Introduction to Criminology: Media's Impact on Murder Cases Analysis

This essay delves into the multifaceted role of media in murder investigations, exploring its influence on public perception, police procedures, and the outcomes of criminal cases. The report examines how media outlets inform the public about crimes, and how their involvement can both aid and hinder investigations, including real-world examples of cases where media coverage significantly impacted the process. The essay also discusses the benefits and risks associated with media involvement, analyzing the relationship between police and the press, the use of media as an investigative resource, and the effects of media coverage on victims, suspects, and the broader community. The report concludes by summarizing key points and highlighting the complex consequences of media reporting on public safety and the pursuit of justice, emphasizing the importance of responsible media practices in the context of serious crimes.

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Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice
11/26/2019
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Media and murder news..................................................................................................................2
Police-media relationship................................................................................................................3
Media as an investigative resource..................................................................................................4
The victim and media......................................................................................................................5
The suspect and media.....................................................................................................................6
New information..............................................................................................................................6
Benefits involved.............................................................................................................................7
Risks involved.................................................................................................................................8
Focus of media.................................................................................................................................8
Consequences of media reporting on public...................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
A society does suffer from a variety of crimes daily and media reports the same to inform the
administration and public. Around the world, media plays an important role in keeping society
strong. The role of media is not limited to inform people about the happening of crime around
them but in addition to this, it also helps in making a civil society. In many instances, media
reaches the point where police and other crime investigation institutions fail to do so. Several
cases are there which have been solved due to the involvement of media. In other words, this can
also be stated that bringing the incidents of serious crimes such as murder, media contributed to
peacekeeping across the nation. Nevertheless, it does not mean that media involvements in
murder incidents are always likely to bring a positive impact. Many people also think otherwise
where they believe that media involvement and reporting of crimes increase further risk of such
events. In addition to this, media over present some cases that further creates issues for the
suspects and victims of the family.
The report presented hereby is developed on the topic of media involvement in the cases of
murder. To discuss the same, the impact of media on some real cases would also be presented.
The objective of this report is to critically discuss what role media does play in murder and the
consequence of the involvement. The report will be divided into appropriate headings and at last,
a conclusion summarizing key points of the report shall also be presented.
Media and murder news
The audience receives media messages that influence them directly and indirectly. Citizens often
remain interested in reports of a murder investigation and therefore aggressive reporting by
media generates problems when the same influence ongoing murder investigation. The methods

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that media representative uses can be questionable as many of the times they report information
without even considering investigation impact. This is the reason that law enforcement agencies
and their members remain secretive while discussing things with media. The news organization
has a duty to provides public information regarding murder cases but to compete with other news
organizations, they often lack their primary role. However, in between this, there is a middle
ground where the interest of media, as well as investigation agencies, can match.
Here this is important to state that media plays a variety of role at the event of a murder that
includes the assistance of murder as well as portrayal. Media constantly reviews and monitors
the working of the police and other investigatory organizations and in such a situation it is not
incorrect to state that media does not only reflect the social reality of murder but also generates a
"refracted" image of the same. Among the total news presented by media, nearly fifty percent of
news is about crime reporting. Further to state that media often report news about those crimes
which are serious in nature such as murder or are unusual in nature. Similarly, in one of the US
study, one-quarter of total stories presented in the newspaper was about murder.
Media is an industry itself where the organization works to earn profits and to be ahead in
competition therefore while working in cases of murder whether it is related to investigation or
reporting of news, they keep these objectives in their consideration, which influence the working
behavior of them. Nevertheless, it does not mean that media does always focus on their benefits
and many times they generate media coverage to raise public awareness.
Police-media relationship
Before understanding the manner in which media helps in the investigation of murder, first the
basic nature of police and media relationship is necessary to understand. Here to state that media

