War Zones and Depraved Violence: Exploring the Framing of Urban Neighborhoods in News Reports of Violent Crime

Criminal Justice Review, Ahead of Print.
This study examines the role that the news media play in casting certain urban neighborhoods as particularly violent areas. It is possible that the news media serve as a key source of information about urban neighborhoods to the general public, just as the media are the main source of crime information to those who do not directly experience crime. Based on a thematic content analysis of newspaper reports of violent crime in four American cities, this study explores the language used by journalists to describe urban neighborhoods and the crimes that occur within them in reports of violent crime. Findings suggest that newspaper articles reporting crime in disadvantaged Black neighborhoods are likely to use intense language to describe the normalcy of crime and the terrible nature of crime in these areas. Reports of crime originating in affluent White neighborhoods are likely to highlight the unusual, shocking nature of the violence. Implications for perceptual and policy reactions to crime in urban neighborhoods are discussed.