The media has a direct influence on the level and types of crime that are committed in society. According to the Crime Survey of England and Wales, crime has been falling in the UK since its peak in 1995 from 19.4 million incidents to 5.6 million incidents in March 2020 (excluding fraud and computer misuse cases). Yet, public perceptions of criminal behaviour have remained consistently high across the period. 8 out of 10 people interviewed in the most recent CSEW experienced no crime in the previous 12 months, yet only 1 in 5 felt safe from crime. The role of the media in generating fear is in part due to the way in which they select news stories, with crimes that have a higher news value being more likely to be selected by editorial teams for inclusion in media reports. These news values include crimes that are violent or sexual in nature, are committed near the audience, and have graphic or visual content. Sociologists studying the media have found that there exists a 'law of opposites' whereby crimes that are commonly committed (e.g., property crimes, driving offences) are rarely reported in the news, whilst those that are statistically less likely to occur are featured heavily. These reports generate anxiety about the frequency of such crimes. Although violent and sexual crimes make up less than 5% of crimes committed in the UK, they account for nearly 45% of media coverage of crime.