New Report Demonstrates Baltimore Media’s Role in Shaping Youth Justice Narratives, Policy

[Washington, D.C.] — The Sentencing Project today released a report, “The Real Cost of ‘Bad News’: How Misinformation is Undermining Youth Justice Policy in Baltimore,” revealing how media reporting on youth crime is misleading city residents and fueling poor public policy.

The report, which examines coverage by six of Baltimore’s leading media outlets during the first half of 2024, finds that coverage of youth justice issues is skewed in ways that reinforce harmful stereotypes of children and adolescents. The Baltimore media’s intense focus on offending by youth was disproportionate to their actual role in Baltimore’s overall crime rate. Coverage often sensationalized isolated instances of youth violence, stoking residents’ fears.

The report also highlights the troubling role that problematic media coverage played in the rushed passage of House Bill 814 by the Maryland legislature. The bill rolled back evidence-based reforms enacted just two years before and is poised to send more youth into the juvenile court system. Legislation like HB 814 –rooted in punishment, rather than a rehabilitative approach – often exacerbates youth offending, which undermines community safety and entraps children and adolescents in the criminal-legal system.

Specifically, the report finds:

• Baltimore media, particularly Sinclair Broadcasting’s Fox45, disproportionately emphasizes youth crime, often sensationalizing incidents. This approach creates a misleading narrative about young people’s role in threatening public safety.
• Although police data show that youth under 18 accounted for just 5% of arrests in the first half of 2024, youth were the focus of 28% of crime-related stories in the outlets studied, including more than half (53%) of all relevant stories on Fox45.
• The media frequently claims that youth crime is on the rise without providing evidence. The new reports that do provide evidence often cherrypick short-term data and ignore adults’ arrest rates, resulting in a skewed portrayal of broader trends.
• Words like “spike,” “wave,” or “crisis” are commonly used in youth crime reporting, especially on TV, to amplify public fear. Fox45 led this trend, with 88% of its youth crime stories featuring this kind of fear-inducing rhetoric.

“The media holds incredible power in shaping how the public—and policymakers—view young people. We found that the major media outlets, especially Fox45, presented a deeply misleading portrait of Baltimore’s youth crime situation during the study period,” said Richard A. Mendel, The Sentencing Project’s Senior Research Fellow for Youth Justice, who authored the study. “This report reveals how harmful and often inaccurate narratives can dominate the policy conversation, and in the instance of HB 814, drive a dysfunctional policy process.”

“HB814 ignored the systemic issues that drive youth crime while disregarding alternatives that we know help communities stay safe,” said Josh Rovner, Director of Youth Justice at The Sentencing Project. “This report’s findings are a wake-up call as we confront critical questions about public safety, racial justice, and the future of our youth. The challenges Baltimore and communities around the country face in the pursuit of public safety are real. It is essential that journalists approach their role in shaping narratives with responsibility and care.”

“News media played a pivotal role in how [the] HB814 legislation came into being,” said the Rev. Dr. Marlon Tilghman of Ames United Methodist Church in Bel Air, a member of the Maryland Youth Justice Coalition. “The legislative process was not aligned with reliable statistical data on youth crime or research on what works to control delinquent behavior. Rather, it was driven by the raw and real emotions of citizens triggered by frightening coverage on certain media outlets. When it comes to Maryland’s children, the laws should carry the burden of grace, truth, and justice.”

Members of The Sentencing Project team and Maryland Youth Justice Coalition are available for interviews upon request. The full report can be read here.