Juvenile “Super-Predators” in the News: A Comparison of Adult and Juvenile Homicides
By
Jesenia M. Pizarro, Ph.D.
Steven M. Chermak, Ph.D.
Jeffrey A. Gruenewald, M.A.
Michigan State University
Although there has been considerable research examining the presentation of crime in the news,
only a handful of studies have examined the presentation of juveniles in crime stories. This
article fills this void in the literature by examining whether the juvenile super-predator ideology,
which affected criminal justice policy in the late 1990s, has affected the media’s portrayal of
youth violence. We also examine whether juvenile and adult homicides are presented differently
by the media. Overall, our findings suggest that homicides involving juvenile suspects receive
more salient coverage. The hypotheses testing whether juvenile homicides that fit the superpredator script receive more media attention than those that do not yielded moderate support.
Homicides involving particularly young suspects receive more media coverage than those
involving older teenagers. Additionally, incidents involving heinous modes (e.g., involve
multiple victims, or were committed with guns) and motives (e.g., child abuse, patricides, and
fratricides) are more likely to receive media attention. Our findings also suggest that there is
variation in the covariates of adult and juvenile media coverage.
Keywords: juvenile delinquency, homicide, media
INTRODUCTION
On October 13, 1994, two boys, 10- and 11-years-old, dropped Eric Morse, 5-years-old,
to his death from a 14th-floor window in a Chicago housing project (Page, 1998). The young boy
refused to steal candy for the older boys, so they lured him into the apartment building to kill
him. It was an important local crime event that also received considerable attention in the
national news media and was cited by politicians to promote policy change. Moreover, it was
one of several sensationalized incidents involving young juvenile offenders that were linked
together to promote general concern about the increasing violent nature of youth in society. The
public and policymakers were enraged. The local and national media sensationalized these
incidents, but also had the opportunity to ask several important questions about this new crime
wave. The media could have asked: how did we let urban centers deteriorate to such a level that
10- and 11- year-old boys are choosing life in a gang? What social programs and policy exist
and what should be introduced to respond effectively to youth violence? How could this happen
at the birthplace of the juvenile court and what happened to its rehabilitative ideal? The media
did not ask these questions and instead helped promote get-tough youth crime policy. For
example, in a January 22, 1996 issue of Newsweek, a reporter discussed the Chicago case under
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the headline: “Should we cage the new breed of vicious kids?” Other stories argued that the rise
in youth violence was only the “lull before the storm” and that teenagers were like wild animals
in the street (see Brownstein, 2000: 111-113).
Although available statistical evidence showed that national crime rates were declining,
the media told a very different story and a moral panic on youth violence emerged. One of the
issues that increased the momentum of this panic was the creation of the “juvenile superpredator.” Several academics were responsible for creating and promoting this notion of an
impulsively dangerous youth with a very sexy moniker. Professor John Dilulio and colleagues
wrote: "Based on all that we have witnessed, researched and heard from people who are close to
the action," … "here is what we believe: America is now home to thickening ranks of juvenile
'super-predators' -- radically impulsive, brutally remorseless youngsters, including ever more
pre-teenage boys, who murder, assault, rape, rob, burglarize, deal deadly drugs, join gun-toting
gangs and create serious communal disorders" (Bennett, Dilulio, & Walters, 1996: 27). Other
academics, like James Fox from Northeastern University, similarly supported and promoted this
myth by arguing that the juveniles of the 1990s had “more dangerous drugs in their bodies, more
deadly weapons in their hands, and a seemingly more casual attitude about violence” (Fox, 1996:
2) than those of previous generations.
Although Dilulio has since admitted that his position about the emergence of the superpredator was incorrect (Becker, 2001), this moral panic led to significant change in policy and
public opinion. Julian Roberts’ (2004: 495-497; 500) important work in this area discusses how
the public subscribes to a number of misconceptions about youth violence and how the criminal
justice system has become increasingly punitive with youth. He finds that people “tend to
overestimate the volume of crime for which juveniles are responsible,” “overestimate the
seriousness and proportion of juvenile crime involving violence,” and believe that crimes rates
are increasing (p. 500-501). He also discusses how almost all states passed legislation in the
1990s allowing juvenile transfers to adult court, that 40 states send juveniles to adult prisons, and
an increasing number of states have mandatory minimums for juvenile violent offenders (p. 496).
This article addresses whether the juvenile super-predator ideology has affected the
media’s portrayal of youth violence. We posit that the youth violence moral panic, which
affected criminal justice policy, also has impacted how reporters cover homicides involving
youth. In short, we believe that a “super-predator news frame” (see Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998)
continues to significantly influence how reporters cover youth homicide. Specifically, we
suspect that youth homicides that match the “super-predator script” (i.e., impulsive and
indiscriminant murders involving young teenagers) are much more likely to be presented in the
press and receive more space compared to other juvenile homicides. We also think that juvenile
homicide will be presented differently compared to adult homicides. We test these notions by
examining media coverage of homicide in Newark, New Jersey.
PRIOR RESEARCH
There is a large body of research examining content issues related to the presentation of
crime in the media. Most of this research has focused on how the news media cover crime, but
scholarly interest in other media outlets, like popular television programs, films, and music
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continues to grow (Kubrin, 2005; Gerbner, 1972, Center for Communication and Social Policy,
1998; Rafter, 2000). Research in this area has revealed numerous important conclusions. First,
studies have shown that crime is a staple of news and popular programming (Chermak, 1995a;
1995b; Graber, 1980; Klite, Bardwell, & Salzman, 1997; Maquire, Sandage, & Weatherby, 1999;
Yanich, 2005). Research indicates that between 10 and 50 percent of news programming is of
crime or crime-related stories. Klite et al.’s study (1997) of the presentation of crime in 56 cities
found that crime was the top subject in local news. Similarly, the National Television Violence
Survey (Center for Communication and Social Policy, 1998), which randomly sampled programs
from 23 broadcast and cable channels during a 20 week period, concluded that 61 percent of
television programs contain some violence. Second, research consistently shows that crime is
distorted in favor of uncommon events—crimes that are least likely to occur are most likely to be
emphasized in the press (Chermak, 1995a; 1995b; Davis, 1952; Ericson, Baranek & Chan, 1991;
Graber, 1980; Jerrin & Fields, 1994). Murder, violence and bloody events are overrepresented,
and minor crimes and white-collar events are ignored or deemphasized. In most cities where
homicides occur with some frequency, research shows that anywhere from 15 to 30 percent of
the news stories will be murder stories (Chermak, 1995a; 1995b; Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000).
