When Covering Crime, an Underreported Piece of the Puzzle

Carr39s recent comments echo similar statements made by certain political and law enforcement figures who have recently stated their intent to focus on dismantling criminal street gangs which are widely believed to be responsible for the majority of violent crimeamp160in many jurisdictions All the while however in the view of one senior member of law enforcement who has investigated gang crimes for over two decades and spoke to me for this piece on the condition of anonymity many statements to this effect by political figures are too infrequently backed up by concrete action or by full law enforcement buyinEstimates vary but one January 2009 Department of Justice report estimated that approximately 80 of all crime in many communities is gangrelated Another crystallizing statistic brought into focus by prosecutor and gang expert Mike Carlson is that there are more members of the Bloods alone than there were active members of ISIS during the terrorist group39s peak A 2011 FBI report suggested that there were 14 million active gang members in the United States for context that is roughly the entire population of the state of Hawaii Many in law enforcement however believe that the actual number is close to double the reported figure But from watching news reporting including reports specifically on crime one likely would not realize the extent to which gangs are present in American societyAs Carr himself noted to me some political figures are hesitant to acknowledge the extent of the gang issue in their states and cities Officeholders at times fear drawing attention to the degree of the problem concerned that doing so might prevent wouldbe business owners from opening locations in their communities or prospective residents from moving to the area As such this presents an opportunity for good journalists particularly investigative ones to better explore this issue Although in recent years some critics have often been correct to notice the striking similarity between the talking points of many journalists and those of quotthe officialsquot they are supposed to be covering and probing one ought not forget that journalism when practiced well brings to light facts that certain government actors would prefer be kept quietFurthermore when one of the most persistent issues when it comes to understanding the gang problem is a lack of complete statistics and a widespread belief that law enforcement habitually fails to fully document the gang component when investigating crimes intrepid news outlets might begin the work of compiling and compellingly presenting such data The Washington Post for instance has succeeded in curating a userfriendly database on police shootings that is widely cited by other media outlets Admittedly however a similar project on gangrelated incidents would be more difficult to successfully execute given that the presence of the gang component in a given incident can require more detective work than the more cutanddriedamp160question as to whether a police officer was involvedThe paradox of sorts is that in recent years there has been a proliferation of criminal justicerelated news projects yet certain topics still continue to be neglected The Marshall Project which was founded in 2014 with former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller as its first editorinchief is arguably the most famous such undertaking But many of these projects both leftleaning and rightleaning continue to trot out the same old arguments while vital issues from gangs on down are overlooked Has sufficient coverage been devoted to analyzing the results of the First Step Act now that twoandhalf years have passed since it was signed into law Similarly have the potential financial motives that may have contributed to its passage been adequately explored Is the press seeking to bring into focus the reality that in certain municipalities less than 50 of homicides are ever solvedAs some readers of this column may recall the October 28 2019 installment of News on the Record was a piece entitled quotMedia39s UnderCoverage of Diseasequot in which I outlined how the press has tended to devote insufficient coverage to the types of ailments that cause the majority of deaths Although the nearconstant coverage of the pandemic and the growing popularization of certain projects like Stat News have arguably changed the calculus somewhat certain medical news tends to be habitually undercovered As such it ought not be surprising that a similar phenomenon of systemic undercoverage would take place when it comes to the news media39s presentation of crimeBetter media attention to the gang issue would help the public to understand how gangs of today differ from organized crime of decades past such as the Italian mafia in that modern street gangs more liberally use violence are less concerned with pure moneymaking and have fewer qualms about harming innocent bystanders Further commentators and reporters would be wellserved to investigate the viability of a proposed federal antigang law which proponents believe would have a similar effect on these gangs as RICO laws have had on the mafia And more attention could be paid to academic findings which make clear that targeted arrests of known gang members can result in significant downticks in crime Today at a time when so much media attention is devoted to both crime and proposals to change the criminal justice system it is as important as ever that the full story always be toldClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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When Covering Crime, an Underreported Piece of the Puzzle

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Erich J. Prince

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