Since these pioneering works many other studies have illustrated the crucial role of
the media in shaping the boundaries of deviance and criminality, by creating new
categories of offence, or changing perceptions and sensitivities, leading to fluctuations
in apparent crime. For example, Roger Graef’s celebrated 1982 fly-on-the-wall documentary
about the Thames Valley Police was a key impetus to reform of police
treatment of rape victims (Gregory and Lees 1999; ‘TV that changed the world’, Radio
Times, 24–30 November 2001). This also contributed, however, to a rise in the proportion
of victims reporting rape, and thus an increase in the recorded rate. Many other
studies document media-amplified ‘crime waves’ and ‘moral panics’ about law and
order.4
What all these studies illustrate is the significant contribution of the media to
determining the apparent level of crime. Increases and (perhaps more rarely)
decreases in recorded crime levels are often due in part to the deviance construction
and amplifying activities of the media (Barak 1994; Ferrell and Sanders 1995; Surette
1998: chapter 7).