| Chapter 1
The
Crime Beat
By
Dave Krajicek
Crime Reporters
at Work
The daily fodder of the crime beat comes from death, tragedy, conflict
and lawlessness. If those subjects leave you cold, the crime beat
might leave you miserable.
Demographics
Who are crime reporters? CJJ could find no beat-specific survey
of demographics, but anecdotal information would indicate those
who cover the beat reflect the broader demographics of journalists
at large.
According to the most recent newsroom survey by the American Society
of Newspaper Editors, nearly nine of every 10 journalists at daily
newspapers in America were white. Minorities make up about 30 percent
of the U.S. population.
The percentages of three leading racial or ethnic groups at daily
papers were black, 5.3 percent; Hispanic, 3.9 percent, and Asian,
2.4 percent. About 45 percent of the newspapers responding to the
ASNE survey had no minorities. Nearly two-thirds of all minority
journalists at daily newspapers work at papers with circulations
of more than 100,000.
Women made up about 37 percent of daily newspaper staffs.
The gender figure was comparable in both radio and television,
according to a 2002 survey by the Radio and Television News Directors
Association – 39 percent in TV and 33 percent in radio. Seventy-nine
percent of TV journalists were white (9 percent black, 8 percent
Hispanic and 3 percent Asian), while 92 percent of radio journalists
were white.
Job Satisfaction
A separate ASNE survey of 627 journalists at 29 newspapers indicated
about two-thirds of journalists were satisfied with their jobs.
The satisfaction figure was consistent – 67 percent of women,
62 percent of men, with little variation based on experience or
age.
The survey indicated job satisfaction keys in part on issues of
feedback and decision-making. Among those satisfied, 36 percent
said they got frequent supervisor feedback and 44 percent said they
had a voice in news decisions. Corresponding figures for those dissatisfied
were 14 percent and 24 percent.
The ASNE reported one-third of those surveyed said they would be
leaving the media field – an increasing trend since 1972.
That year, 7 percent said they were leaving; 11 percent in 1982,
and 21 percent in 1992.
Among those who said they were leaving in the most recent survey,
nearly half cited job-related stress as a dissatisfaction factor.
About one-third cited unhappiness with management. Other factors
cited by one-third of the respondents included a desire for more
regular hours and disappointment with the journalism field.
Just 19 percent of those who were dissatisfied but staying in journalism
cited job stress as a reason for unhappiness, and just 9 percent
of those cited disappointment with the profession.
Stress
The DART Center for Journalism and Trauma at the University of Washington
cautions reporters who cover violence of the possibility of post-traumatic
stress disorder.
In a recent study, the center reported 96 percent of journalists
surveyed covered at least one assignment in 2000 in which they were
personally threatened; exposed to events in which people were hurt
or killed, or indirectly involved with events in which people are
hurt or killed.
The stresses of deadlines and heavy workloads can aggravate the
trauma disorder symptoms for journalists who have covered violence,
the group said.
The "violent events" list used in the center's survey
is torn from the daily worksheet of a crime reporter: vehicle accidents,
assaults, murder, injured/dead child, sexual assault, life-threatening
illness, other types of casualties, fires, kidnappings or torture,
natural disasters, airplane accidents and war.
Participants in the survey covered an average of about eight such
incidents in 2000. A crime reporter might cover that many in a week.
Sixty-two percent of respondents said they were verbally threatened
while on assignment. Seventy percent said they experienced intense
horror, disgust, fear or helplessness during stressful assignments.
Nearly eight in 10 said they were on the scene of a news event that
involved death or injury.
The DART Center concluded journalists are "fairly resilient."
However the center suggested news organizations consider counseling,
debriefings, training and increased social support for journalists
involved in coverage of violence.
Personal Safety
Journalists frequently are at risk while on assignment.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) says 389
journalists were killed while on the job from 1992 to 2001. Of those,
62 were killed in crossfire and 298 were victims of homicide. Fourteen
of the victims were Americans, and only four of those were working
in the U.S. while killed.
In an infamous domestic case, Arizona Republic reporter
Don Bolles was killed by a car bomb in 1976 as a result of his investigations
of organized crime. Two men were convicted and sentenced to prison
in the case.
CPJ said at least 11 journalists since Bolles have been slain in
the U.S. because of their work. In all but one case, the victims
were immigrant journalists working in languages other than English.
Journalists sometimes are arrested or injured while covering clashes
involving law enforcement. In recent years, such incidents were
reported at International Monetary Fund demonstrations in Seattle
and Washington, D.C., and during the federal raid to seize the Cuban
boy Elian Gonzalez in Miami.
Some journalists have reported they were wearing proper identification
when attacked by renegade police officers or units. In one recent
case, a radio journalist covering the funeral of a man shot by New
York police said he was assaulted and arrested on trumped-up charges.
Crime reporters can face special safety concerns while on assignment.
In 1984, a New York newspaper reporter was seriously beaten during
an apparent robbery in Brooklyn. In some big cities, a few crime
reporters on assignment use war-zone safety devices, including helmets,
body armor or outer garments boldly marked MEDIA.
But this strategy has been known to backfire. Over the past 35
years, journalists frequently have been targeted during riots.
Twin Cities Examples
In 2002, several Minneapolis journalists were injured during rioting
that followed the shooting of a child in that city by a police bullet
that ricocheted. A TV vehicle was torched, and several journalists
were attacked.
A similar scenario occurred in that city 10 years ago. In that
case, television reporter Julia Sandidge was seriously injured when
she was punched in the head by a rioter. She was left unable to
walk for two months. Sandidge told the Minneapolis Star Tribune
that the crowd turned on her and a cameraman.
She said, "It does happen very quickly. You really can't anticipate
how it's going to happen." She said rioters saw her as part
of the establishment.
"We were there and they were angry," she said. "They
saw us more as the arm of the law than as an unbiased journalist."
Sandidge eventually left the daily news business, burdened by stress.
She said the assault changed her perspective. She began to identify
with victims.
"We'd cover crime and show the video on the news and not take
into consideration the victim's family watching that," she
told the Star Tribune. "I'd feel grief…I'd go home and
cry myself to sleep at night."
Sandidge said she frequently shows video footage of her attack
and its aftermath to journalism students. "I like to let young
wanna-be reporters see what they are up against," she said.
Tips: Wear clear identification. Carry a cell phone. Store an
emergency bag in your trunk with a change of clothing, bad-weather
gear, a flashlight and a first-aid kit. In potentially dangerous
situations, such as a riot, wear footwear and clothing that allow
you to move quickly. Consider protective gear, such as a helmet.
If journalists are being targeted, get to a safe location.
Turnover and Burnout
The demands of covering breaking news, the pressure to produce copy,
and the subject matter of the crime beat can wear down a reporter.
These factors account in part for high turnover on the crime beat.
Journalist Russell Baker wrote that crime reporters must dwell
on the "wretched underside" of a community. He said those
who are successful at it manage to treat victims as "faceless
cyphers," but not necessarily because they are heartless. He
wrote:
"Newspaper legends, created by entertainments
like The Front Page, had promoted the fiction that police reporters
were ruthlessly cynical about human misery. The fact was quite different.
We affected the cynical style and turned grisly events into tasteless
jokes because that was a way to maintain our emotional detachment,
and staying emotionally detached from what you were seeing was a
way of saving your life."
Career advancement is another factor in crime beat turnover. Crime
is strapped with a reputation as a starter beat for journalists.
News managers can help by treating crime as a serious specialization,
not a novel career tangent.
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