Addressing Violent Crimes in American Films and Their Impact on the Perception of the Reality of Crime in American Society: (Mixed Method Research)

Abstract

The current paper aims to study addressing violent crimes in American films on YouTube and their impact on the Perception of the reality of crime in American society. Literature reviews neglected the mixed approach in studying films, focusing on the quantitative or qualitative analysis of films. Therefore, the current paper uses the mixed approach and exploratory sequential design to analyze violent crimes comprehensively. In the first stage, the qualitative method was used to analyze the content of a sample of five American films on YouTube produced (2017-2022); the content analysis results helped to develop a questionnaire. In the second stage, the quantitative method surveys a YouTube user sample (100 individuals) to measure the users' Perceptions of violent crimes in society. The results indicated an integration between the qualitative and quantitative analysis results, which confirms the cultivation hypotheses about the relationship between the pattern of exposure to films and the level of interest in crime. Thus, the initial qualitative phase helped design the questionnaire tool to measure participants' perceptions of the reality of violent crimes.