Press and Release: UK News Coverage of the CCRC since 1996

Abstract

The media are central to public comprehension of criminal justice. Although we may have some direct contact with, say, the police, a courtroom or visiting a prisoner, for the most part we have limited direct contact or experience with these matters. Consequently, we rely on media representations of them for our knowledge. Indeed, in a much quoted statistic from the British Crime Survey, 75 per cent of the public reported that the media were their principal source of information about the criminal justice system (Kershaw et al., 2001). More significantly, only 6 per cent of those surveyed considered that media coverage to be inaccurate. If most of the public believe what they consume about crime and law enforcement, then considerations of media representations of crime are crucial. The potential influence over public opinion on crime and justice, and potentially, over subsequent government policy, must take into account constructions of crime in the public sphere.