Quotes from Barry Glassner

In addition, when a neighborhood's crime victims are portrayed as victims-sympathetically and without blame, as humans rather than as statistics-people living in other parts of the city are more inclined to support social services for the area, which in turn can reduce the crime rate.

Criminologists have documented that the amount of coverage a crime victim receives affects how much attention police devote to the case and the willingness of prosecutors to accept plea bargains.

Producers of TV newsmagazines routinely let emotional accounts trump objective information.

Television news programs survive on scares. On local newscasts, where producers live by the dictum "if it bleeds, it leads," drug, crime, and disaster stories make up most of the news portion of the broadcasts.

Fear mongers make their scares all the more credible by backing up would-be experts' assertions with testimonials from people the audience will find sympathetic.