Moreover, crime coverage is also distorted in cities that lack a steady supply of violent crimes to
fill local coverage (Chermak, 1995a.) Reporters in these locations tend to present the most
serious crime available (thus, the least likely to occur), present sensational events from other
locales, and dramatically display serious, violent crimes if and when they do occur. Third, crime
stories are relatively easy to write, and reporters disproportionately rely on criminal justice
sources, especially the police, when reconstructing the daily crime blotter (Chermak, 1998;
Ericson, Baranek & Chan, 1989).
Most media research relies on classic content analysis. Specifically, stories from various
media will be sampled, the representation of various characteristics will be coded, and
conclusions about the characteristics of crime, victims, and defendants presented in the news will
be made. When using this methodology, researchers commonly conclude that the media distort
crime coverage by comparing news content to aggregate statistics about crime. Some studies, for
example, will compare the crimes emphasized in the news to Uniform Crime Report statistics.
Although such studies have built an important foundation of understanding on how crime is
presented to the public, this approach is limited for several reasons. First, most crime stories
provide only limited information about incidents. A story will usually include a brief description
of the circumstances of the event, some characteristics of the victim and defendant, and the status
of the case. Much information is excluded from these stories and thus the content analyst is
often left with a lot of missing data. For example, race can only be reliably determined when a
picture is included because most crime stories do not reference the race of the victim or
defendant. Not having racial characteristics is a significant problem because research
consistently indicates that it influences the salience and prominence of crime coverage (Chermak
& Weiss, 1998; Gilliam & Iyengar, 2000; Johnstone, Hawkins, & Michener, 1994; Pritchard,
1985). Second, the factors influencing media selection and production decisions, when relying
only on a sample of news stories, must be inferred unless reporter and editorial decision-making
processes are observed or individual case data is examined. It is impossible to determine how
the cases that are covered are different from those that are excluded (Pritchard, 1985). Third,
problems with aggregate statistics on crime are well-documented (Hammond, 1973), but these
limitations are particularly troublesome for the content analyst. Newspaper reporters do not use
the same definitions as police department. In addition, the reporting of incidents by the police do
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not always coincide (see Pritchard, 1985).
A research approach that has been frequently used in the last ten years responds directly
to these concerns. Researchers have increasingly collected all available characteristics about a
specific type of crime, usually homicide, that have occurred in a particular jurisdiction for a
specific time frame. Because of increased electronic access to newspaper stories and television
transcripts, the researcher then searches available databases for stories about each incident.
Johnstone et al. (1994) provides an early example of this innovative approach. These researchers
had access to data from the Chicago Police Department, and then examined what events were
presented in two Chicago newspapers (the Tribune and Sun-Times). They concluded that the
number of victims murdered, the method used to complete the incident, and the race of the
victim increased the log odds of an incident being selected for news coverage. They found that
the chances of a white murder victim being presented were two or four times greater than
African Americans or Hispanics (Johnstone, et al., 1994: 867). The important contribution of
this approach is that it refines our understanding of the factors that influence news selection
decisions (was an incident covered or not?) and news production priorities (how much attention
was given to an incident?) (see Chermak & Weiss, 1998; Johnstone, Hawkins, & Michener,
1994; Paulsen, 2003; Peelo, Francis, Soothill, Pearson, & Ackerley, 2004; Sorenson, Peterson, &
Berk, 1998).
Although there has been a lot of research examining the presentation of crime in the news
and increasing attention to comparing the actual occurrence of incidents to their presentation in
the news, there has been surprisingly little research examining the presentation of juveniles in
crime stories (see Boulahanis & Heltsley, 2004; Buttrum, 1998; Dorfman, Woodruff, Chavez &
Wallack, 1997; Feld, 1995; Sprott, 1996; Yanich, 2005). Most of this research has used the
traditional content analysis approach for understanding the presentation of juveniles in crime
stories—documenting what is presented about juveniles in news stories and comparing it to what
is presented about adults involved in crime. Yanich’s (2005) conclusions are representative of
what is known about juveniles in crime stories. In this study, a content analysis of television
broadcasts in 20 television markets was used to compare the presentation of adult to
“KidsCrime” (stories where the victim or suspect was under 18-years-old). The sample included
over 7,600 stories from 559 television broadcasts, and approximately 1,700 of these stories
focused on crime issues (p. 107). First, this study concludes that crime is an important topic,
accounting for 27 percent of the stories and 26 percent of the broadcast time (p. 111). Second,
most of the stories focused on adult suspects or victims. Only 31 percent of the stories included
a juvenile as a suspect, victim, or both (p. 112). Third, adult and KidsCrime stories were
emphasized similarly—8 of 10 stories appeared within the first block of stories in a newscast and
was usually the first story of a newscast (p. 113). Fourth, both types of stories tended to be
included in a block with at least three other crime stories and were presented similarly. Fifth,
criminal justice sources were the main source cited in both types of stories. Sixty-three percent
of KidsCrime stories and 65 percent of adult crimes included a criminal justice official as a news
source.
Moreover, several differences in how adult and KidsCrime stories were presented. First,
juveniles were much more likely to be presented as victims than perpetrators. Second, 28
percent of the adult crime stories focused on murder. In contrast, over 50 percent of KidsCrime
stories focused on murder. Third, male offenders and stranger crimes were more prominent in
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adult stories, and juveniles, when in the news, were much more likely to be presented as victims
than offenders. Based on these findings, Yanich (2005:130) concludes: “The KidsCrime stories
perpetuated the notion that juveniles live in a violent and dangerous world…[a]nd we support
public policies that are based on that understanding, even if we do not recognize the connection.”
Like so much research in this area, Yanich compares the media’s representation of
juvenile crime to FBI data for each county in a designated market area (p. 108), and concludes
that the presentation of crime in the news is distorted—that the presentation of crime is not in
proportion to its prevalence (p. 121). This approach, however, is limited because it does not
compare crime incidents with what the media portrays. There is one article about juvenile crime
in the news that compares the actual incidence of crime to the media’s presentation (Boulahanis
& Heltsley, 2004). Although the primary focus of this study is how media consumption impacts
levels of fear of crime, Boulahanis and Heltsley also examine the factors that increase the
likelihood that a homicide story is presented in the news. In this study, full-text articles were
collected from the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, and the stories were linked to homicide data
from the Chicago Police Department. They found that the most significant predictor of juvenile
crime coverage was the age of the offender and victim—cases with young offenders were more
likely to be covered (p. 142). In fact, there was nearly a 28 percent decrease in the odds of
receiving coverage for every year increase in offender age (p. 143). Similarly, homicides
involving young victims were significantly more likely to be covered. Homicides with victims
less than 14-years-old were nearly 500 percent more likely to be covered compared to victims 20
to 29 years old (p. 144). Homicides with Caucasian offenders, female offenders, and female
victims were more likely to receive newspaper coverage. Geographic location also impacted the
likelihood of news coverage, but the type of weapon did not.
