Missing white woman syndrome

Missing white woman syndrome (MWWS), also known as missing pretty girl syndrome, is a term used to describe alleged disproportionate media coverage of white female victims. The essential element of the syndrome being that the victim's gender, race, relative attractiveness and age matching the "damsel in distress" stereotype is alleged to result in positive discrimination in terms of media coverage and public interest in her case.

National Missing Persons Helpline report

The National Missing Persons Helpline has reported on the degree to which the news media devote attention to vulnerable missing persons, noting that despite its efforts to generate news coverage for all missing persons cases, the news media themselves will only cover those cases that fit their publications. The NMPH also notes that those cases that generate the greatest publicity are those where the missing person is white, middle-class, female, and from a stable two-parent family, and where there is no indication that the missing person ran away from home. Two cases are given as contrasting examples: the murder of Hannah Williams and the murder of Danielle Jones. Despite the fact that in both cases the victim was a female teenager, there was far more coverage of Jones than of Williams. It is suggested that this is because Jones fulfils the criteria of being a model middle-class schoolgirl, whilst Williams, a girl with a working-class background whose parents were estranged and who had a stud in her nose, did not.

Jewkes agrees, observing that the likelihood of the UK national news media lending their weight to the search for a missing person, whether foul play is suspected or not, depends from a collection of interrelated factors: whether the person is young, female, white, middle-class, and conventionally attractive. A working-class boy or an older woman is less likely to receive news coverage. Even in cases where foul play is suspected, if the victim is male, is of Afro-Carribean or Asian descent, is a prostitute, has drug problems, is a persistent runaway, or has been in foster care, reporters decide that their readership is less likely to relate to or empathize with the victim, and reduce their coverage accordingly. This disparity in UK news reporting is an instance of cultural proximity bias.

In addition to the cases noted by the NMPH, Jewkes cites the murder of Amanda Dowler, the murder of Sarah Payne, and the Soham murders as examples of "eminently newsworthy stories" about attractive girls from "respectable" middle-class families and backgrounds whose parents used the news media effectively. She notes that, in contrast, even the high-profile murder of Damilola Taylor initially received little news coverage, with reports initially concentrating upon street crime levels and community policing, and the victim largely being ignored. Even when the victim's father flew into the U.K. from Nigeria to make press statements and television appearances, the level of public outcry did not reach (in Jewkes' words) "the near hysterical outpourings of anger and sadness that accompanied the deaths of Sarah, Milly, Holly, and Jessica".

Possible instances of MWWS

The following missing person cases involving white women have received media coverage consistent with Missing White Woman Syndrome:

• Polly Klaas (October 1, 1993) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted renewal of Three strikes law
• JonBenét Ramsey (December 25, 1996) - found murdered; cold case until August 2006 arrest of suspect. Suspect was later exonerated and murder is now considered a cold case again.
• Chandra Levy (May 1, 2001) - missing for several months; decomposed body found and foul play/murder is suspected; cold case
• Elizabeth Smart (June 5, 2002) - found alive; kidnapper found incompetent to stand trial
• Laci Peterson (December 23, 2002) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Laci and Conner's law
• Dru Sjodin (November 22, 2003) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Dru's law
• Audrey Seiler (March 28, 2004) - alleged kidnapping in Madison, Wisconsin; Seiler admitted faking the kidnapping several days later
• Brooke Wilberger (May 24, 2004) - still missing, presumed dead; man arrested for murder
• Lori Hacking (July 19, 2004) - found murdered; murderer convicted; prompted Lori's law proposal
• Jennifer Wilbanks (April 26, 2005) - "The Runaway Bride." Went out for a jog and did not return; there was much media speculation that her fiancé had killed her. Found she had staged her own kidnapping when she was discovered alive several days later and admitted what she had done.
• Natalee Holloway (May 30, 2005) - still missing and presumed dead, last known location in Aruba, investigation closed [1]. Has become especially controversial because of the great duration of media coverage.
• Taylor Behl (September 5, 2005) - 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman disappeared and was later found dead; murderer convicted

Examples of possible bias in missing person cases

Critics contend the following examples of missing people received disproportionately little coverage compared to MWWS cases:

