Berg Featured on Ethical Perspectives on the News

Mark Berg, director of the Crime and Justice Policy Research Program, appeared on Ethical Perspectives on the News to discuss, "Crime in America - How Bad is it?" on Sunday, November 1. Berg, along with moderator Alan Diehl and Cedar Rapids Chief of Police Wayne Jerman, discussed how the public's perspective of crime rates do not match up with the actual statistics.

While crime rates have decreased over the last thirty years, many peoples' perception is that it has remained the same or increased. Berg cited his research that shows that the salience of crime, or the importance of it within an individual's framework of values, and how it is socially constructed by the media and other sources can skew one's perception of the prevalence of it.

The panel also discussed violent crime versus property crime, incarceration rates, solutions for crime reduction, and focused deterrence.