

found that 23% of stories in three Chicago papers were devoted to

crime; Liska and Baccaglini (1990) found an average of 9.5 crime

stories per issue in a nationwide study of 26 newspapers; and a large

regional study combining results from television and newspaper

analysis by Chermak (1994) found that 11% of all news stories were

crime stories – the fourth largest category behind sports, business, and

general interest.

Crime news is one of the most popular topics for both the media and the public – it is convenient to discover and it helps sell newspapers (Chermak 1994; Stepp 1998). Crime stories are often preferred by newspapers because they are easily gathered from credible sources (policing agencies); have a dramatic value (especially when they are atypical); and are readily available when there is open space to fill on any given day (Sacco 1995).

The relationship between news consumption and the fear of

crime is complex. Some older studies find no relationship between

exposure to newspaper reports of crime and fear while other, typically

more recent, studies do find a relationship.

More recent results suggest that reports of sensational or

random crime are associated with higher levels of fear (Heath and

Gilbert 1996). Other findings suggest that, because most people do

not have direct exposure to crime, people rely on the news media for

their information on crime and victimization (Chermak 1994). In fact,

more than 95% of the respondents in one study indicate that the news

media is their primary source of information about crime (Graber 1980;

Tunnel 1992). As a consequence of this reliance on the news media for

information on crime, “As the media overemphasize violent crime

stories, the public’s beliefs about the frequency of violent crimes has

become incongruent with official crime rates” (Tunnel 1992:295).

Survey data suggest that 84 percent of people believe that crime is

rising even though it has been falling for several decades (Tunnel

1992). Public beliefs about the pervasiveness of violent crimes seem

to be related to the media’s distorted presentation of crime and

victimization.

This is also apparent in studies on fear of crime. While television

plays an important role, newspapers are people’s primary sources of

information on local crime (Artwick and Gordon 1998; Sorenson, et al.

1998). This is crucial, as research findings suggest that individuals

who receive most of their crime-related information from newspapers

report higher levels of fear of crime than those who receive crime

information from other mediums (Boulahanis and Heltsley 2004;

Williams and Dickinson 1993). As such, newspaper crime stories may

have a stronger effect on those individuals who are white, have more

education and higher income, or the elderly – those who are the least

likely to experience victimization but may be more likely to read the

paper. Similarly, research has shown that women find crime stories to

be significantly more disturbing than men do (Ketterer 2002), though

they are less likely to be victims of crime.

Perceptions of crime can have profound effects on people’s behaviors

and basic routines. Fear of crime can vary greatly across macro units

(such as neighborhoods) and can become ingrained as part of a culture

or experience, “thereby constraining and altering its patterns of social

life, such as its social solidarity, social cohesiveness, migration

patterns, and business activity” (Liska and Baccaglini 1990:360). If

people alter their typical patterns and activities because of media

representations and fear of crime, the effects can be far-reaching. For

example, stores and malls lose sales in the evening hours (over the

past several years, there has been a 35% drop in retail sales after 6:00

pm) because customers fear parking lots at night – almost half of all

shoppers in a nationwide survey said that walking in large parking lots

scares them (BDC 1996).

In fact, retail behaviors are one of the areas where fear of crime

most clearly manifests itself. A 1994 survey shows that 37.1% of a

nationwide sample of consumers had changed the way they shop in

the previous year because of fear of crime (Rickard 1994; Schaeffer

1994). The same study further reveals that 21.1% of consumers made

fewer shopping trips because of crime worries, and one-third are too

scared to drive to stores where they used to shop. Of note is the

finding that those with higher incomes (annual incomes of $75,000 or

more) were most affected – more than half had changed their shopping

patterns based on fear of crime. Of all consumers surveyed in the

study, three-quarters believed that “news reports” made them feel less

safe, while only about one-tenth attributed their feelings of insecurity

to bad experiences of friends or relatives (Rickard 1994).

Thus, it is important to understand how the media present

specific information about crime in retail settings. There is almost no

research that examines media reporting of crime in retail locations and

the impact of these news stories on public perceptions and fears. This

research provides a first step by examining how newspapers present

stories about crime in retail settings.