• Shelton Sanders (June 19, 2001) - 25-year-old male, black college student. According to MSNBC, "Sanders’ case received scant notice outside his small hometown of Rembert, S.C., even though he was a high-achieving student at the University of South Carolina who worked as a technician in the Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science, and despite his father’s prominence as a county magistrate. Meanwhile, the disappearance of a white, female USC student with a similar academic record, Dail Dinwiddie, has continued to receive national attention more than a dozen years after she vanished in 1992." Although no body has yet been found, police have gathered more evidence and have charged a suspect in his murder.
• Tamika Huston (May 27, 2004) - a 24-year-old black woman who went missing from her Spartanburg, South Carolina home. Described as "bright and beautiful," Huston's remains were found more than a year later in a nearby town, and her ex-boyfriend was convicted of her murder in 2006. Following her disappearance, Huston's relatives tried in vain to interest the national news media in her case; what little national coverage it received often focused on the relative lack of coverage Huston's story was receiving.
• 100+ missing women in Vancouver, Edmonton, and environs. Critics charge that the authorities have been slow in investigating because many of the missing are Aboriginal women, drug users, or sex-trade workers. Media attention has grown recently due to the investigation and trial of Robert Pickton, charged with the murders of 27 women and believed to be responsible for more.

MWWS in Iraq War

Critics of MWWS also point to the example of the media coverage of Jessica Lynch versus the coverage of Shoshana Johnson. Both were captured in the same ambush during the Iraq War on March 23, 2003, but Johnson received very little media attention in comparison to Lynch. Media critics suggest that Lynch's story was promoted because Lynch was a more palatable and identifiable figure to promote: a young, blonde white woman. Johnson, on the other hand, was a large black woman who was a single mother.

Criticisms of MWWS in the Media

• On July 4 2005, the collaborative website Kuro5hin posted an editorial highly critical of the media coverage of the investigation into the Natalee Holloway disappearance. The editorial accused the mass media of subtle racism for covering the Holloway case but ignoring the case of Reyna Alvarado-Carrera, a missing Hispanic girl. It was also critical of the great expense and time devoted to the search for a single missing person despite many other issues of concern the media could have covered instead. The openly combative and harsh tone of the editorial sparked hundreds of angry responses, including legal threats directed towards Kuro5hin's staff.
• An episode of the television police procedural Without a Trace in 2006 had a "very special episode" devoted to the disparity between the coverage of a "missing white woman" and a missing black man, both high school students.
• In the final scene of the television police procedural CSI: Miami, season 2 episode 4, "Death Grip", Lt Horatio Caine hands a list of missing persons to a reporter, as the CSI team is convinced that the abduction and death of a Hispanic girl went under-reported because of the girl's ethnicity.

Parodies of MWWS

• In 2004, American television's The Daily Show released America: The Book, which among other political topics parodied MWWS by offering a fictional formula regarding media coverage of a kidnapping. The equation went:

${\rm {Minutes\,of\,Coverage}}={\rm {Family\,Income}}\times \left({\tfrac {\rm {Abductee\,Cuteness}}{\rm {Skin\,Color}}}\right)^{2}+$

${\rm {Length\,of\,Abduction}}\times {\rm {Media\,Savvy\,of\,Grieving\,Parents}}^{3}$

• In 1997, The Onion published an article titled "Ugly Girl Killed" lampooning the public's lack of concern in cases where the victim happens to be less than pretty. It also parodied the JonBenét Ramsey investigation by juxtaposing the death with a child beauty pageant. The Onion also published in 2002 "Missing White Girl Drives Missing Black Girl From Headlines."
• In the film Scary Movie, Cindy Campbell, who is being stalked by the killer, sends an email to police with the message "White woman in trouble!". Her house is immediately surrounded by several police cars.

See also

• Deviancy amplification spiral
• Damsel in distress

External links

• Missing-girl cases differed - "Two 17 year old girls from Richmond, Va. One white, one black. Police deny bias."
• Met chief accuses media of racism - Head of London's police says murders in minority communities appear "not to interest the mainstream media"
• Press should not feel too smug after Blair's blunder – Journalist comments on Police Commissioner’s remarks
• New Statesman - Prof. of Journalism on male/female contrast
• Washington Post, Friday, June 10, 2005 - Eugene Robinson, '(white) women we love'