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is not a part of police institution and being a part of a completely different industry, the same has
own set of principles and guidelines. The modern police policy in England and wales focus on
maintaining a healthy relationship between police and journalist covering murder events. Here
police must ensure that media does not have access or is likely to report that information which
can prove detrimental to the objective of the investigation (app.college.police.uk, 2020). In a
number of the case, it was found that media was making equal level inquiry as police. In addition
to this in many cases, media found provoking members of the victim or criminal's family to
submit some kind of response. The one important thing, which is necessary to understand here, is
that the local journalist and media remain depended on local police to get news of murder cases
and therefore such news remain under the control of local police. If they broadcast anything
against the wish of police they are likely to face a risk of losing their organization, but the
situation is not the same in case of national journalist and therefore they provide more detailed
and reliable information than the local police does.
Media as an investigative resource
Now after understanding the mutual relationship between police and media, the ways in which
media contributes to the investigation of murder are necessary to understand. While starting the
discussion over the topic this is to state that police mainly depend on the public to get the
information to resolve a murder case. However, they face issues while doing so as extracting
information directly from the public is not an easy thing to do and at this point, they seek the
help of media. Due to technological and social trends, the area on which police used to find
people having murder related information has been increased over time. Police can use their
traditional techniques to identify information holders for a very limited area. With the help of

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media, police can make investigation in the wider area and such a situation media helps police in
enhancing the level of their investigation (Newburn, Williamson and Wright, 2012). One of the
important ways where media plays its role is a means to change and manipulate the
psychological pressure of the offender and to exploit the offender's guilt. The second area where
media helps in the investigation is a publication of description or photos where it is expected that
someone from the public would recognize the suspect (politieacademie.nl, 2020). Further media
publicize the crime that helps the offender to overcome to guilty. Police often use media as a
means that can exploit moral sensibilities or guilt of someone who is suspect or has knowledge
of someone else’s suspicions. Sometimes, the case of murder is as complex and regular that the
investigation needs a break, which allows the case to be resolved. Media helps in taking such a
break.
The victim and media
In many of the cases, police generate evidence through a primary investigation where the same
publish details of the crime, description of victim and others. Police do so with the help of media
and have two objectives over here. First, by doing so, they try to provoke the guilt feeling of a
killer so that they come forward and to accept their crime. The second purpose that fulfills here is
that publication of such details often highlights other cases that fail to report earlier. This
technique pushes memories of the people. This technique was used in the case of a sample where
a dead body found in the churchyard. It was found that she died because of multiple stab
wounds. The media circulated a description of the dead body and as a result of the same, a victim
came forward and recognized the victim and also provided some additional information. This

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helped the police to carry further investigation and identified two suspects. At last two men have
been declared guilty for this murder.
This technique i.e. publication of photos and details of the victim has been used in real cases in
1994 where a young boy named "Daniel Handley" was murdered (newhamrecorder.co.uk, 2011).
His body was found across a river in “Bristol”. When media published the desired details then
two people came ahead of that we're able to recognize suspects of the crime and in this manner,
the crime has been resolved.
The suspect and media
Media does not only help police to the victim but also in the case of suspects also. Traditionally
police used to take the help of media in the circulation of the physical description of suspects to
identify them and to get more and detailed information about them. This method can also bring
adverse impact as it is very difficult to determine whether the physical description given by the
witness of another person is reliable or not. Media spread the description of suspects very
frequently but if the results are not accurate it can lead to many of the false claims and can make
the process of investigation even more difficult by making them confused. To discuss real-world
examples here the case of "Sarah Payne” can take an example. In this case, a dead body has been
found of an eight-year-old girl named Sarah Payne and before this discovery, a 16 day's frantic
search has been done (Myall, 2017). She was walking in a field from the house of grandparents
and after that, she has never been seen alive to anyone. In this case, the media played an
important role as a person named Roy Whiting found as suspect and has shown to the public by
BBC crime watch (Young, 2017). When the appeal round went on air, one of the viewers has

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recognized the fabric of Sarah's shoe because she has left that shoe in a van of her boyfriend and
that person further sold the same van to Roy. As a final decision of the case, Roy has been
convicted murderer and has been charged with punishment of lifetime imprisonment
New information
This is another and one of the important areas of murder where the involvement of media can be
seen effectively. Here in this situation media makes some of the evidence or suspects found
earlier as public to gain further information. Media do so to get further evidence. This can be
understood with the help of an example of a case. For instance, in the case of Julie Dart and
Stephanie Slater, the media got involved and helped police in resolving the murder case. An
estate agent named "Stephanie Slater" was kidnapped and attacked in January 1992 (Davies,
2017). She provided a description of her attacker where police believed that the suspect was
linked to the earlier murder of Julie Dart, one of the teenagers. Crime watch broadcast the
recording of call of the kidnapper. After this ex-wife of kidnapper came forward and recognized
his voice. Publication of this evidence i.e. recording of kidnapper’s voice brought new
information to the case where kidnapper has been arrested later and convicted for murder
(bbc.com, 2017). If media would not have been there then the case was not likely to be resolved
in this manner.
Benefits involved
Here this is necessary to understand that the main reason to involve media and the discussed
techniques is to get that information that is kept with people but they do not share it because of
fear of police or for any other reason. In addition to this police remain bound by some type of