The present study fills several gaps in the extant research. First, past research on the
presentation of crime in the media has generally ignored how juveniles are presented in crime
stories. This gap is surprising considering current concern about youth violence, gangs, and gun
use among youth by policymakers and community leaders. Second, we use the approach that has
increasingly been used to study homicide, but also other types of crime such as terrorism
(Chermak & Gruenewald, 2007). Specifically, we examine media coverage of all homicides that
occurred in Newark, New Jersey between 1997 and 2004. An online newspaper database was
searched for any story written about all of the homicides that occurred during this time frame
using various keyword combinations. For each incident, we have identified whether any story
was presented about that incident in the media, and how many articles and words were written
about it. Although the Boulahanis and Heltsley (2004) article used a similar approach,1 this
research extends their work by examining a significant number of control variables and multiple
measures of media salience (Boulahanis and Heltsley only examined if a story was covered or
not).
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Construction of News stories
It is important to acknowledge the bureaucratic routines inherent to the construction of
the news (Chermak, 1995a; Gans, 1979; Tuchman, 1973). Most news organizations are
hierarchally structured--organizational policies are constructed by management but interpreted in
the field by reporters. Reporters are line-level employees of bureaucratic organizations, and rely
primarily on bureaucratically-affiliated officials for the information contained in news stories.
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When a reporter is charged with constructing a crime story about the beginning stages of the
criminal justice process, he or she gathers information provided by police officials (Chermak,
1997; Ericson, Baranek & Chan, 1991; Sherizen, 1978).
Crime reporters produce several stories during each work session in order to fill the crime
“news hole.” Reporters learn the importance of certain types of news story, as well as an easy
process to appropriately construct such stories efficiently, primarily through their interactions
with editors and more senior reporters. These media personnel use subtle cues to teach rookie
reporters, often whose first assignment is the police beat, the news values of the organization.
These cues might include placing a reporter’s story on the back pages, excluding a story from
presentation, or asking the reporter to rewrite a story multiple times (Ericson, Baranek, & Chan,
1989). Efficiency pressures also promote a reliance on information provided by specific
individuals or organizational representatives like police and political officials. These
individuals, although able to satisfy the need for information, use these interactions as
opportunities to manufacture positive publicity for the organization they represent and provide
only certain types of information (Chermak & Weiss, 2005; Schlesinger & Tumber, 1994).
It is our contention that the factors discussed above result in the development of a shared
understanding among workers about what is newsworthy about crime. Reporters have general
expectations about what is newsworthy about crime, and seriousness of the event is an important
factor that influences whether a story is covered and how it is presented. Violent crimes,
especially murders, are high priority news items. Crimes involving such significant personal
harm cross over an initial threshold into an arena where news personnel struggle over how much
news value to assign to that event. Consequently, there is variation in the extent of coverage
homicides receive from news organizations. For example, some homicides are not covered by
news organization, while some are given a two-paragraph overview, and others are front-page
stories that are covered dramatically. This lead to the question: when all crimes are equally
serious, what other factors influence how events are covered and described in the news?
Although the media workers’ immediate goal is the production of a news story, these
general expectations provide an efficient means to organize their work and provide an easy way
to decide the work pattern that flows from that categorization. It is also our contention that,
because of these expectations, not all homicides are approached in the same manner by reporters.
That is, reporters first acknowledge that a homicide is worth covering, but then must decide
what “story” to tell about that incident. For example, we expect that juvenile homicides will be
presented differently than adult homicides, and a different set of factors will determine whether a
juvenile homicide is covered and the amount of space it receives.
The Super-predator Myth
The super-predator ideology depicts a new breed of juveniles who are impulsive, short
sighted, violent, aggressive, and incapable of concerning themselves with the feelings of others.
It emerged in the mid 1990s as a response to the increase in violent crime that the United States
experienced during the 1980s and early 1990s. Dilulio was at the forefront in the promotion and
widespread dissemination of this ideology (see Bennett, Dilulio, & Walters, 1996; Dilulio,
1995). He based this myth on research done by James Fox (see Fox, 1996), and sensationalized
youth violence news stories such as the murder of Eric Morse. Fox (1996) employed
Supplementary Homicide Report data to demonstrate an increase in the involvement of juveniles
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in homicides. The findings showed an alarming increase of 172 percent in juvenile murders (i.e.,
cases involving 14- to 17-year-olds) from 1985 to 1994. Among the most affected youths were
black males who even though only comprised slightly more than 1 percent of the population,
accounted for 17 percent of victims and 30 percent of offenders. His findings also indicated that
the onset of violent crime among juveniles had reached an all time low of 14 years of age.
Dilulio and his colleagues attempted to explain this rise in youth violence by positing that this
increase was due to a new breed of juveniles who they referred to as super-predators.
Dilulio nor his colleagues never clearly defined what a super-predator was or exactly
what caused juveniles to adopt a super-predator mentality. They simply vaguely characterized
these juveniles as predators who “do not value human life,” “live by the meanest code of the
street,” “seek immediate gratification,” “commit crimes for trivial reasons,” “join gun-toting
gangs,” “are capable of committing the most heinous crimes in society,” and “do not fear the
threat of punishment” (Bennett et al., 1996: 26-29). They argued that these super-predators
come from “criminogenic communities” in which there is a lack of positive role models.
Consequently, the root cause for the super-predator epidemic, according to them, is moral
poverty. Moral poverty, which they defined as “being without loving, capable, responsible
adults who teach you right from wrong” (Bennett et al., 1996: 56), causes children to become
super-predators during their teenage years.
Research Hypotheses
There is limited access to juvenile records and juvenile court proceedings, and thus,
juvenile crime is rarely presented in the news. Homicides, however, are “fair game.” Thus, like
others who have compared juvenile to adult crime coverage, our expectation is that the intensity
of coverage—the average number of words and articles written about homicides involving
juvenile offenders and or juvenile victims will be significantly greater compared to adult
homicides. In addition, we suspect that the moral panic involving super-predators discussed
earlier has impacted reporter expectations about juvenile offenders, and that juvenile superpredator stories will be treated differently than other juvenile homicide stories and adult
homicide stories.
