Voters Hear a Lot About Large Events of Violence in the News and Are Skeptical of Media Coverage
By Anika Dandekar and Sabrina Jacobs
Though violence in the United States has declined over the past three decades, violent crime seems to be a key issue in elections to voters. A new survey conducted by Data for Progress and the Health Alliance for Violence Intervention shows that voters hear about large events of violence and perceive increases in violence in their communities, but do not believe the media accurately covers violence.
Voters’ Perceptions of Violence and Media Coverage
When asked how much they read or hear about different types of violence, 80 percent of voters say they hear “a lot” about mass shootings, and the rest say they hear “a little” or “nothing at all.” Voters read or hear much less about other types of violence: 46 percent say they hear a lot about community violence, 25 percent say they hear a lot about domestic violence, and only 20 percent hear a lot about gun suicides.
Although voters hear a lot about violent crimes, they don’t necessarily trust the media to cover violence accurately. Thirty-three percent of voters have little trust in the media to accurately cover violence and 28 percent of voters don’t trust it to cover violence at all. Fifty percent of Democrats “somewhat” trust the media to cover violence. Meanwhile, 66 percent of Independents and 79 percent of Republicans either trust the media only “a little” or don’t trust it at all on the topic. A majority of Black voters trust the media to cover violence accurately either “a great deal” or “somewhat,” while only 37 percent of white voters and 42 percent of Latina/o voters say the same.
Data for Progress also finds 47 percent of voters believe that violent crime has increased in their communities since the pandemic. This includes 41 percent of Democrats, 49 percent of Independents, and 51 percent of Republicans. Forty-six percent of Black voters, 46 percent of white voters, and 55 percent of Latina/o voters say that violence has increased in their communities since the pandemic.
Sixty-five percent of voters believe the media doesn’t cover daily violence sufficiently, including 56 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of Independents, and 71 percent of Republicans. A majority of Black voters (51 percent) and two-thirds of both white and Latina/o voters believe the media doesn’t cover daily violence sufficiently, as compared to mass shootings.
While voters generally view violence as a criminal justice issue, 32 percent believe that violence is a public health issue that can be addressed with public health resources. This includes 47 percent of Democrats, 30 percent of Independents, and 20 percent of Republicans. Over a third of Black and Latina/o voters (37 percent each) and 31 percent of white voters say that violence deserves more public health resources.
Conclusion
Our survey finds that voters hear a lot in the media about large instances of violence, but they do not trust the media to accurately represent the truth of violence. Many Republican candidates centered their 2022 midterm election campaigns around violent crime; researchers have also found bias in mainstream media and social media in covering violence, disproportionately focusing on homicides over other types of crime. This may explain why a plurality of voters (and a majority of Republicans) report an increase in violence in their own communities.
Claims about a surge of violence in cities due to progressive or reformative policies lacked conclusive evidence. Law enforcement data shows that violence has decreased consistently since the 1990s; while a slight, relative uptick in violence could be noted between 2019 and 2020 during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, since 2021 we have even seen these trends reverse. Furthermore, a working study of 35 jurisdictions shows that progressive prosecutorial reforms, such as diverting defendants to treatment programs instead of punishment, had no significant effect on local crime rates. We also find in this study that nearly a third of voters are open to alternative solutions to violence, such as public health interventions. This supports previous Data for Progress polling which has shown that a majority of voters prefer increasing resources for community violence intervention workers to connect with victims of violence and support them with housing and job readiness programs rather than simply increasing the presence of law enforcement.
Anika Dandekar is an analyst at Data for Progress.
Sabrina Jacobs is a digital fellow at Data for Progress.