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...
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.