In light of our assumptions, we test the following “super-predator” propositions in this
article. First, an important element of this myth is that children are becoming increasingly
violent. We expect that homicides involving very young offenders will receive significantly
more attention and space by the news media. Second, the super-predator script indicates that
juveniles are capable of committing brutal, unspeakable acts of homicide. We therefore expect
that homicides with multiple victims, occuring as a result of shocking/rare motives, or that are
carried out using particularly heinous methods will receive more attention and space. Third,
because the juvenile “super-predator” was depicted in the press as being a remorseless thug, we
expect that juvenile gang and drug-related homicides are important variables predicting coverage
of juvenile but not adult homicides. That is, the classic “drug deal that went bad” crime story
will decrease in importance when adults are involved, but will increase when juveniles are
involved. Finally, an important element of this myth is race of the offender--“The clear but
unspoken subtext of the super-predator thesis is that a disproportionate number of criminal youth
are from racial minority groups” (Gilliam & Iyengar, 1998: 45). Thus, we anticipate that
homicides involving minority juvenile offenders to be prominently displayed in the media. In
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contrast, we do not expect that suspect race will impact adult homicide stories.
DATA AND METHODS
Data
This study examines newspaper coverage of all homicides occurring in Newark, New
Jersey between 1997 and 2004. The analysis portion of this study is based on two sources of
data. The first source of data consists of information about homicide incidents gathered from
Newark Police Department (NPD) homicide investigation files. These files contained rich detail
about the homicide incident (i.e., date, time, incident address, premise, motive, weapon used,
relationship between victim and offender), victim (i.e., demographic information, employment
status, gang affiliation, past criminal history), and suspect(s) (i.e., demographic information,
employment status, gang affiliation, past criminal history). A data collection protocol and
instrument helped ensure that researchers captured this information in a consistent manner. As
part of the data collection process researchers also created a narrative account for each incident
describing the circumstances that led to the homicide, detailing how it occurred, and providing
information on the victim and suspect(s). The researchers then coded from the narratives the
precipitating factors for the murder, which include the motive and other related activities that led
to the occurrence of the incident.
The unit of analysis for this study is the homicide incident. A small number of incidents
that would not necessarily be considered homicides, such as vehicular homicides, are included in
the dataset because they were initially considered homicides by police, and thus, also by crime
reporters. Overall, the data consist of 572 homicide incidents that occurred from January 1, 1997
to December 31, 2004. Twenty-four (4 percent) of these incidents have multiple homicide
victims. There are twenty-two double homicides, one triple, and one quadruple, which result in a
total of 599 homicide victims. Due to the unit of analysis being the homicide incident and the
scarcity of cases that have multiple victims, only the information of the first victim identified by
police in the double, triple, and quadruple homicides was used in the analyses. Police identified
a suspect in 447 of the 572 homicide incidents. Of these cases, 127 (28 percent) involve multiple
suspects. Similar to Tita and Griffiths (2005), only the information of the “primary suspect” was
used in these incidents. That is, the person identified by police as the most responsible (e.g., the
trigger person) for the death of the victim(s) was included in the analyses. In the cases where the
role of the suspect was inconclusive, the individual first identified by police and charged with the
homicide was coded as the primary suspect.
The second source of data consists of all newspaper articles written about each homicide
occurrence in The Star-Ledger, Newark’s daily newspaper. We chose to search for homicide
stories in The Star-ledger because it is by far the most widely read daily in Newark and the
surrounding areas. The design for this study allowed us to link specific homicides to all news
articles that may have been written about them in the local newspaper. Information from
homicide narratives such as names of homicide victims and suspects functioned as keywords that
were inputted into Access World News from NewsBank, an online searchable database that
provides access to all The Star-Ledger news stories since 1996. Searching for homicide news
coverage in the online news archive made it possible to identify which homicide occurrences
received news media attention and which were ignored by the news media. For those homicides
that were covered by The Star-Ledger, all articles were collected and a number of content
categories were coded in order to capture how prominently homicide news stories were
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displayed.
Measures
Dependent Variables
We measure news media selection and prominence decisions with several dependent
variables. Our first dependent variable is binary-coded and measures whether or not a homicide
was covered by The Star-Ledger (0=not covered, 1=covered,). Approximately 59 percent of all
homicides investigated by the NPD were covered by The Star-Ledger between 1997 and 2004.
For those homicides that were reported by The Star-Ledger we also measure how prominently
the news story was displayed by noting whether or not the story appeared on the front page
(0=not front page, 1=front page). Between 1997 and 2004 only 2.3 percent of all homicides that
were covered by The Star-Ledger during this time received front-page coverage.
Consistent with past research we also measure news story prominence by counting the
total number of newspaper articles and total number of words written about each homicide
incident. In addition, we categorize types of articles and words depending on the primary focus
of the news story’s content. The first type of newspaper article collected are stories specifically
addressing the homicide occurrence or, in other words, the who, what, when, where, why, and
how of the incident throughout the criminal justice process. We refer to these articles as
“incident articles” (see Chermak & Gruenewald, 2006). The second type of homicide news
stories collected are referred to as “policy articles”, and consist of articles whose primary focus
does not pertain solely to specific homicide occurrences, though the articles mention an incident
briefly in some capacity. Examples of policy articles would consist of news stories discussing
trends in homicide occurrences or anti-violence policy initiatives, but an incident may be referred
to in these stories. News media and other social claimsmakers may use specific homicide
incidents to push for stricter law enforcement, the redistribution of community resources, or
increased community involvement in an effort to combat violent crime. By collecting policy
articles it is possible to examine which types of homicide occurrences are more likely to be used
by social claimsmakers in this way.
Independent Variables
The independent variables used in the analyses are presented in Table 1. We include
several measures to test the impact of the super-predator characteristics identified by Dilulio and
his colleagues (see Bennett et al., 1996) and control for various other independent variables
found to be important in previous media studies. The super-predator variables (suspect age,
suspect race, number of victims killed, incident weapon, and motive) were developed to test the
hypotheses stated earlier. The average suspect age for all incidents is 26.13, for incidents with
adult suspects is 27.97, and for the offenses involving juvenile suspects (18 and younger) is
16.82. The youngest homicide suspect is nine-years-old and the oldest is sixty-eight-years-old.
Overall, there are 373 adult and 74 juvenile suspects in the data set. Race is a dichotomous
variable (0=Non-Black; 1=Black). The vast majority of suspects (66 percent for all incidents and
85 percent for adult and juvenile incidents) are Black.
