from The Sentencing Project:
The Sentencing Project is a research and advocacy organization that promotes effective and humane responses to crime that minimize imprisonment and criminalization by promoting racial/ethnic, economic, and gender justice. News coverage of crime and criminal justice policies has played an integral role in the buildup of mass incarceration and its racial disparities. Many newsrooms are
now striving to more accurately and critically cover these issues. Following is our guidance to newsrooms and journalists on how to cover crime and criminal justice in ways that would better inform the public and policymakers on how to pursue the most effective and humane public safety policies.
1. Situate crime stories, and proposed solutions, within
their broader historical and geographic context.
In most of the country, crime rates reached their peak
levels in the 1990s and have since reached near-record lows, before certain crimes began climbing in 2020. The economic, social, and psychological turbulence of the pandemic has lowered overall property crime rates while contributing to an increase in violent crimes—particularly homicides. The country’s experience with mass incarceration has shown clearly that ratcheting up harmful police and prison policies is a counterproductive response. Well-framed stories about crime upticks should consider the following
questions: Is the uptick unique to one form of crime and is it attributable to a change in crime reporting or recording? How does the uptick compare to historical crime peaks and lows, and how does it compare with crime trends in other jurisdictions? If crime rates increased in several jurisdictions, this should inspire skepticism that a particular local reform is to
blame. Be sure to also request and assess evidence of the effectiveness of proposed solutions. What broader policy shortcomings does the crime uptick
point to and what broader solutions are being implemented? (E.g., access to mental health care, access to effective drug treatment programs, underinvestment in community violence intervention programs, prevalence of guns, under-resourced summer youth programs, unaddressed residential segregation, underemployment and low wages, lack of affordable housing, etc.)
U.S. crime rates increased dramatically beginning in the 1960s, but between 1991 and 2019 crime rates fell by about half, just as they did in many other
countries around the world. The decline has been especially steep for youth, whose arrest rate for serious violent offenses fell by 72% from 1994 to 2019.
(Throughout this crime drop, polls showed that most Americans, although a declining share, continued to believe that crime was increasing.) Media coverage
should test causal claims about the effectiveness of past crime policies by comparing local crime trends with regional and national patterns. The nationwide
crime drop between the 1990s and 2019 challenges any claim that a particular local policy brought down crime rates. Do not award credit for crime declines to
particular leaders, laws, or tactics without a rigorous assessment. Continue reading >>>
|
|
|
|
