IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v12y2022i2p21582440221091243.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do We Mistake Fiction for Fact? Investigating Whether the Consumption of Fictional Crime-Related Media May Help to Explain the Criminal Profiling Illusion

Author

Listed:
  • Teresa Greiwe
  • Ardavan Khoshnood

Abstract

The disparity between the ongoing use of criminal profiling and the lack of empirical evidence for its validity is referred to as criminal profiling illusion. Associated risks for society range from misled police investigations, hindered apprehensions of the actual offender(s), and wrongful convictions to mistrust in the police. Research on potential explanations is in its infancy but assumes that people receive and adopt incorrect messages favoring the accuracy and utility of criminal profiling. One suggested mechanism through which individuals may acquire such incorrect messages is the consumption of fictional crime-related media which typically present criminal profiling as highly accurate, operationally useful, and leading to the apprehension of the offender(s). By having some relation to reality but presenting a distorted picture of criminal profiling, fictional crime-related media may blur the line between fiction and reality thereby increasing the risk for the audience to mistake fiction for fact. Adopting a cultivation approach adequate to examine media effects on one’s perception, the present study is the first to investigate whether the perception of criminal profiling may be influenced by the consumption of fictional crime-related media based on a correlation study. Although the results provide support for the assumption that misperceptions of criminal profiling are widely spread in the general population and associated with the consumption of fictional crime-related media, the found cultivation effects are small and must be interpreted cautiously. Considering that even small effects may have the potential to influence real-life decision-making, they may still be relevant and affect society at large.

Suggested Citation

  • Teresa Greiwe & Ardavan Khoshnood, 2022. "Do We Mistake Fiction for Fact? Investigating Whether the Consumption of Fictional Crime-Related Media May Help to Explain the Criminal Profiling Illusion," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:21582440221091243
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440221091243
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440221091243
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440221091243?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tom R. Tyler, 2004. "Enhancing Police Legitimacy," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 593(1), pages 84-99, May.
    2. Dowler, Kenneth & Zawilski, Valerie, 2007. "Public perceptions of police misconduct and discrimination: Examining the impact of media consumption," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 193-203.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rondina, Leo Carlo, 2018. "Police Self-Image: A Galatea Effect," MPRA Paper 86457, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2018.
    2. Damilohun D. Ayoyo, 2018. "The Perceptions of Police-Black Civilian Deadly Encounters in North America among Black Immigrants in a Western Canadian City," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-14, June.
    3. HyungBin Moon & Hyunhong Choi & Jongsu Lee & Ki Soo Lee, 2017. "Attitudes in Korea toward Introducing Smart Policing Technologies: Differences between the General Public and Police Officers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Moule, Richard K., 2020. "Under siege?: Assessing public perceptions of the “War on Police”," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    5. Harris, Jacob W. & Jones, Melissa S., 2020. "Shaping youths' perceptions and attitudes toward the police: Differences in direct and vicarious encounters with police," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    6. Avital Mentovich & Guy Ben‐Porat & Natalie Levy & Phillip A. Goff & Tom Tyler, 2020. "Policing alienated minorities in divided cities," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(3), pages 531-550, July.
    7. Lucía Tiscornia, 2024. "Police reform in the aftermath of armed conflict: How militarization and accountability affect police violence," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 61(3), pages 383-397, May.
    8. Crifasi, Cassandra K. & Williams, Rebecca G. & Booty, Marisa D. & Owens-Young, Jessica L. & Webster, Daniel W. & Buggs, Shani A.L., 2022. "Community perspectives on gun violence and safety: The role of policing in Baltimore City," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Thomas J. Holt, 2018. "Regulating Cybercrime through Law Enforcement and Industry Mechanisms," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 679(1), pages 140-157, September.
    10. Falusi Fisayo Samuel & Omoyeni Tolulope Julius. & Olabamiji Aminat Abiodun, 2024. "Community Policing and Crime Prevention in Ekiti State: Interrogating the State Police Option," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 11(7), pages 630-642, July.
    11. Weerawardhana K.G.S.D & Wijewardhana B.V.N, 2024. "Community-Oriented Policing: A Theoretical Exploration and its Implications for Building Safer Communities," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(2), pages 15-21, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:21582440221091243. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.