The Media and Public Perceptions of Criminal Justice Policy Issues :

Recent research in criminology has indicated that the media may influence people’s attitudes toward criminal justice policy. This paper examined attitudes toward gun control among a student population using both ideological (attribution styles) and instrumental perspectives (fear of crime), and then tested whether viewing the film Bowling for Columbine influenced those attitudes. The study employed a classic experimental design. Results from the pretest indicated that there was some support for ideological and instrumental perspectives in attitudes toward criminal justice policy. Results from the posttest indicated that participants in the experimental group reported significantly more support for gun control policies, and were more likely to assign dispositional attribution to criminal behavior. Results therefore suggest that students are susceptible to suggestion from the media when formulating opinions about criminal justice policy.