Do tabloids feed on crime fear?

The media has more crime to report, said the criminologist

Amid the confusion over what realities Thursday's national crime figures revealed, the media again found itself implicated in the crime debate.

The Home Office has suggested the way newspapers - tabloids in particular - portray crime is helping to widen the gap between what the public fears and what it actually experiences.

According to the government's latest British Crime Survey (BCS), 43% of tabloid readers thought the national crime rate had increased significantly, compared with 26% of broadsheet readers.

Overall, three quarters of the 40,000 people surveyed believed crime had increased in the last two years.

This is despite the same survey finding people were experiencing a drop in overall crime rates.

"A nation stalked by fear" The Sun said on Thursday morning, which carried reports that crime had "soared" in the last year.

The newspaper said its readers were "aware crime was increasing" because many experienced it and witnessed it in the inner city areas they inhabit.

THURSDAY'S HEADLINES The Sun: A nation stalked by fear Express: British crime explosion Mail: Rapes rise by 27pc as crimes of violence soar The Mirror: Crime rises 7%, crime falls 3% Guardian: Sharp rise in rape cases overshadows fall in crime rate Independent: Violent crime rises despite lower total of offences Telegraph: Violent crime up 20pc as police solve fewer cases

And with rape and violent crime on the rise, papers like The Sun cannot be blamed for reporting it, London School of Economics criminologist Dr Marian Fitzgerald told BBC News Online.

"We intellectuals can rail against the way the tabloids portray crime, but it's no different now to the way it's always been. The only change is there is more violent crime for them to feast on now.

"There has always been the argument that some papers could behave more responsibly, but the trouble is they know their market. You only have to look at television to see there is an enormous appetite for programmes on crime and violence.

"I think telling people they are reading the wrong newspapers is something they might find insulting."

"The tabloids have always fed on this, and now the meat is rawer than ever," she said.

Victims exploited

But Paul Fawcett of Victim Support said the organisation agreed with the Home Office on the issue.

"The media exploits victims, it dives into the misery and distress people suffer because there's an appetite for it, but that doesn't make it right.

"I don't know how people can equate 188 pages of complex crime figures with some of Thursday's headlines," he said.

Downing Street entered the debate when Tony Blair's spokesman said the Government, the police and the media had to consider not only whether newspaper coverage of crime reflected reality but also how it affected people's perceptions.

"What we need is a mature debate which reflects the reality of crime," he said.

Dame Elizabeth Neville,, chair of the Association of Chief Police Officers' (ACPO) Media Advisory Group, said it was worrying that the perception of risk was so disproportionate to the reality.

People's own experience is much more important than what they read or see on TV Bob Satchwell, Society of Editors

"Where does that distortion come from? Partly from experience, but also from the things people read and hear and see, which doesn't only mean news but includes fiction."

She said ACPO often met with editors, who expressed a desire to engage in responsible reporting.

"They are running a business, we can't ask them not to report crime. But questions have to be asked about how things are done, and how to keep things in proportion."

But Bob Satchwell, director of the Society of Editors, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the issue of newspaper readership was a "red herring".

"Of course papers need to try to get it right and put everything into proper perspective, but clearly a lot of tabloids will be hearing from their readers that their fear of crime is very high indeed.

"People's own experience is much more important than what they read or see on TV."