Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 106 | Issue 2 Article 4 Spring 2016 Missing White Woman Syndrome: An Empirical Analysis of Race and Gender Disparities in Online News Coverage of Missing Persons Zach Sommers Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Recommended Citation Zach Sommers, Missing White Woman Syndrome: An Empirical Analysis of Race and Gender Disparities in Online News Coverage of Missing Persons, 106 J. Crim. L. & Criminology (2016). https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol106/iss2/4 This Criminology is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. 4. SOMMERS 3/1/2017 5:55 PM 0091-4169/16/9106-0275 THE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW & CRIMINOLOGY Vol. 106, No. 2 Copyright © 2017 by Zach Sommers Printed in U.S.A. MISSING WHITE WOMAN SYNDROME: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF RACE AND GENDER DISPARITIES IN ONLINE NEWS COVERAGE OF MISSING PERSONS ZACH SOMMERS* At any given time, there are tens of thousands of Americans categorized as “missing” by law enforcement. However, only a fraction of those individuals receive news coverage, leading some commentators to hypothesize that missing persons with certain characteristics are more likely to garner media attention than others: namely, white women and girls. Empirical investigation into this theory is surprisingly sparse and also limited in multiple ways. This paper aims to fill those voids by empirically exploring whether that inequality, dubbed “Missing White Woman Syndrome,” truly exists. Based on a multi-method approach using Federal Bureau of Investigation data and data culled from four major online news sources, the results indicate not only that there are, in fact, race and gender disparities consistent with Missing White Woman Syndrome, but that they manifest themselves in two distinct ways: (1) disparities in the threshold issue of whether a missing person receives any media attention at all; and (2) disparities in coverage intensity among the missing persons that do appear in the news. The paper concludes with an examination of the theoretical and practical implications of the results and a discussion of possible future directions for research. * Law and Science Fellow, Northwestern University. Many thanks to Quincy Stewart and Shari Diamond for your patience and words of wisdom throughout the writing process. Thank you as well to Lincoln Quillian, Heather Schoenfeld, Ben Sommers, Brittany Friedman, Christopher Robertson, and Ari Tolman for your sage advice on earlier drafts. 275 4. SOMMERS 3/1/2017 5:55 PM 276 SOMMERS [Vol. 106 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 277 I. PRIOR LITERATURE: DEMOGRAPHIC DISPARITIES IN MEDIA COVERAGE OF ABDUCTION AND CRIME MORE GENERALLY ......... 281 A. Race in Media Coverage of Crime: The Benefits of Whiteness ................................................................................ 282 B. Gender and Intersectionality in Media Coverage of Crime ....... 284 C. Theories Explaining Race and Gender Disparities in News Coverage of Crime .................................................................. 286 II. DATA AND METHODOLOGY .................................................................. 290 A. Stage I Analysis: Who Garners Missing Person Media Coverage? ............................................................................... 291 1. Subset of Missing Persons Covered by Internet News Sites ................................................................................... 291 2. Overall Missing Person Data: FBI Missing Person File ..... 294 3. Comparative Analysis of Missing Individuals in the Media and Overall Missing Person Population ................. 295 B. Stage II Analysis: Do Certain Groups Receive a Higher Intensity of News Coverage? .................................................. 296 III. RESULTS .............................................................................................. 297 A. Stage I: Race Across Individuals ............................................... 297 B. Stage I: Gender Across Individuals ........................................... 299 C. Stage I: The Intersection of Race and Gender Across Individuals .............................................................................. 300 D. Stage II: Race And Coverage Intensity ..................................... 301 E. Stage II: Gender and Coverage Intensity ................................... 