THE TRIVIALIZATION OF CRIME IN THE MEDIA: IMPACTS OF EXCESSIVE EXPOSURE TO CRIME NEWS ON THE SOCIAL PERCEPTION OF ITS SERIOUSNESS AND ON THE PENAL RESPONSE

Abstract

This study analyzes how excessive exposure to crime news by the media impacts social perception of criminal severity and modulates institutionalized penal responses. The exploratory bibliographic research examines specialized literature addressing relationships between media, social construction of criminal reality, and penal responses. The findings reveal that trivialization of criminality by the media operates through mechanisms of narrative selectivity, sensationalism, and simplification of structural complexities that remodulate public perceptions of crime. The study identifies a central paradox: trivialization simultaneously trivializes and radicalizes perceptions of crime, generating desensitization that coexists with intensified demands for severe penal responses. The analysis demonstrates that trivialization does not remain confined to the symbolic domain but penetrates penal institutions, compromising fundamental guarantees of impartiality. The implications for the legitimacy of democratic penal systems are profound, suggesting the need to ground decisions about penal severity in rational analyses of effectiveness, not in reactions to media pressures that distort criminal realities.