PATTERNS OF DEVIANCE IN CRIME NEWS

Existing research has failed to develop a satisfactory theoretical exp lanation for journalists' decisions about which crimes to highlight an d which to ignore. We proposed that four forms of deviance (normative deviance, statistical deviance status deviance, and cultural deviance) account for much of the variation in decisions about crime news. To t est deviance-based explanations for crime news, we conducted a compreh ensive investigation of Milwaukee, WI, homicides and how two newspaper s covered them. We used content analysis and interviews with journalis ts. The results showed that the newsworthiness of a homicide is enhanc ed when Whites are suspects or victims, males are suspects, and victim s are females, children, or senior citizens. We concluded that status deviance and cultural deviance are important components of newsworthin ess and that statistical deviance (unusualness) may be much less impor tant than commonly assumed.