Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9410240100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TONY WHARTON THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
We decided to ask you. For six weeks, reporters crisscrossed the state to talk to Virginia's citizens about crime and punishment.
These weren't conventional interviews, with reporters grilling residents under hot lights. Nor were they surveys, which do a great job of getting a lot of people's opinions but don't always help understand the reasons behind them.
Instead, we organized local conversations, in libraries, community centers and even a bingo hall. Virginians sat around tables and talked to us. More importantly, they talked to each other.
All told, more than 90 people took part, including whites, blacks and Asian-Americans, retirees and teen-agers, blue-collar workers and executives in suits.
There were eight conversations, in Newport News, Franklin, Roanoke, Richmond, Prince William County and Arlington. The ground rules were simple: Don't debate statistics, just tell us what you think; argue about it, but don't fight; and try to imagine we're sitting around your kitchen table.
Our notion was to learn what people understood and didn't understand about a complex topic - and what they discovered together. Sometimes, we think about things as a group differently than we do individually.
We found people were eager to talk, opening up to us with their fears and frustrations. Over 16 hours, we heard about education, religion, raising children and a host of other subjects that were closely linked to crime and parole.
For the most part, people didn't talk as Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives. They spoke to us as parents, children, voters, victims of crime, volunteers and neighbors.
In short, they spoke to us as citizens.
To test voters' attitudes about the same topic, the newspapers also conducted a traditional, random telephone survey.
The results, incorporated in today's articles and the one to appear Thursday, were based on interviews with 539 registered voters, whose sex and race generally mirrored Virginia as a whole. The margin of error was 4.3 percentage points.
The survey was conducted during the period July 29 through Aug. 8.
The reporters were Margaret Edds of the Pilot and Roanoke Times; Bob Evans of the Daily Press; Anne Gearan of the AP; Frank Green of the Times-Dispatch; Laurence Hammack of the Roanoke Times; Greg Schneider of the Pilot and Roanoke Times; and Tony Wharton of the Pilot.
ABOUT THIS SERIES
The AP provided this series to its 26 daily newspaper members and more than 80 member radio and television stations in Virginia. The key staffers:
Margaret Edds, 47, Richmond-based staff writer with The Virginian-Pilot and Roanoke Times & World-News, covering state politics and Virginia issues since 1974.
Bob Evans, 38, a reporter and editor with the Daily Press for the past 16 years.
Anne Gearan, 31, the Northern Virginia correspondent for The Associated Press. She joined the AP in 1989.
Frank Green, 43, a Times-Dispatch staff writer since 1980, covering prison and juvenile justice issues.
Laurence Hammack, 32, a staff writer for the Roanoke Times & World-News since 1985. He covers state courts in Roanoke.
Stephen Rountree, 26, a staff artist who came to the Times-Dispatch in 1992.
Greg Schneider, 30, state team leader for the Virginian-Pilot and Roanoke Times & World-News, based in Richmond. He started at the Pilot eight years ago.
Tony Wharton, 34, a staff writer at the Virginian-Pilot. He joined the Pilot in 1986.
Key editors include Dorothy Abernathy, 38, chief of bureau for The Associated Press; Joseph Gatins, 47, associate city editor/projects for the Times-Dispatch; Tom Warhover, 31, public life editor at the Virginian-Pilot. Stephanie Klein-Davis, 33, a staff photographer at the Roanoke Times & World-News, served as project photo editor.
by CNB