Section

A recent poll by the Los Angeles Times shows that people’s feelings about crime are based 65% on what they read and see in the media

and only 21% on their actual experiences with crime (Altheide 1997). Indeed, social scientists and communications experts increasingly

argue that the sheer overload of stories about crime in the media, and especially on television newscasts, is giving the public a warped view of reality. Since most people have very little first-hand experience of

crime and the criminal justice system, their beliefs about crime are largely based on information derived from second-hand sources – especially the news media (Budiansky 1996). Because the media

regularly distort crime by over representing “more severe, intentional, and gruesome incidents,” the public often overestimates the frequency

and severity of crime and, in turn, misperceives its reality (Heath and Gilbert 1996).

Despite the fact that crime rates, and violent crime rates, in the

US have dropped or held steady for decades, extensive media

coverage of crime persists. Media reports of crime tend to focus only

on particular incidents of crime (usually sensational or unusual crimes),

rather than more routine aspects of criminality. Thus, the media

coverage of violent crime tends to enhance the potential for readers to

perceive the remarkable incidents of crime as typical examples, or

instances (Best 1999). Survey results indicate, for example, that the

public believes crime is rampant, except in their own neighborhoods

and communities, primarily because of the way the media present

“news” (Doi 1998).

Fox and Van Sickel (2001) argue that there has been a

fundamental shift in the style of coverage of crime and the criminal

justice system in the past ten to twenty years. They describe this

current method of reporting as “tabloid justice,” and note that the

mass media, in both traditional and emerging forms, now tend to focus

on the “sensationalistic, personal, lurid, and tawdry” details of unusual

and high profile trials and investigations (Fox and Van Sickel 2001).

If charges that “the mass media create unwarranted levels of

fear of crime” are true, then understanding the process of creation is

essential (Heath and Gilbert 1996:379). Establishing an understanding

of how the media present news, particularly news about crime and

violence, is the first step in analyzing the possible affect of this

presentation on the public’s perception of crime. We must begin by

studying crime news production if we are to develop an understanding

of the news media’s role in shaping society’s attitudes and policies

towards crime and victims (Chermak 1994).

The purpose of this research is to examine media reporting of

crime in retail settings. Public perceptions of crime in business

settings may have a sizable impact on shopping and revenue for both

individual businesses as well as the economy at large. As such,

businesses have a vested interest in media presentations of crime in

retail settings as do social scientists who examine how perceptions of

fear and safety affect behavior.

This research examines newspaper reporting of crimes in various

retail settings. The focus of the research is on several important issues

related to crime in retail settings. First, to what extent do different

types of crimes in retail settings receive varying levels of emphasis in

newspapers? Second, to what extent does the number of stories about

crime in retail settings correspond with national crime rates? Finally,

what factors explain the various levels of emphasis that newspaper

articles regarding crime in retail settings receive?

The data for this analysis were collected from an extensive

analysis of newspaper articles related to crime in retail settings.

Section

Methodologically, we build on the prior work utilizing content

analysis of news stories (see Altheide 1997; Chermak 1994; Barlow, et

al. 1995; Welch, et al. 1997). Our goal is to understand the themes

and discourse used by the media in reporting on crime in retail

settings, including variations by type of crime, type of offender, type of

victim, and type of setting. To that end, we have collected a sample of

newspaper and wire articles related to crime in retail settings.

The two primary media outlets that have been used to analyze

crime reporting are newspapers and television news programs. Due to

cost and time limitations, newspapers were selected as the medium for

analysis in this study. Until recently, newspaper readers tended to be

better educated, have higher incomes, and to live in neighborhoods

that have less crime -- the opposite of television viewers (Heath and

Gilbert 1996). More recent work, however, finds that only age

correlates with newspaper reading (Heath and Gilbert 1996). While a

person must be literate in order to read the newspaper, the profound

demographic differences that once existed between these audiences

have been greatly reduced.

The data for this research were collected from an extensive

analysis of newspapers in the Southeast United States1. A search for

articles about crime was conducted from an on-line LEXIS-NEXIS

database using the keywords “retail + business,” “shopping + center,”

“shopping + mall,” and “retail + store” paired with the key word

“crime.” This search resulted in identifying a total of 2,238 articles for

a one year time span. As merely using key words is an imperfect

measure of the appropriateness of a given article to the study, each

article was carefully reviewed to assess whether it was appropriate to

the larger scope of the study. Articles that simply list crimes or arrests

(variously reported as crime logs, police logs, police blotters, crime

watch, police briefs, crime lines, crime and justice, crime reports, and

police beat, among others) were excluded for the purposes of further

analysis. A total of 125 articles related to specific crimes in retail

settings were used for this analysis.