We created three variables to measure the heinousness of the offense: number of
homicide victims, weapon, and motive. The average number of victims killed in an incident was
1.05 for all incidents, 1.06 for adult, and 1.04 for juvenile. Weapon is dichotomous variable
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(0=Other, 1=Gun). Sixty-six percent of all homicides and approximately 61 percent of adult and
juvenile homicides were committed with a gun.
Motive refers to the primary reason that caused the offender to act against the victim.2
This variable is coded into five dummy variables: domestic, drug/gang, interpersonal dispute,
robbery, and other, with domestic serving as the reference category. The domestic homicide
category includes incidents that resulted from child abuse by parents or family members, spousal
abuse, disputes between intimates or ex-intimates over their relationship and/or breakups,
revenge over infidelities and sexual jealousy, and disputes between family members over family
matters. Drug and Gang homicides are defined as incidents that occurred because of sales or
distribution of narcotics and/or other illegal drugs or homicides that occurred in order to further
the interests of a gang (e.g., dispute over turf, colors, a gang initiation, internal conflict within a
gang for power, or rivalry between two or more different gangs). Interpersonal dispute incidents
involve non-domestic and non-drug murders that resulted from an argument, physical altercation,
or the victim/offender wanting to get even for a past altercation. Robbery homicides refer to
non-drug incidents that resulted from the suspect’s attempt to take by force money or other
material goods from the victim. A fifth category consists of any remaining homicides types not
fitting the aforementioned categories.3 Of the 572 homicide incidents, 78 (13.6 percent) are
domestic, 108 (18.9 percent) are drug or gang, 143 (25 percent) are interpersonal dispute, 51 (8.9
percent) are robbery, 68 (11.9 percent) were caused by other factors, and in 125 (21.9 percent)
the motive is unknown because police have not identified a suspect in the case. When looking
specifically at the adult and juvenile incidents some small differences are evident. Adult
homicides are more likely to occur due to interpersonal disputes (33 percent), followed by
drug/gang (24.9 percent), domestic issues (18.2 percent), other motives (14.2 percent), and
robberies (9.9 percent). Juveniles, on the other hand, most often kill as a result of interpersonal
disputes (27 percent), followed by drug/gang and other motives (20.3 percent), robberies (18
percent), and domestic issues (13.5 percent).
The rest of the suspect, victim, and incident variables included in Table 1 are control
variables. The suspect characteristics include gender and an illegal activities scale. Most
suspects were male. Involvement in illegal activities is a scale variable that ranges from 0 to 4,
and is based on criminal record, involvement in the drug business, a gang, and/or other illegal
activities (e.g., prostitution). If the person did not have a criminal history and was not involved
in any illegal activities a value of 0 was assigned. Conversely, if he/she had a criminal history
and engaged in the remaining 3 indicators a 4 was assigned. On average the suspects in each of
the categories (i.e., all cases, adult suspect, and juvenile suspects) scored a 1 in the scale.
The victim variables include gender, race, age, and involvement in illegal activities.
Gender and race are dichotomous variables (0=female, 1=male; 0=Non-Black, 1=Black).
Overall, 84 percent of the victims were male, 80 percent were Black, the average age was 30years-old, and their illegal activity scale score was an average of one. These characteristics are
similar across all, adult suspect, and juvenile suspect incidents.
Three incident variables are tested. First, we examine victim-offender-relationship
(VOR). Two dummy variables were created, and family/intimate relationship served as the
reference category. Twenty-one percent of the incidents involved strangers, 44.6 percent
involved friends and/or acquaintances, 12.4 percent were family homicides (i.e. incidents
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
94 / JCJPC 14(1), 2007
involving intimate partners and family members). Twenty-two percent of the incidents have an
unknown VOR particularly because a suspect has not been identified by police. The
disaggregated figures by adult and juvenile incidents reveal similar findings. Second, we
identified whether the crime occurred inside a private establishment (e.g., residence, bar, store)
or outside in a public venue (e.g., street, parking lot, open field). Nearly 30 percent of the
incidents occurred inside in the three homicide type categories examined. Third, four dummy
variables were created to examine the impact of mode (i.e., the manner in which the homicide
was carried out): face-to-face incidents, walk-by incidents, drive-by incidents, and an other
category.4 The walk-by category serves as the reference category. Most homicides were
classified as face-to-face incidents, that is the victim and suspect were verbally communicating at
the time of the incident, in all three homicide types.
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
95 / JCJPC 14(1), 2007
Table 1: Independent Variable Description
Super-Predator Variables
All Incidents
Adult Suspect
Juvenile Suspect
(N = 572)
(N = 373)
(N = 74)
N
Mean/(SD) or %
N
Mean/(SD) or %
N
Mean/(SD) or %
Suspect Age
Suspect Race
Non-Black
Black
Unknown*
Weapon
Other Weapon
Gun
Motive
Domestic**
Drug/Gang
Interpersonal Dispute
Robbery
Other
Unknown*
447
26.13 (9.02)
373
27.97 (8.75)
74
16.82 (1.47)
66
381
125
11.5%
66.6%
21.9%
55
318
--
14.7%
85.3%
--
11
63
--
14.9%
85.1%
--
194
378
33.9%
66.1%
143
230
38.3%
61.7%
29
45
39.2%
60.8%
77
108
143
51
68
125
13.4%
18.9%
25.0%
8.9%
11.9%
21.9%
67
93
123
37
53
--
18.0%
24.9%
33.0%
9.9%
14.2%
--
10
15
20
14
15
--
13.5%
20.3%
27.0%
18.9%
20.3%
--
# Victims Killed
572
1.05 (.24)
373
1.06 (.28)
74
1.04 (.20)
24
461
87
447
4.2%
80.6%
15.2%
1.65 (.95)
21
352
-373
5.6%
94.4%
-1.68 (.94)
3
71
-74
4.1%
95.9%
-1.49 (.95)
92
480
16.1%
83.9%
58
315
15.5%
84.5%
13
61
17.6%
82.4%
111
460
1
571
565
19.4%
80.4%
.2%
29.65 (12.95)
1.28 (.97)
73
300
-373
373
19.6%
80.4%
-30.85 (13.77)
1.26 (.98)
14
60
-74
18.9%
81.1%
-25.05 (11.25)
1.04 (.99)
71
255
121
125
12.4%
44.5%
21.2%
21.9%
60
213
100
--
16.1%
57.1%
26.8%
--
11
42
21
--
14.9%
56.7%
28.4%
--
412
159
1
72.0%
27.8%
.2%
248
125
--
66.5%
33.5%
--
53
21
--
71.6%
28.4%
--
Control Variables
Suspect Gender
Female
Male
Unknown*
Suspect Illegal Scale
Victim Gender
Female
Male
Victim Race
Non-Black
Black
Unknown*
Victim Age
Victim Illegal Scale
VOR
Family/Intimate Partner**
Friend/Acquaintance
Stranger
Unknown*
Location
Outside
Inside
Unknown*
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
96 / JCJPC 14(1), 2007
Mode
Face-to-Face
Walk-By**
Drive-By
Other Mode
Unknown*
365
69
39
51
48
63.8%
12.1%
6.8%
8.9%
8.4%
277
48
17
31
--
* Not Included in analysis ** Reference category
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
74.3%
12.9%
4.5%
8.3%
--
57
6
-11
--
77.0%
8.1%
-14.9%
--
FINDINGS
Table 2 presents descriptive data of the amount of media coverage received by the
Newark homicides. Data are presented for all homicides (i.e., all incidents investigated by
Newark Police Department), for homicides involving a juvenile suspect or a juvenile victim, and
for homicides involving an adult suspect or an adult victim. In general, approximately 60
percent of all Newark homicides were provided at least some coverage in the Newark
newspaper, but only about 2 percent appeared on the front page.5 On average, a homicide had
about two articles and 1,300 words written about it. Incident stories received about 502 words
and stories that include discussion of a policy issue had about 77 words.
