Differential effects of an offender-focused crime prevention media campaign

Despite the widespread use of media crime prevention campaigns targeting both potential victims and offenders, there exists only superficial understanding about their effectiveness. Less is known about possible differential effects of such campaigns across those who consume them. Early research evaluating the effect of victim-focused campaigns found that they were effective, however, the influence varied across different citizen groups. Comparatively little is known about the impact of offender-focused campaigns, generally, and it remains uncertain whether the influence of these campaigns also varies across potential offending subpopulations. Using national survey data (N = 820) from the offender-focused “Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving” campaign, this study used a series of binary logistic regression models to examine whether there were differential impact effects and to explore the relationship between beliefs and the behavior of drunk driving. The findings indicated that exposure to the media campaign did not alter beliefs or actions of drunk driving, although the relationship between cognitions and the overt behavior of driving drunk did vary across groups. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.