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The News Media on School Crime and Violence

Constructing Dangerousness and Fueling Fear

University of Delaware, akupchik{at}udel.edu

Nicole L. Bracy

University of Delaware

This article examines how the print news media report on the problem of school crime and violence. Based on a sample of news stories from The New York Times and USA Today , it analyzes the characteristics of these reports and how they fuel fears of school crime and violence. The study reveals that print news articles frame school crime as bad or getting worse; that they persistently remind readers about the potential for tragedy at school; that they rely on emotional responses to inform readers, rather than more objective sources of information; and that they describe school violence as being unpredictable while suggesting that schools should be blamed for failing to recognize warning signs of violence. These characteristics of news stories stoke readers' fears by providing a heightened sense of the threat of school violence, without a broader context for understanding how rare it is.

Key Words: school violence • school crime • media • fear

This version was published on April 1, 2009

Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, Vol. 7, No. 2, 136-155 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1541204008328800


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