Celebrity Victim

[svenonius]

I was listening to the radio and the impact of a murder was being discussed. In order to understand the effect on the family of the victim the host introduced a lady whom “we may remember” whose husband was murdered more than ten years ago. This started me thinking about the whole nature of victims of crime appearing on the media

Comments

[asru]

I'm just trying to see if I can guess which lady you are referring to, but I can't.

I've been thinking about different news stories involving murders lately too, but more about the different sentences that are given for what is, essentially, the same crime. That is a whole other can of worms...

There are certain murders that seem to really get to people, and there are cases where the family/partner/friends of the victim are on the news, in the papers, on the radio a lot during and after the case. I assume that aside from any trial, where they might be confronted by the media, this is a voluntary thing. There is the option to say 'no' to requests from journalists. I bet that some of this is down to lazy journalists who have found which people have spoken in the past and therefore would probably not mind doing so again. It's easier than ringing up someone who has never wanted to talk about it in public. At least, with the pretty crying lady, everyone knows what they're going to get.

Sometimes, when the 'celebrity victim' starts a campaign, or a support group, or some other sort of platform to voice their anger on various issues, I get to the point where I just don't want to see them anymore, and I find myself feeling guilty. I just want them to get over their trauma. I am evil. There was a certain mother from Liverpool who appeared on the news all the time, and I ended up with the idea that she had not got over what had happened to her child at all, and never would because she was always thinking about it. And I didn't want to see that any more. I wondered where the boundary was between wanting to make a difference and having a way to dwell within your own grief.

[svenonius]

Yopu wont guess from my description, but if I told you the incident, you'd know. THose involved in an ongoing investigation is acceptable is fair enough , but after ten years, do domething contrctive.

As for different sentences for the same offence, what bothers me more is the inconsistent levels of media coverage, forcing skewed investigation levels. The classic is Milly Dowler, blanket media coverage followed by a huge police investigation. How many other kids went missing at the same time? The fact they weren't pretty rich kids from a nice village cant have inluenced the level of media coverage surely??

[asru]

Exactly my reasoning on why one man was sentenced to 30 years for killing a wealthy banker, and another to 8 years for murdering his own grandmother.