Citation

Hu X, Dittmann L. J. Crim. Justice Pop. Cult. 2019; 19(1): 19-36.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, University at Albany, School of Criminal Justice)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Gang-related research is one of the hottest topics in criminology and criminal justice. However, neither official institutions nor mass media pay much attention to information gathered from academic research. The current study uses qualitative methods to examine how print media describes gang members through analyzing 180 newspaper reports. The findings show that although newspaper reports do criticize overidentification of gang members by law enforcement, how newspaper reports describe gang members seems to be different from findings in academic research. Specifically, the newspaper reports analyzed in the current study provide very few legal definitions, often emphasize individual gang histories, and commonly provide ambiguous gang member characteristics. Based on the findings, proposed policies are made, including providing a statement at the beginning of each report, standardizing and clarifying legal definitions of gang members, improving police use of gang databases, and most importantly, identifying and citing academic studies.

Keywords: gang members, newspaper reports, overidentification, content analysis

Language: en