A coding sheet was used to guide the content analysis. Each

article was coded for inclusion of information related to the event or

story, the type of crime, offenders, victims, and statements and key

words that established the tone of the article. This coding scheme

allowed us to construct the dependent and independent variables as

described below. In addition, secondary data for each of the cities

from which an article appeared was collected (the most recent

population estimates and Index crimes known to police for both

personal and property crimes).

Section

An important goal of this research is to determine the impact of

various news stories on perceptions of safety and danger in retail

settings. It is, of course, not possible to accurately determine the

impact of a news story on any given individual or group without

directly asking these individuals about their perceptions. Indirect

measures, however, can be established. In this research we have

attempted to assess the potential impact of news stories about crime

in retail settings by creating three measures of impact. These

measures are described in detail below.

Number of News Stories. This measure of the potential impact of

articles about crime in retail settings is simply a count of the number of

news stories about a particular type of crime that may occur inside of,

or in direct proximity to (e.g. parking lots), retail stores or shopping

centers. Our assumption with this measure is that the more stories

about a given category of crime the greater the cumulative impact of

the stories on the reader.

Length of the News Story. This measure of the potential impact

of articles about crime in retail settings is a count of the number of

words in each story. Given the fact that space for news stories is at a

premium (relative to advertising space) in newspapers, allotting more

space should denote relative importance. Our assumption is that, in

general, the longer the story the greater the potential impact of that

story on the reader.

Story Location. The third measure of the potential impact of

articles about crime in retail settings relates to the location of the story

within the newspaper. We created a measure that includes two

components of location. The first component is the section of the

newspaper where a story is located. Our assumption is that articles

will have more impact based on their appearance in this order of

location within the paper: Front Section (A), Metro/Local Section, and

all other sections.

Within these sections, articles located in the front of the section

(lower page numbers) would be expected to have a greater impact

than those located later in the section (higher page numbers). Thus,

we created a combined measure to assess the impact of story location

by assigning weights as follows:

Front Section 16Metro/local Section 4Other Sections 1

Using the weight as a numerator and the page number within a section

as the denominator creates the measure of location (“Story Location

Score”). As such, a story on the first page of the front section of a

newspaper will have the highest possible score of 16 (16/1 = 16). A

story located on the first page of the metro section will have a score of

4 (4/1 = 4). Higher scores indicate that the article was featured more

prominently in the newspaper.

The measures of impact, therefore, provide several different

perspectives of the possible impact that a story, or number of stories,

may have on a reader. These variables will be utilized throughout the

analysis to illustrate the possible audience effects of the articles being

examined.

Section

Our study on media presentations of crime in retail settings is

very much in line with previous studies of media reporting of crime in

general. The results clearly show a divergence between newspaper

reports of crime in retail settings and actual crime. In fact, the

hypothesis of an inverse presentation style, in which the least likely

crimes are afforded the most coverage, is supported by our findings.

The highest percentage of articles about specific crimes in retail

settings are for robbery, murder, and “other” crimes (mainly

carjackings). The highest story location scores for specific articles are

also found for murder, robbery, and “other” crimes. In addition,

bivariate analyses also fail to show any significant positive correlations

between actual crime rates for a given crime and the number of

articles about that type of crime. This further supports the contention

that newspaper reports of crime in retail settings are not indicative of

the actual rates of a given crime.

Our findings also support the evidence provided in the literature

review which suggests that more novel, dramatic, and violent crimes

are more likely to be published, and published in prominent sections of

the newspaper, than more “ordinary” crimes. Again, the results noted

above indicate that violent crimes in retail settings received much

more coverage than property crimes in retail settings.

The first multivariate model shows that increasing story length

(of specific articles) is associated with including a picture of the victim;

including quotes from police, experts, business leaders, and others;

including statements that fear of crime is justified and that crime is a

problem; not including statistics about crime; and, increased use of

terms such as “violent,” “scared,” “gun,” and “security.” This implies

that longer articles seem to be designed to invoke fear. Given the

explanation of previous participant observation studies of making

“news,” we would expect longer stories to include quotes from the

police and pictures. However, the explicit inclusion of key words such

as “violent” and “scared,” statements that crime is a problem and that

fear of crime is justified, and the omission of statistics about actual

crime rates point to a deliberate construction of crime in retail settings

as violent and scary.

