NCJ Number
159967
Date Published
1995
Length
11 pages
Annotation
The author, a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun, argues that newspaper reporting on crime should do a better job in portraying to the public the human cost, emotions, and perspectives associated with criminal behavior, victim impact, and police investigations.
Abstract
According to the author, much of a city's pain associated with crime is recorded in a four-paragraph formula for each incident, which is then used as filler on an obscure page deep inside the newspaper. Inner-city violence, the urban drug trade, and the devaluation of black and Hispanic life in America's cities has become so common that they are no longer worth more to newspaper circulation than a short, passionless account. It is a bold editor who picks one inner-city rape or one drug murder and tells reporters to pursue every detail of a story that seems routine. It also takes a creative reporter to write the story from a realistic perspective that draws the reader into the horror, coldness, cruel, and painful aspects of human behavior reflected in commonplace crimes. The author does not argue for sensationalism but rather for a narrative form of reporting that communicates to the reader the feelings, attitudes, and behaviors of those involved, including offenders, victims, witnesses, and police.