Setting the Public Agenda: Street Crime and Drug Use in American Politics

• NCJ Number: 150022
• Journal: Social Problems Volume: 41 Issue: 3 Dated: (August 1994) Pages: 425-447
• Author(s): K Beckett
• Date Published: 1994
• Length: 23 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Factors associated with shifts in public attitudes and levels of public concern about crime and drugs are examined using OLS regression techniques and other analytic methods.

Abstract

Data came from FBI Uniform Crime Index reports for 1964-74, the Household Survey on Drug Abuse sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Television News Index and Abstracts, the New York Times Index, and public opinion surveys conducted by the Gallup Poll and the New York Times/CBS News. Results indicate that government and, to some extent, media initiatives on these issues are associated with public concern about street crime and drug abuse. Findings support constructionist accounts of the politicization of crime and drugs by demonstrating that the definitional activities of the government and the media, rather than the reported incidence of crime or drug abuse, has shaped public concern regarding those issues. Figures, tables, footnotes, and 64 references (Author abstract modified)