Juvenile Crime Stories Use Police Blotter Without Comment from Suspects

Newspaper Research Journal, Fall 2004 by Simon, James, Hayes, Sean

Discussion

The findings are limited by the scope of this study, which focused only on juvenile justice stories in one state during a three-month period of time. The results suggest that, at least in the newspapers studied here, not much has changed since Graber first documented the shortcomings of crime reporting more than two decades ago. The economic efficiency that allows reporters to churn out stories with little effort from the police blotter has not changed. Coverage of juvenile crime issues followed the same pattern.

In an era of shrinking newspaper circulation and financial cutbacks, editors may be looking for even more sources of inexpensive news. If editors are satisfied with an average six-paragraph story on juvenile justice, there is not room for much other than the defendant's name, details of the crime and a reaction by police.

If reporters want to balance police comment with that of the accused, they face several hurdles. Police reports and comments are institutionalized and readily available. It is far harder to track down an accused juvenile, who may or may not want to talk, or to find out who represents the defendant. There also may be a reluctance to pursue comment from youthful suspects because of their age. But there is no legal barrier to pursuing comment; the suspect has the privilege of deciding whether to cooperate or not.

One of the most basic rules of journalism is to present the other side of the story. Yet when it comes to these juvenile crime stories, newspapers continue to use police blotter items without comment from suspects for the bulk of the coverage. Crime stories, especially first day stories about routine crimes, may be one of the last places in journalism where little effort is made to provide balanced sourcing.

Notes

1. Doris A. Graber, Crime news and the public. (New York: Praeger, 1980), 127.

2. Lori Dorfman and Vincent Schiraldi, OFF BALANCE: Youth, race and crime in the news, executive summary. (Washington, DC: Building Blocks for Youth/Youth Law Center, April 2001); Lynnell Hancock, "Framing children in the news: The face and color of youth crime in America," in Valerie Polakow (Ed.), The public's assault on America's children: Poverty, violence and juvenile injustice. (New York: Teachers College Press, 2002), 78-98; John McManus and Lori Dorf man, Youth violence stories focus on events, not causes. Newspaper Research Journal 23, no. 3 (fall 2002); 6-20.

3. Judy Bolch and Esther Thorson, "Teaching crime and violence reporting from a public health perspective," (paper presented at AEJMC, Miami FL, August 2001); Center for Media and Public Affairs, Crime most common story on local television news; Murders, assaults & shootings dominate crime coverage, 1996, (March 25, 2003); Dorfman and Schiraldi, OFF BALANCE: Youth, race and crime in the news.

4. Center for Media and Public Affairs, CMPA Fadoids: News Agenda, 2002, (March 25, 2003). Center for Media and Public Affairs, Crime most common story on local television news; Murders, assaults & shootings dominate crime coverage, 1996; Paul A. Perrone and Meda ChesneyLind, Representations of gangs and delinquency: Wild in the streets? SOCM/ justice (winter 1997): 96-117; Tom Wicker and Wallace Westfeldt, Indictment: The News Media and The Criminal Justice System. Publication 98-F04. (New York: Freedom Forum/First Amendment Center, 1998).