Linda Heath

Mass Media and Fear of Crime

Charges that the mass media create unwarranted levels of fear of crime are almost as old as the media themselves. Researchers entered the fray in large numbers in the 1960s, documenting the effects of television, newspapers, and movies on perceptions of crime and fear of criminal victimization. Recent developments in mass media, such as the rise in popularity of crime reenactment television programs, the access to more violence via cable, VCR, and satellite dish, and the interactive nature of electronic games, raise even greater concern about the fear-generating potential of these media. In addition, the real-world increase in the occurrence of stranger crimes and mass attacks could make the media image even more potent, because of the prevalence of random or random-appearing crimes reported by the media. This article provides an overview of the research on the mass media and its effects on perceptions of crime danger, personal fear of crime, and reactions to crime risk. In addition, we examine the modifiers of the relationships between media and fear.

Applications of Heuristics and Biases to Social Issues

Heuristics and Biases in Applied Settings: An Introduction L. Heath, R.S. Tindale. Heuristics and Biases in Health Decision Making: Their Expression in Genetic Counseling S. Shiloh. AIDS, Sterile Needles, and Ethnocentrism R.M. Dawes. Heuristics and Biases in Medical Judgment and Decision Making S. Schwartz. Cognitive Heuristics and Biases in Personality Assessment H.N. Garb. Negligence Law and Mental Mutation: A Social Inference Model of Apportioning Fault R.L. Wiener, C.C. Pritchard. Lay Evaluations of Encounters with Government Officials: Do Expectations Serve as Filters and Standards? L.J. Stalans. Biases and Rationality in the Mediation Process K. Gibson, et al. Heuristic Processing in Organizational Judgments C.T. Kulik. 7 additional articles. Index.

Methodological issues in applied social psychology

Resource Planning for Applied Research L. Bickman. Problem Identification in Social Intervention Research Y. Suarez-Balcazar, et al. Ethical Issues in CommunityBased Research and Intervention J.E. Sieber, J.L. Sorensen. Lessons from the Meta-Analysis of Quasi-Experiments P.M. Wortman. A Structure Diary Methodology for the Study of Daily Events A. DeLongis, et al. Time Series Methods in Applied Social Research M.M. Mark, et al. Structural Equations Modeling R.E. Olmstead, P.M. Bentler. Research Without Control Groups J. McKillip. Statistical Analysis for SingleCase Designs P.R. Yarnold. Qualitative Activist Research M. Fine, V. Vanderslice. Thought Experiments and Applied Social Research R.S. Tindale, D.A. Vollrath. Computer Networks in Field Research S. Kiesler, et al. Communicating Applied Social Psychology to Users E.J. Posavac. Index.

Toxicity of environmental lead and the influence of intestinal absorption in children

Exposure to metals, particularly lead, remains a widespread issue that is associated with historical and current industrial practices. Whereas the toxic properties of metals are well described, exposure to metals per se is only one of many factors contributing to elevated blood metal concentrations and their consequent health effects in humans. The absorbed dose of metal is affected by geochemical, biochemical, and physiological parameters that influence the rate and extent of absorption. In children, the interplay among these factors can be of critical importance, especially when biochemical and physiological processes might not have matured to their normal adult status. Such immaturity represents an elevated risk to metal-exposed children because they might be more susceptible to enhanced absorption, especially via the oral route. This review brings together the more recent findings on the physiological mechanisms of metal absorption, especially lead, and examines several models that can be useful in assessing the potential for metal uptake in children.

The “Psycho-Logic” of Fear-Reduction and Crime-Prevention Programs

Since the early 1960s, the United States has been a country besieged by crime at levels never before observed in the Western world. Between 1960 and 1976 the rate of property crime in urban areas more than doubled and the rate of violent crime more than tripled (Jacob & Lineberry, 1982). Although crime rates have stabilized and even dropped slightly over the past few years, Americans suffered an estimated 34.9 million victimizations in 1985, touching 25% of all households (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1987).

