Mirka Smolej | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Finland witnessed a surge in crime news reporting during the 1990s. At the same time, there was a significant rise in the levels of fear of crime reported by surveys. This research examines whether and how to the two phenomena: news media and fear of violence were associated with each other.

The research verifies that as in many other countries, the quantity of crime news supply has increased quite markedly in Finland. The study also shows that exposure to crime news is related to being worried about violent victimization and avoidance behaviour and documents that exposuree to TV crime reality-programming is associated with reduced social trust among Finnish adolescents.

The analysis of Poliisi-TV shows that it transmits a distorted view of crime when contrasted with primary data sources on crime, but that this distortion is not as big as could be expected from international research findings and pochal theories of sociology. The research also indicates that the portrayals of violence victims in Poliisi-TV do not fit the traditional ideal types of victims that are usually seen to dominate crime in the media. Moreover, the fact that the victims of violence in Poliisi-TV are ordinary people represents a wider development of normalization of the crime victim in Finland.