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constraint and therefore the same cannot ask all types of questions to the suspect or any other
person. However, the situation is not the same in case of a news journalist, therefore media often
helps police while asking those questions, and making those inquires which are not possible to
make by police. In this manner, encouraging people to answer questions asked by the media can
be an effective mechanism to get more information.
Risks involved
In the above-mentioned discussion, the manner in which media helps police in the identification
of murderers has been studied but the other side of the coin is also important to discuss here
which reflect risk contained in the involvement of media in murder incidents. In other words, this
can be stated that it is always not beneficial to use media as an investigatory resource. For
instance, the involvement of the media does not provide a guarantee that the murder case would
be solved. Further involvement of media gathers many of the information out of which many of
them are not even relevant to the inquiry. In high profile murder cases, wrongful conviction is
likely to happen due to voice and noise of media. The biggest example of the adverse impact of
media in murder cases is related to Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito's case. Both of these
people were appeared guilty for murder in 2009 but later on in 2011, were declared as innocent
(Press Association, 2011). The reason behind the same is that the media wrongfully presented
Amanda as a killer and made the news worldwide, which appeared as guilty (Robinson, 2017).
This is a clear example of the fact that media present things and people adversely at many times
and therefore it do not always play a positive role.

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Focus of media
The issue is not limited to misrepresentation of murder scenes by media but the same is extended
up to a choice of stories. At the event of murders, media select those stories that are unique rather
than those which are important to be publicized. While selecting murder stories media does not
focus on those stories which get attention but on those which may not get the one. For instance,
the murder of a homeless person is not expected to get as much attention as the murder of a
celebrity does. In such a situation, the media decide which story would reach to how many
people. The involvement of media is not balanced among all the cases and in this manner there is
a requirement to rethink the manner in which media becomes active at the event of knowing a
murder.
Consequences of media reporting on public
While understanding and criticizing the involvement of media in murder cases, the effect of the
same on the public is also necessary to understand. Media influence the opinion of the public
regarding crime and in this manner also influence decision-makers that develop public policy.
Citizens are desensitized to crime in general as well as violence. They do not know what is the
actual situation. In this way, media can increase knowledge of people about the true situation and
events happening around them by providing actual data. If to further examine the role of media
in shaping the opinion of public as well as criminal justice policy this is to state that it does not
show the events in their actual form that happens in society (Hough and Tatum, 2014).
Therefore many times, citizens demand the development of new laws or changes in policy
current which sometimes are not in their best interest. People overestimate the crime level in
their community due to media portrayals. While discussing the consequences of media

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involvement this is to state, that media present random and unexpected murder due to that
individual starts believing themselves as the next victim of such crime. This would not be wrong
to state that by overreacting to incidents especially to murder cases, media contribute to moral
panic. Hence, to state that people rely so much on media and in cases of a murder starts
considering every suspect as guilty.
Conclusion
To conclude the discussion and to analyze the involvement of media to state that media has two
roles to play, one is in the investigation, and one is in reporting. As discussed above, media help
police in the identification of the victim as well as the suspect. In conjunction with the same, it
also helps in getting new information. It is well known that media has a great reach and it has
become a powerful medium of communication and therefore it takes a case to a larger number of
people. Media can get the answers to those questions that people often do not share with police.
But when it comes to reporting of the murder crime, media often focus on those cases that can
give them more highlight and also present people as a suspect for no reason many times that
further cause to their personal lives. In this manner, neither advantage nor disadvantages of
media can be ignored. Here police and other investigation authority needs to determine the level
to which involvement of media should be allowed. Murder cases are very sensitive and therefore
media is required to take liability to behave ethically and socially. Some real case examples such
as Stephanie Slater and Sarah Payne have been studied here where media influenced the result or
to say played a crucial role in the resolution but it does not mean that there is no adverse result of
media in murder cases. Therefore, conclusively to state that media involvement is positive but
should be regulated and authorized or else it can bring significant negative results to the society.

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