Imitative violence in the real world - a reanalysis of homicide rates following championship prize fights

Recently, Phillips [Am Soc Rev, 1983; 48:560-568] reported that the homicide rate increases on the third day after heavyweight championship prize fights. The present paper reports a reanalysis of Phillipss data using more sophisticated statistical techniques and examining several theoretically important variables not discussed by Phillips or his critics. Using a conservative analysis strategy, our results suggest that the increases in homicides reported by Phillips were not a methodological artifact as suggested by Baron and Reiss [Am Soc Rev 1985; 50:347-363, 372-376]. The homicide increases only occur on the first weekend or holiday after prize fights that receive the greatest publicity.

Impacts of humor and relevance on the remembering of lecture details

Abstract Although much previous research has been conducted on remembering humorous materials, only a few studies have examined how visual humorous examples relevant to lecture content enhance the recall and/or recognition of the lecture details. In addition, previous studies have produced conflicting results and have methodological limitations. The present study investigated the interactions between humor and relevance in recall and recognition performance. One hundred sixty five subjects were given humorous or serious video examples which were relevant or irrelevant to lecture materials. Recognition performance, but not recall performance, was better when examples were humorous and relevant to the lecture materials. These results indicate that use of humorous relevant video examples is helpful for recognizing details supplemented by the examples.

Preventive and punitive criminal justice policy support in Trinidad: The media’s role:

An unresolved research question regarding crime and justice policy is the relationship between an individual’s media consumption and their support for punitive and preventive criminal justice policies. The relationship between media, crime, and justice is under-examined in countries other than the United States and Britain and the relationship between media and criminal justice policy support remains less than fully understood in all locales. In response, an examination of a media— policy relationship in a Western democracy not previously studied was conducted. Based on data from an October 2005 national telephone survey of Trinidad and Tobago residents, this study measured support for punitive and preventive criminal justice policies in association with crime and justice media consumption and worldviews. Multivariate analysis showed that, for Trinidadians, support for punitive policies was significantly related to perceiving television crime dramas as realistic and crime news as accurate. For preventive policy support, the same media factors plus the level of exposure to crime dramas on television were significant. Overall, media were found to play similar but not especially strong roles in support levels for both punitive and preventive criminal justice policies.

Heuristics and Biases in Applied Settings

Twenty years ago, Tversky and Kahneman published an article in Science in which they outlined three heuristics (or cognitive short-cuts) that people use to judge probabilities and to make decisions under uncertain circumstances (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). They discussed the importance of these heuristics by reference to judgments about the guilt of a defendant, the outcome of an election, and the future value of the dollar. Their formulation spawned a “first wave” of studies on heuristic use (Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982). Most of this research, however, employed laboratory simulations, using college undergraduates to make judgments about fictional people and events.

Skin Absorption of Ethylene Oxide Gas Following Exposures Relevant to HAZMAT Incidents

Ethylene oxide (EO) is a reactive gas used by numerous industries and medical facilities as a sterilant, a fumigant, and as a chemical intermediate in chemical manufacturing. Due to its common use, EO has been involved in a number of leaks and explosive incidents/accidents requiring HAZMAT response. However, the extent of skin absorption under short-term HAZMAT conditions has not been directly assessed. Such data would assist decision making by first responders regarding skin decontamination in EO HAZMAT incidents. An in vitro test protocol with human skin was used for EO exposures at 800 ppm and 3000 ppm. No evidence of dermal penetration was seen for 800 ppm EO during a 30-min challenge. For 3000 ppm, EO penetration was observed after 20 min and was greater under higher temperature/humidity conditions. Fabric (heavy cotton) on skin enhanced penetration 5-fold compared with naked skin. Off gassing from exposed fabric was rapid. The results show dermal uptake of EO vapour from exposure at 3000 ppm is small but clothing may contribute to further dermal absorption/penetration over time. For exposed, but asymptomatic, persons in EO HAZMAT incidents first responders should remove bulky clothing to prevent potential skin damage and further uptake.