US Newspapers’ Portrayals of Home Invasion Crime

Abstract

This article presents the first known analysis of US newspaper portrayals of ‘home invasion’ crime by quantitatively investigating over 1,000 cases of home invasion drawn from 15 geographically spread city newspapers. In line with the concept of moral panic, descriptive statistics suggest a recent marked increase in the usage of the term ‘home invasion’ among newspapers. Additionally, regression analyses predicting levels of coverage suggest that a market‐driven model of news production, invoking a fearful worst‐case scenario, prevails. Victim or suspect fatalities, the number of victims or suspects, and the type of weapon reported, all generally predict the word count of initial articles and the likelihood of a follow‐up article. Analyses also partially support the hierarchy of victimisation hypothesis. We conclude by cautioning that citizens and legislators should consider these findings when calling for new legislation and appeal to criminologists to produce comprehensive empirical analyses on home invasion crime.