A good starting point for our assessment of whether homicides involving juveniles are
presented differently in the media is an assessment of whether these incidents receive
significantly more coverage and space. Fifty-eight percent of homicides involving juvenile
suspects, 62 percent of homicides involving adult suspects, 62 percent of homicides involving
juvenile victims, and 59 percent of homicides involving adult victims were covered, and a
similar percentage of these homicides were presented on the front page. Although a somewhat
higher percentage of homicides involving juvenile victims were covered, there were no
significant differences comparing the homicide types (juvenile suspect v. adult suspect; juvenile
victim v. adult victim). However, homicides involving juvenile victims received significantly
more articles (p=.001), words (p=.001), specific incident words (p=.01), and policy words
(p=.001). For example, homicides involving adult victims received only modest coverage: 1.35
articles and 828 words. Rarely were these homicides included when reporters discuss policyrelated issues. In contrast, homicides involving juvenile victims received, on average, nearly 6
articles and 4,957 words. The results are not as dramatic when examining differences in
coverage for the adult and juvenile suspect cases, but juvenile suspect cases still receive
significantly more words (p=.05), articles (p=.05), and incident words (p=.05). Adult suspect
homicides receive about 1.6 articles, 1,034 words, 460 incident words, and 78 words in policy
stories. Juvenile suspect homicides receive nearly 4.8 articles, over 3,900 words, 1,309 specific
incident words, and 137 policy words.
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
98 / JCJPC 14(1), 2007
Table 2: Coverage and Salience Comparisons of Adult and Juvenile Suspects and Victims
%
% Front
Total
Total
Incident
Policy
N
Covered
Page
Words
Articles
Words
Words
All Cases
572
59
2
1303.55
1.86
502.88
77.52
All Suspect Cases
447
61
3
1520.17
2.14
601.00
88.27
Juvenile Victim
(18 or younger)
66
62
4
4957.54
5.75
1573.36
172.24
Adult Victim
505
59
2
828.58
1.35
363.98
65.30
Juvenile Suspect
(18 or younger)
74
58
3
3969.20
4.81
1309.33
137.5
Adult Suspect
373
62
3
1034.30
1.60
460.47
78.50
Media Coverage & Salience
Given the research questions posed, these analyses focus only on the 447 homicides in
the dataset where police have identified a suspect. Two challenges influenced how we
approached the statistical analyses. First, there were several variables that posed collinearity
problems. For example, total number of articles that mention the incident and total number of
words in these articles are correlated. Similarly, incident specific articles are correlated with
incident specific words, and policy articles are correlated with policy words. As a result, we
collapsed these six measures into three variables - rate of total coverage, rate of specific
coverage, and rate of policy coverage. Rate of total coverage was created by dividing total
words written about the incident by total articles written about the incident; rate of specific
coverage was created by dividing specific words written about the incident by specific number of
articles written about the incident; and policy rate was calculated by dividing total number of
policy words written about the incident by total policy articles that mention the incident.
Second, although the overall number of homicides is relatively large, there were only a
small number of homicides involving juvenile suspects. Consequently, our approach for the
analyses was to test the impacts of the super-predator variables first in each model. We then
eliminated those variables that were not statistically significant and tested the suspect, the victim,
and then the incident control variables. The final equations include the variables that achieved
statistical significance in the first stage of these analyses.
Media Coverage
Three logistic regression models were estimated (see Table 3) in order to test whether
juvenile incidents fitting the super-predator script are more likely to receive media coverage than
those that do not. The first and second models examine the variables associated with the media
coverage for all incidents where a suspect was identified by police (Model 1) and adult suspect
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
99 / JCJPC 14(1), 2007
incidents (Model 2). The purpose of these two models is to examine whether the variables that
influence their coverage in the Star-Ledger differ from those of juvenile incidents. The third
model examines the covariates of juvenile suspect homicides.
Model 1 (All Suspect) and Model 2 (Adult Suspect) are similar. Two super-predator
variables emerge significant in these models - suspect race and number of victims killed.
Contrary to our hypothesis that suspect race will not have an impact on the coverage of adult
incidents, the models indicate that this variable indeed has an effect. The models suggest that
non-black suspects are more likely to get more media coverage than black suspects. This finding
concurs with those of previous research (e.g., Boulahanis & Heltsley, 2004). Number of victims
killed has a positive effect in the model suggesting that as the number of victims increase so does
the amount of media coverage. This finding is not surprising since previous studies (e.g.,
Paulsen, 2003; Peelo et al., 2004; Sorenson et al., 1998) have also reported a similar pattern.
A very different model emerges for the juvenile homicide cases. Unlike the previous
models, gun, motive, suspect race, and victim age emerge as significant. Number of victims
killed was not included in this model due to lack of variation. Only three of the juvenile suspect
incidents involve multiple homicide victims, and all three cases received media coverage.