Our analysis of story location scores also points to a skewed construction of crime as violent and frightening. The second multivariate model using the story location score, a measure of the prominence of story placement in the newspaper, reveals that higher scores (more prominent placement) are associated with stories about murder; stories about crimes with high levels of violence; including a picture of the offender; including quotes from bystanders and others; including statements that fear of crime is justified; and including terms such as “fear” and “gun.”

Given that media presentations of crime in retail settings

establish a construction of crime that does not mirror the reality of

crime, people’s perceptions of crime in retail settings may be skewed

toward a belief that most crime in retail settings is violent and scary,

and that they should be fearful in these settings. Stories seem to be

constructed to lead readers to infer that they should fear crime in retail

settings because of its violent nature.

Thus, we can draw several basic conclusions about media presentations of crime in retail settings. Newspaper articles about crime in retail settings do not reflect the true nature of crime in America. Stories about violent personal crime are published more often, and are granted more space and higher prominence than articles about more ordinary property crimes. These stories tend to use key words, quotes, and statements that invoke images of fear and violence. The variables established to measure the potential impact of crime articles on readers, however, are only one piece of the puzzle. In spite of the information provided in this report, there are substantial limitations in the ability of a content analysis of news articles about crime in retail settings to make inferences about the impact of these articles on shoppers’ attitudes about, and perceptions of, fear and/or safety in particular stores or locations. As noted in the work of Heath and Gilbert (1996), pairing a general telephone survey of people’s reactions to crime reports and their perceptions of the relative danger or safety of given settings (in this case, retail settings) best allows researchers to determine how the media and other factors interact to affect shoppers’ attitudes.

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Table 1: Measures of Story Impact by Type of Crime

Type of Crime Average Number (%) of

Stories

Average Length of Story

Average Story Location Score

Robbery 58 (46.4%) 471 words 5.0Theft 18 (14.4%) 525 words 3.5Burglary 9 (7.2%) 519 words 3.4Larceny 5 (4.0%) 484 words 2.4Murder 29 (23.3%) 509 words 6.8Assault 16 (12.8%) 450 words 2.7Rape 13 (10.4%) 476 words 3.7Kidnapping/Abduction

18 (14.4%) 554 words 4.3

Other 42 (33.6%) 517 words 4.9

Table 2: Percentage of Articles by Classification of Crime and National Crime Rates

Type of Crime Percentage ofTotal Articles

Percent Distribution of Index Crime in the

U.S.Robbery 46.4% 3.5%Theft/Larceny 18.4% 59.8%Burglary 7.2% 18.0%Murder 23.3% 0.1%Assault 12.8% 7.9%Rape 10.4% 0.8%Kidnapping 14.4% Not availableSource: FBI Uniform Crime Reports for 1999

Table 3: Multivariate Regression Model Predicting Length of Specific Articles about Crime in Retail Settings

Variable Parameter Estimate

Picture of Victim 159.38**Quoted Police Sources 72.65*

Statements confirming that crime is a problem 223.57****Included crime statistics -955.64*Key word “violent” 57.05*Key word “scared” 53.45**Key word “business leaders” 259.75*Key word “gun” 31.1***Key word “secure/security” 29.56**

F value 7.59****Adjusted R-square 0.33* P < 0.1 **P < 0.05 ***P < 0.01 ****P < 0.001

1 To insure that data from a cross-section of communities were included in the

sample, the decision was made to sample within a region rather than limiting the search

to only one large community and one small community. Limiting the search in this way

may have biased the results given the limited scope of some smaller newspapers.

Collecting data on a national level would have posed unique problems as well. Using too

wide a breadth provides an overwhelming number of articles for a large time span (such

as a year) and filtering through this number of articles would have been time and cost

prohibitive. Limiting the search by region allowed for a sample that includes a wide-

range of small and large communities. The region closest to the primary researchers, the

Southeast, was chosen to best facilitate comparison in any future analyses performed.

The Southeast region includes sources from the following states: Alabama, Arkansas,

District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi,

North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Table 4: Multivariate Regression Model Predicting the Story Location Score for Articles about Crime in Retail Settings

Variable Parameter Estimate

Picture of Offender 1.99*Story about Murder 2.38**Statements confirming that fear is justified 3.00***Quotes from bystanders 2.40*Quotes from others 3.02**

F value 6.48****Adjusted R-square 0.20* P < 0.1 **P < 0.05 ***P < 0.01 ****P < 0.001