Fewer crimes happen these days yes, but that just means that the media can cover more of them that do happen, so we are more informed of crime than we ever have been in the past.
Thus, the news sources end up propagating this false idea that crime is actually on the rise because they work hard at keeping this news always at the forefront of people's minds.
On top of that, an oft-forgotten influence on public perception is entertainment. If you add up the cop shows, lawyer shows, dramas with criminal subplots, crime-centric films, bestselling thriller novels, and crime-laced video games you get a force that's arguably more powerful than media that covers actual events.
Yes, it's fiction, but it is fiction that relies on verisimilitude for effect, i.e. it isn't fantasy. It has to seem real, which undoubtedly has an effect on what people perceive as real. With a steady diet of fictional crime one could easily be persuaded that crime is more common than it is.
I wonder if paradoxically this also helps to lower the incidence of crime, as the payoff in crime fiction is usually the criminal getting caught.
I think you are spot on. Watching 20 seasons of Law & Order gives one the impression that everyone in Manhattan has probably been murdered several times...
I was in high school during Columbine. One thing you heard very often was "I this age of Columbine, you can't be too careful," usually used to justify an overreaction to student behavior (I had a friend who would wear a trench coat to school and was harassed by the administration). Except that in the late nineties youth crime and school violence had already been on a steady decline and was continuing in that direction.
Unfortunately, "yes, you can be too careful" doesn't usually go over well with when people are afraid of something. We need people who are brave and charismatic to come out and say it. Paranoia is harmful.
Even if the coverage level hasn't changed, people's ability to process "crime levels" has been saturated. Even though the absolute level is decreasing, people still feel that it's just as high as before.
TFA cheerfully ignores the role of local news media in hyping up any story of violent crime and encouraging anxiety and paranoia when it comes to crime in general.
"Are your children endangered by crazed illegal immigrant serial killer internet pedophile terrorists in their school right now? Find out, tonight at 11."
Another interpretation, there are a bazillion laws. everyone you meet in a day likely has committed felonies. People are much more aware of laws and logic, so the lack of enforcement gets harder and harder to overlook.
It is unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase any fish or wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law, treaty, or regulation of the United States or in violation of any Indian tribal law;
Can you really say every piece of food you've ever acquired followed every required law? Did the truckdriver speed? It seems to me, you can be fined as much as the ticket would have cost the driver.
Fewer crimes happen these days yes, but that just means that the media can cover more of them that do happen, so we are more informed of crime than we ever have been in the past.
Thus, the news sources end up propagating this false idea that crime is actually on the rise because they work hard at keeping this news always at the forefront of people's minds.