The media has been criticized for presenting a distorted and exaggerated image of crime and criminal justice in American society. Researching the perceptions of criminal justice students is important for several reasons. The focus of the current research is on identifying the perceptions and degree of accuracy in information that college students, both majors and non-majors in the field, hold about criminal justice issues that are frequently presented in the media. Participants were 575 students, 185 of whom were criminal justice majors, who were recruited from their introductory sociology and criminal justice courses in 4 State universities in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida. Participants completed a survey that asked about the number of homicides they thought occurred in the United States annually; the number of prisoners in the United States; the number of correctional officers killed annually by inmates; the percentage of male inmates participating in consensual sexual activities with other male inmates; and the percentage of male inmates that are sexually assaulted. The findings suggest that all college students, regardless of major or year in school, hold major misconceptions about crime and criminal justice. Students in the current sample were very consistent in their over-estimates of the crime and correctional problems within the United States. The findings imply that changes should occur both within university settings and within the media representations of crime and punishment. Tables, references