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Abstract
This study explores the associative influence of pretrial publicity on (a) an individual’s perceptions of a criminal offender as malicious and (b) an individual’s judgment of the criminal offender’s punishment for the crime. Expanding on the uses of agenda-setting and framing theories, this research indicates that attention to pretrial news media about a specific criminal is significantly associated with negative judgments of a criminal offender. The criminal offender in the Colorado theater shooting case, James Holmes, was the criminal offender used in this study. Results from a national survey (N = 236) indicated that pretrial publicity significantly influenced participants’ perceptions of James Holmes as malicious and resulted in increased retributivist support (i.e., views of the offender deserving a harsher punishment). Mediation scenarios were also detected, whereas pretrial publicity exposure mediated the relationship between case interest and judgments of James Holmes as malicious and deserving retributivist punishment.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sarah M. Staggs
Sarah M. Staggs (M.A., University of Wyoming, 2013) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at University of Arizona. Her research interests include media effects, specifically pretrial publicity effects, communication and the legal process, and small group deliberation.
Kristen D. Landreville
Kristen D. Landreville (Ph.D., The Ohio State University, 2010) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at University of Wyoming. Her research interests involve studying how people consume, process, and discuss various public policy narratives, including how satire/humor, entertainment, and emerging forms of journalism and new media impact individuals’ opinions.