Contrary to our hypotheses, homicides with black suspects were significantly less likely to be
covered when compared to those with non-black suspects. The measures of offense heinousness
emerged as significant, and lend partial support to our super-predator hypotheses. The findings
suggest that juvenile suspect incidents carried out with a gun are significantly more likely to be
covered by the Star-Ledger than those that are not. Drug, interpersonal dispute, robbery, and
other motives have a negative effect in the model, indicating that when the reference category is
domestic homicide, these incidents are less likely to be reported. This finding may be due to the
fact that domestic homicides involving juvenile suspects are comprised of a mixture of
parricides, fratricides, and child abuse cases. Finally, one control variable, victim age, is
significant in the model indicating that as the age of the victim increases, the likelihood of
coverage increases. Similar to motive, this may be due to the media attention that parricides and
fratricides receive.
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
100 / JCJPC 14(1), 2007
Table 3: Media Coverage
All Suspect
Adult Suspect
Juvenile Suspect
(N = 447)
(N = 373)
(N = 74)
b
b
b
-.740*
1.487*
-.779**
1.349**
-2.898**
Super-Predator Variables
Suspect Age
Suspect Race (Black)
# Victims Killed
Weapon (Gun)
Motive
Drug/Gang
Interpersonal Dispute
Robbery
Other
2.441***
-3.402**
-4.508***
-2.846*
-2.680*
Control Variables
Suspect Gender (Male)
Suspect Illegal Scale
Victim Gender (Male)
Victim Race (Black)
Victim Age
Victim Illegal Scale
VOR
Friend/Acquaintance
Stranger
Incident Location (Inside)
Mode
Face-to-Face
Drive-by
Other
Constant
-.458
Model Chi-Square
14.937***
R-Square
.033
****p < .001, ***p < .01, **p < .05, *p < .10
.189
-.533
.075**
-.454
-.576
-.529
-.167
15.447**
.041
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
3.388**
25.050***
.287
Coverage Salience
Two types of statistical procedure are used to examine the salience of newspaper
coverage. For the juvenile suspect cases, ordinary least squares regression is used because
diagnostics indicated that there were no problems with outlier cases. However, several outlier
cases were present for the all incident analyses and the adult suspect analyses. This is a common
problem in media studies using multivariate statistics. Consequently, the regression equations
for all homicides and for the adult homicide cases were generated using robust regression—one
technique that corrects for the problems with outlier cases.
Table 4 presents the results examining the salience of all, adult, and juvenile suspect
homicides. The most consistent predictor of media salience is the victim illegal scale variable.
As victim scale score increases (i.e., involvement in drug, gang, other illegal activities, and
criminal record) the amount of coverage decreases. This variable is significant in five of the nine
models - the total coverage models and specific coverage models for all homicides; the total
coverage model and specific coverage for the adult homicides, and specific coverage model for
juvenile homicides. It is interesting that most of the other control and super-predator variables
are not statistically significant in almost all of the other equations.
The results provide only weak support for the influence of the super-predator
phenomenon on the media coverage of juvenile homicides. Interestingly, although age did not
have an influence on whether a case is covered by the Star-Ledger or not, when juvenile cases
are covered by the media age significantly predicts the amount of coverage the incident receives.
The models suggest that as suspect’s age increases, total coverage decreases. Thus, the media
give much more attention to homicides involving younger suspects. None of the other superpredator variables influenced coverage of the juvenile homicide cases, but two control variables,
victim race and victim illegal scale have an inverse relationship with the amount of total and
specific coverage the incidents receive.
Contrary to our hypotheses, the super-predator variables showed a stronger effect in the
all suspect and adult suspect models. Number of victims killed showed a significant effect in the
specific coverage model of all suspect cases and in the specific coverage model of adult cases.
As the number of victims killed increases so does the total and specific coverage. Robberies
were modestly significant in the specific coverage model of all cases and the specific coverage
model of adult cases showing that when robbery incidents are covered by the media they receive
significantly more specific coverage when compared to domestic homicides. In addition, other
motive was statistically significant in the all suspect specific coverage model and in the adult
suspect total coverage and specific coverage models. Like robberies these incidents received
significantly more attention compared to domestic homicides. One possible explanation of this
is that these incidents are comprised of a combination of vehicular homicides involving stolen
cars, witness tampering, and non typical cases of self-defense.
A handful of control variables were also statistically significant in the all and adult
suspect models. Suspect illegal involvement is significant in the policy coverage models of all
and adult suspect cases suggesting that incidents with suspects that do not engage in illegal
activities receive more policy coverage. Similarly, victim gender is significant in the policy
coverage model of all suspect cases, suggesting that incidents with female victims are more
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
102 / JCJPC 14(1), 2007
likely to receive policy coverage. Finally, friend/acquaintance homicides receive significantly
more policy words compared to the domestic homicide incidents.
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
Table 4: Media Salience
All Suspect (N = 447)
Total
coverage
Super-Predator Variables
Suspect Age
Suspect Race (Black)
# Victims Killed
Weapon (Gun)
Motive
Drug/Gang
Interpersonal Dispute
Robbery
Other
Specific
Coverage
Policy
Coverage
Adult Suspect (N = 373)
Total
coverage
1.0
53.7
Specific
Coverage
Policy
Coverage
.86
109.9***
Juvenile Suspect (N = 74)
Total
coverage
-79.4**
Specific
Coverage
-111.4****
114.4***
14.8
-1.9
98.2*
103.1**
81.7
44.3
47.0
156.7**
17.4
3.3
150.4**
132.3**
Control Variables
Suspect Gender (Male)
109.8
Suspect Illegal Scale
Victim Gender (Male)
Victim Race (Black)
-59.9
Victim Age
Victim Illegal Scale
-57.3***
-71.4****
VOR
Friend
Stranger
Incident Location (Inside)
Mode
Face-to-Face
Drive-by
Other
Constant
378.02****
398.1****
F
2.61**
7.97****
R2
****p < .001, ***p < .01, **p < .05, *p < .10
-14.2***
41.4***
-22.3****
17.0
-140.7**
-46.9**
-78.2****
-75.4***
48.9**
36.7
18.6
43.8
33.9
88.6****
3.65***
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
556.9****
2.11
323.7****
6.97****
107.23****
5.31****
1885.29***
5.11**
.09
2502.08****
14.56****
.54
Policy
Coverage
DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION
The focus of the present inquiry centered on answering whether the super-predator moral
panic, which led to significant changes in criminal justice policy and public opinion in the late
1990s, has an impact on the media’s portrayal of youth homicide. We hypothesized that youth
homicides that match the super-predator script are more likely to be presented in the press and
receive more coverage space compared to other juvenile homicide types. We also expected that
homicides involving juveniles are presented differently when compared to homicides involving
adult suspects.
