MEDIA

...profit from getting high ratings. Crime brings good ratings since it's sensational, and people like to watch it ("COPS," high speed car chases). In the past ten years, crime has decreased, but the media has covered crime 6 times as much, making it appear that crime has increased. To be more sensational, the media exploits racial fears & the fear of poor people, feeding the racism & classism within the criminal justice system itself, and lessening our objections to aggressive policing & mass imprisonment.