Linking Sources of Knowledge about Wrongful Convictions to Support for Criminal Justice Reform: The Effect of Media and Social Connections

This study employed moderated mediation regression analysis to test whether exposure to knowledge about wrongful convictions through media and social connections influences public perceptions of wrongful convictions and support for criminal justice reform. The empirical results confirm the theoretical arguments about the effect of the media on public perceptions, finding a strong connection between the number of media sources used to acquire knowledge about wrongful convictions and public perceptions of the criminal justice system’s performance. The results also find strong support for the significance of social connections in shaping public views about the criminal justice system’s performance, suggesting that when knowledge about the errors of criminal justice is acquired from multiple sources that involve family. The findings suggest that people who are more exposed to information about the wrongful conviction issue from various media sources and through social connections are more likely to support reform. The empirical findings also shed some light on factors influencing public attitudes toward the criminal justice system, revealing the connection between the perceived rate of wrongful convictions and beliefs that the criminal justice system should be reformed due to the severity of the issue. They also indirectly point to the need for greater government transparency, suggesting that to increase public understanding of the criminal justice system’s performance, the government should provide sufficient, objective, and relevant information about the errors of justice to media outlets.