Secondary Victimization of Children by the Media: An Analysis of Perceptions of Victims and Journalists

Children who are the most sensitive and vulnerable section of society provide for best human-interest stories and media tends to capitalize on this. Often stories pertaining to children involved in crime are hyped and sensationalised by the media resulting in their re-victimisation. Secondary victimisation(2) of children occurs both at the stage of newsgathering and through the publication of photographs, and other personally identifiable information. The journalists covering crime have a challenging task of striking the right balance between the "public's right to know" and "responsibility of bringing the issue to light" versus "the individuals right to privacy." It is a matter of debate whether such victimization that leads to further trauma for the child victims is caused by the journalists due to their negligence or lack of training. The paper discusses secondary victimisation as a concept, how and why children are victimized by the way the news is gathered and presented and the impact it has on them. Children as victims and as offenders have been covered since both are circumstantially very different from each other.