Overall, our findings suggest that a similar percentage of adult and juvenile suspect
homicides were covered by the media. However, when juvenile homicides are covered, they
receive more attention than those involving adults. To our surprise, the hypotheses testing
whether juvenile homicides that fit the super-predator script receive more media attention than
those that do not only yielded moderate support. Only two of our four hypotheses were
supported by the analyses. First, contrary to our expectations, juvenile age was not a significant
covariate of whether the homicide was covered in the Star-Ledger. This variable was only
significant in explaining the amount of coverage the incident receives by the media when they
are reported. When juvenile cases are covered by the media, the amount of coverage the
homicide receives increases as the age of the suspect decreases. In terms of homicide
heinousness, we found that juvenile incidents that have multiple victims are always covered in
the Star-Ledger. Incidents involving rare motives that are generally regarded as taboos in our
society are also more likely to receive media coverage. Juvenile homicides involving the murder
of their parents, siblings, and their children (i.e., child abuse) are more likely to receive coverage
than any other motive. This finding goes hand and hand with previous studies that suggest that
the least frequent homicides are the ones that get the most attention. As the descriptive findings
show, domestic homicides are the least likely murder to occur when a juvenile is the suspect.
Homicides committed with firearms are also more likely to be covered by the media than those
involving other weapons. Our last two hypotheses did not receive any support in the analyses.
Contrary to our expectations, juvenile gang and drug homicides did not receive more media
coverage than those involving other motives. Instead, as it was mentioned previously they
received less coverage than domestic murders. Additionally, murders involving non-black
suspects were also more likely to receive media attention than those involving blacks. This
finding may be due to the rarity of non-black suspects in Newark. The majority of suspects in
the city (approximately 85 percent) are black.
The analyses also showed that there are some differences and similarities in the
covariates of media salience and coverage of adult and juvenile incidents. For example, one of
the similarities that emerges between these two homicide types is that non-black suspect
incidents are more likely to be reported by the press. Cases where the victim was involved in
illegal/deviant lifestyles also receive less attention when covered. Additionally, the least
common murders in both types of homicides were the most covered by the media. Conversely,
robbery and other motives receive more media attention in adult and overall homicide incidents,
but not in those involving juveniles. Suspect illegal scale, victim gender, and VOR are also
important covariates of media coverage of overall and adult homicides, but not of juvenile
incidents.
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
105 / JCJPC 14(1), 2007
Taken as a whole our findings concur with previous studies that suggest that media
portrayal of homicide is skewed towards the rarest events (e.g., Chermak, 1995a; Davis, 1952;
Ericson, Baranek & Chan, 1991; Graber, 1980; Jerrin & Fields, 1994). Domestic incidents
involving juveniles, multiple victim murders, robberies, and those involving victims who were
not involved in illegal or deviant activities are more likely to receive media attention even
though the reality of homicides in Newark differs. Newark homicides are typically single victim
incidents that occur as a result of interpersonal disputes between people who knew each other,
and had some kind of involvement in deviant or illegal activities. This is problematic because if
the media emphasize uncommon crimes, or unique elements of crime events, then the public may
be left with a distorted picture of the crime problem where they live and elsewhere. Moreover,
media images of crime may influence how the public live their lives, as well as their preferences
for crime policy. For instance, the focus on unusual or particularly serious types of crime may
increase the publics’ fear of crime (Chiricos, Eschholtz, & Gertz, 1997; Skogan and Maxfield.
1981) and encourage the public to accept punitive crime policies (Roberts, 2004; Tonry, 2004),
such as the policies that emerged in the late 1990s as a response to the super-predator myth.
In conclusion, this inquiry joins only a handful of studies that focus on the media’s
portrayal of juvenile homicides. Consequently, there are still various research questions that
need further exploration in this area. First, the methods employed here should be replicated in
other locales in order to determine how generalizable the findings are to other similar and
dissimilar municipalities. Additionally, future studies should also take into account
organizational factors in media outlets (e.g., number of reporters available) in order to
understand if they affect the decisions of whether to cover a particular incident. Spatial factors
would also be interesting to consider. Recent studies have shown that location of homicide
incidents also influence the decision to cover the case by the press. Therefore, it would be
interesting to test whether juvenile homicides that occur in some geographic locations (e.g.,
neighborhoods) receive more or varying types of coverage. Finally, a worthwhile research
endeavor could involve examining how the media’s portrayal of youth homicide impacts the
perception of the consumers of this information, and in turn how those perceptions influence the
development of criminal justice policy.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Newark Police Department for granting us access to
their homicide data. We also would like to thank the Police Institute at Rutgers-Newark for
facilitating the homicide data collection, and Eric Chapman II for helping in the collection of the
media data.
NOTES
1
The article does not make clear how newspaper articles were collected. It appears that the
articles were collected independently, and then linked to the homicide data. Instead of searching
by name of the suspect and victims in the newspaper database, these researchers searched
broadly using search terms like, “juvenile homicide” and “juvenile murder.”
© 2007 School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany
Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 14 (1), 2007.
106 / JCJPC 14(1), 2007
2
The information used to code the motive comes from a variety of sources such as witness
testimonies, evidence obtained from the scene of the crime by police investigators, and
confessions obtained from suspects. In cases where more than one motive may be gleaned, the
initial or primary reason for the act was coded. That is, the reason that caused the offender to act
against the victim. For example, a case where a suspect kills a victim during a drug robbery for
the purpose of monetary gain by reselling the drugs or supplying a drug habit was classified as a
drug case because the primary reason that the suspect acted against the victim was to obtain
drugs. Another example can be seen in domestic cases. In particular, a murder resulting from a
dispute between two individuals (e.g., current intimate partner and an ex-intimate partner) over
an infidelity was coded as a domestic incident and not an interpersonal dispute because the
suspect initially acted in relation to a domestic related matter.
3
Homicides in this category include: 27 vehicular homicides, 19 self-defense, 10 accidents, 9
witness tampering, 2 mental illness triggered cases, and 1 that occurred because the suspect was
angry and needed to vent his frustration. All of the vehicular homicides involved stolen vehicles
or people intoxicated with alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident.
4
The other category includes: 29 cases in which a motor vehicle was used as the weapon (27 of
these are vehicular homicides), 21 shoot-outs, and 1 incident where fire was used.
5
Due to the scarcity of homicides covered in the front page of the Star-Ledger, a multivariate
analysis of the covariates of this variable was not feasible.
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