The author looks at how people use the knowledge they obtain from the media to build their own picture of the world and to base their actions on their socially constructed images of reality. Important topics associated with and court cases involving the media's impact on crime and criminal justice are considered, as well as common misconceptions about the mass media and criminal justice and the need for balanced treatment of crime and justice by the media. The book is organized into seven chapters, the first of which provides theoretical grounding in the social construction of reality. The remaining chapters deal with specific aspects of the media, crime, and criminal justice, beginning with crime and criminal justice in the entertainment media and continuing through the news media, the relationship between the media and the courts, the media as a cause of crime, media-based anti-crime projects, and media effects on crime and criminal justice attitudes and policies. References, notes, tables, figures, and photographs