PROPOSAL

Proposal

Proposal

Rationale

Despite the widespread use of press crime prevention campaigns targeting both potential victims and criminal women, there exists only superficial understanding about their effectiveness. Less is known about possible differential effects of such campaigns across those who consume them. Early research evaluating the effect of victim-focused campaigns found that they were effective, however, the influence varied across different citizen groups. Comparatively little is known about the impact of criminal women-focused campaigns, generally, and it remains uncertain whether the influence of these campaigns also varies across potential offending subpopulations. Using national survey data (N = 820) from the criminal women-focused “Buzzed Crime is portrayal of criminal women in press” campaign, this study used a series of binary logistic regression models to examine whether there were differential impact effects and to explore the relationship between beliefs and the behavior of portrayal of criminal women in press. The findings indicated that exposure to the press campaign did not alter beliefs or actions of portrayal of criminal women in press, although the relationship between cognitions and the overt behavior of crime drunk did vary across groups. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Research Question and Objective

Research Question

How press portray criminal women?

Why do the press seem to portray men connected to the most heinous crimes more so than women and yet when women commit the same sort of crime less attention is given?

Objective

This study sought to illuminate further the contours of criminal women-focused crime prevention press effects through analysis of data from a national survey assessing the “Buzzed Crime is Portrayal of criminal women in press” public service announcement (PSA) campaign sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It examined whether effects of the campaign vary demographically and explored the relationship between individual perceptions and the behavior of crime drunk.

Academic Context

This study was guided by two different, yet, compatible theoretical approaches. The first was rational choice theory (RCT) and its application through situational crime prevention (SCP). Rational choice theory, and its sibling routine activities, has been used to explain other criminal women focused press campaign effects (Johnson & Bowers, 2003), and the approach also stands to explain the potential effects of criminal women-oriented, anti-portrayal of criminal women in press press campaigns. The second is the reasoned action approach (RAA), a prominent theory in the field of public health. Central to these perspectives is the focus on the interaction between individual reasoning and the situational environment and how this translates to crime behavior.

The relationship between reasoning and behavior is particularly relevant for understanding the effects of press campaigns, generally, and criminal women-oriented campaigns, specifically, since they seek to influence the attitudes and beliefs of their audience in such a way that it alters future behavior. The distinction between cognitions and behavior (and often their disconnectedness), then, has become central to understanding the influence of press based prevention efforts. For instance, some victim-oriented press research has found that whether or not individuals took the recommended course of action was determined by their perceptions (O'Keefe et ...