Overview and introduction

Americans are no strangers to crime. As a country we are privy to stories of criminal acts on a daily, even hourly, basis through our constant connection to information via television, radio, print, and the Internet. In recent decades the ability to gain real-time information about local, state, and national crime has further revealed the alarming reality of crime in this country. Our daily lives are seemingly enmeshed with violence in today’s media, and questions arise how this perpetual exposure impacts our society. In 1950, only 10% of American households owned a television, but today televisions are present in 99% of homes. Television programs display over 800 violent acts in a single hour (Beresin, 2009). According to a 2014 Gallup Poll, 70% of Americans believed crime had gone up in the past year (Gallup, 2015), inconsistent with federal crime reports.