Best Practices for Reporting on Crime and Crime Victims

Americans are fascinated by true crime, and the numbers show it. Television shows, films, books, podcasts, and more mediums that cover real crimes that have happened in history are uniformly popular around the country and create a ton of revenue every year.

This is a tempting place for journalists to sink their teeth into, as it can easily build an audience. The drama involved in true crime, or more accurately, the drama that can be written into it, gathers an audience. But we still have a job to do: tell the truth. 

How can we make these two things work together?

Here are some valuable tips.

AVOID SPECULATION

Working with facts and truth is still central and essential to good journalistic practice. If all of the facts are not available, it’s unacceptable to use speculation to fill in the blanks. Speculation is both harmful to ongoing investigations of the crime, as well as disrespectful to the victim.

RESPECT THE PRIVACY OF THE VICTIM

Disclosing information that could reveal the identity of the victim could have very bad consequences. If the victim wishes to disclose their identity to the public, take their lead on exactly how they want it done. Being the victim of a crime is traumatizing, and a large amount of patience and empathy is required when trying to get information from or about victims and trauma.

MAINTAIN DISTANCE FROM ALL INVOLVED PARTIES

Dealing with crime means dealing with victims, of course, but it also means dealing with—and sometimes directly interacting with—perpetrators. Perpetrators and their associates may provide good or helpful information, but coming into closer contact with criminals creates several ethical questions and also jeopardizes the safety of the journalist and their loved ones. Information is important, but no story is worth destabilizing one’s entire life.

DON’T SENSATIONALIZE

Crime is already bad, but a recent trend of media reports have sensationalized crime to the point of great public fear. A focus on sensationalizing crime leads to greater public fear of crime, even if crime rates have actually decreased over time. It is important to both report accurately on the crime itself, but also on its context, so as to paint an accurate picture for the community. 

CONSIDER HOW TO BALANCE DETAILS WITH WHAT THE PUBLIC CAN HANDLE

Some crimes are so appalling that including the details is actually not what the public needs. Contextualizing the brutality or the difficult nature of the crime is important, however, as crime is most often related to an ongoing issue in the community. However, getting overly specific with brutality or other appalling details of the crime may not be in service to the public. 

REPORT ON HOW THE CRIME HAS IMPACTED THE COMMUNITY

Crime has a ripple effect. It affects the entire community—not just the victim and the criminal. Crime destabilizes communities. It causes fear and mistrust. It often has a clear connection to ongoing tensions or mistrust present within the community and in the community’s connection to the outside world. 

Crime is a sensitive topic because of the egregious abuse of human rights and liberties that it entails. Approaching crime and victims with sensitivity and with a willingness to tell the truth regardless of the circumstances is what can allow healing to begin for communities impacted by traumatic events.