In this paper our goal was to understand what impacts perception and judgment of the balance of punishment and rehabilitation so that we could learn how to better inform people on the benefits of rehabilitation. Previous research has determined punitiveness is affected by knowledge of criminology, media, perception of crime levels, and education. In our correlational study, we tested the strength of these relationships by examining naturalistic daily changes in their variables longitudinally over a two-week period. This was tested using a daily survey which measured exposure to media, criminological education, levels of fear of crime, and punitiveness. Data pooled from our study showed there was a correlation between the consumption of local news and an increased fear of crime, as well as a correlation between the consumption of media that promotes harsh on crime views and an increase in punitiveness. However, there was no correlation found between the consumption of criminological education tabloid news and an increase in punitiveness.
