CJ 3533-410 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Chain Letter, National Crime Victimization Survey, Crime Science
Document Summary
This book is designed to help the reader learn about crime as it really happens. There are nine fallacies that are presented and explained in this chapter to resist misinformation, understand crime, and figure out how to reduce it. : the dramatic fallacy. Crime becomes distorted in the public mind because of the dramatic fallacy: where the crimes covered on popular television news channels are far more dramatic than crimes that are commonly found in real life. News channels publicize strange and violent crimes to keep their viewers interested. The more ratings a channel has, the more profit the channel and its employees make. The horror-distortion sequence is a tactic used in media to entertain the public. This causes public misinformation to grow: the murder mix. People see crime as far more frequently occurring and interesting than it is. Murders account for less than 1% of part i crimes. 90% of all part i crimes are non-violent, property crimes.