The type of crime also affected the amount of attention the victims received. Sexual assault crimes often leave viewers with less information about the victim's race, age or location of the crime than other crimes such as homicide.
Occasionally there is an exception and victims do receive some attention. (Kennedy and Sacco, page 29, 1998) In 1985 a group of passengers aboard a TWA jetliner from Athens, Greece was commandeered by Shiite Muslim gunmen. A member of the U.S. Navy was beaten and killed. The Shiite Muslim hijackers then threw his body out of the plane. This victim became a nationwide hero because of the media attention.
Victims are often treated as outsiders (Kennedy and Sacco, page 32, 1998) by both the police and media. The police will often ignore the request of the victim when prosecuting a criminal. The media can also abuse their relationship with the victim. Victim advocate groups have started to try and help these victims. They believe the abuse from the media can also be considered a form of victimization. (Kennedy and Sacco, page 34, 1998) Some forms of mistreatment include: publicizing victimizations before prior notification of the victim's families, printing names and addresses where offenders can find them, using inaccurate terms to describe and sensationalize the event and even interfering with police investigations.
Crime on television and in the movies is not new. It has always been one of the most popular genres. The problem for the victim's rights movement is that most movies or television series portray the criminal as the star. The offender has a quality, which makes the viewer feel sympathetic for him. They often make the victim appear deserving of their punishment "more generally, victimization in traditional crime films often involves harm done to secondary characters who are really only of minor importance" (Kennedy and Sacco, page 37, 1998). Crossing Jordan tends to follow this format.
