Crime Victims and the Media

Criminal Justice

Crime Victims and the Media

Crime victims and survivors may find dealing with newspaper and television reporters very difficult. People who are victims of crimes often find themselves in one of two positions when it comes to the media. There are those who use the media to highlight there cases and bring as much attention to it as possible, while there are others who find themselves being exploited by the media in order to enhance ratings. Wether to talk to the media or not is a very personal decision that a victim has to make and one that should not be done without first thinking through the consequences.

Not all crime victims receive equal attention in the news media. Occasionally, intense media coverage may be devoted to victims in order to boost ratings. Frequently, media resources are allocated to the representation of those victims who can be portrayed as ideal. An ideal victim is a person or category of people who when hit by crime most readily are given the complete and legitimate status of being a victim. In this sense, there exists a hierarchy of victimization, both reflected and reinforced in the media. At one extreme, those who acquire the status of 'ideal victim' may attract massive levels of media attention, generate collective mourning on a near global scale, and drive ratings through the roof. At the other extreme, those crime victims who never acquire legitimate victim status or, still worse, are perceived as undeserving victims may receive little, if any, media attention, and pass virtually unnoticed in the wider social world (Greer, n.d.).

The news media can frequently impose a second victimization upon crime victims or survivors by aggravating victims' feelings of violation, confusion, and loss of control. "Common concerns victims express about the media include: interviews at inappropriate times; filming and photographing scenes with bodies and body bags; searching for the negative about the victim; printing a victim's name or address; and inappropriately delving into the victim's past, all in an attempt to glorify the entire event" (Privacy and the Media, 2011).

There are on the other hand a few individuals who use the media to highlight their case and bring as much attention to it as possible. These people generally have ulterior motives such as using it as a stage to advocate for social change or justice reforms by talking. Sometimes the only way to get the word out about something that needs to be done is to utilize the media to disseminate information across a broad range of people. In these cases there is a fine line that must be drawn between advocating for public policy reform and people using the media for their own benefit.

My feeling is that most victims of crime do not want to be highlighted by the media. They want to be left along in order to deal with what has happened to them. Thus I don't feel that the majority of crime victims are using the media in order to highlight their cases. I do feel though that many victims are exploited by the media in order to enhance ratings. There are many times that victims are highlighted on the evening news day after day. I have even seen cases where cases will be talked about years later when it just happens to vaguely relate to something current. Victims are often not allowed to recover from their incidents because the crime is constantly brought up over and over again.