303 F. Stage II: The Intersection of Race and Gender and Coverage Intensity .................................................................................. 304 G. Stage II: Regression Analysis and Coverage Intensity .............. 305 IV. DISCUSSION ......................................................................................... 309 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 312 4. SOMMERS 3/1/2017 5:55 PM 2016] MISSING WHITE WOMAN SYNDROME 277 INTRODUCTION On Sunday morning, November 3, 2013, Aaron Hubbard went to church.1 It was the last time his family would see him alive.2 A few hours later, Chicago police received a report that Hubbard had been kidnapped.3 According to witnesses, Hubbard, a seventeen-year-old high school student, was attacked and thrown into a truck that quickly drove away.4 After eight days of searching, police found Hubbard’s decomposing body in an abandoned building not far from where the abduction had occurred.5 A handful of short news stories documented the story in Hubbard’s hometown of Chicago,6 but the case received no coverage on a regional or national scale. Three months earlier, in August, California native Hannah Anderson disappeared, triggering a massive manhunt for her and her alleged kidnapper.7 The incident sparked a media firestorm, with news agencies across the country covering the sixteen-year-old’s disappearance.8 Local 1 Erica Demarest, Three Teenage Friends Found Slain Within 10 Days in West Englewood, DNAINFO (Nov. 13, 2013, 6:27 AM), http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/ 20131113/west-englewood/three-teenage-friends-murdered-within-10-days-west-englewood. 2 Id. 3 Id.; Carlos Sadovi & Jeremy Gorner, Teen Kidnapped Week Ago Found Shot to Death, CHI. TRIB. (Nov. 12, 2013), http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-11-12/news/chi-man- shot-in-the-uptown-neighborhood-20131111_1_west-englewood-south-winchester-avenue- sedevic. 4 Demarest, supra note 1. 5 Id. 6 See, e.g., id.; Michael Lansu, Authorities: Friends Aaron Hubbard, Corderro Brown Found Shot Dead in Separate West Englewood Stairwells, CHI. SUN-TIMES (Nov. 12, 2013), http://homicides.suntimes.com/2013/11/12/aaron-hubbard-corderro-brown-found-shot-dead- in-separate-west-englewood-stairwells; Sadovi & Gorner, supra note 3. 7 See Miguel Marquez & Michael Martinez, Oregon Police Issue Amber Alert for Missing California Children, CNN (Aug. 8, 2013, 6:43 AM), http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/ 07/justice/california-amber-alert. 8 See, e.g., Ethan Anderson, Hannah Anderson Missing: San Diego Police Search for Children, HUFFINGTON POST (Aug. 6, 2013, 12:08 PM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ 2013/08/06/ethan-hannah-anderson-missing_n_3713764.html [hereinafter Anderson]; Alyssa Newcomb & Alexis Shaw, California Missing Kids’ Dad Begs Suspect to ‘Let My Daughter Go,’ ABC NEWS (Aug. 7, 2013), http://abcnews.go.com/US/california-missing-kids-dad- begs-suspect-daughter/story?id=19894929; Tony Perry & Hailey Branson-Potts, Kidnapped Girl ‘In Grave Danger’: Amber Alert Continues, L.A. TIMES (Aug. 7, 2013), http://articles. latimes.com/2013/aug/07/local/la-me-ln-kidnapped-girl-in-grave-danger-amber-alert- continues-20130807; Elliot Spagat, Dad of Missing Kids Asks Suspect To Turn Self In, YAHOO! NEWS (Aug. 6, 2013), http://news.yahoo.com/dad-missing-kids-asks-suspect-turn- self-014933614.html; Kristy Wolski, Vigil Held for Missing Teen Hannah Anderson, FOX 5 SAN DIEGO (Aug. 7, 2013, 12:35 AM), http://fox5sandiego.com/2013/08/07/vigil-held-for- missing-teen-hannah-anderson. 4. SOMMERS 3/1/2017 5:55 PM 278 SOMMERS [Vol. 106 and national media outlets tracked the investigation,9 with CNN.com alone publishing more than twenty print stories and over thirty video segments on the developments.10 One week later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found Anderson alive and killed her captor.11 Much about the two cases was similar. The incidents, which occurred within a few months of each other, both involved abducted teenagers who were located about one week later. Why, then, was there such a huge disparity in the amount of media attention paid to the two cases? Perhaps it was because a suspect was identified early on in Anderson’s case,12 whereas the initial investigation into Hubbard’s disappearance was less successful.13 Or, alternatively, maybe geography played a role. National or regional news agencies might deem an abduction in Chicago as less newsworthy than one in southern California. But what if the disparity resulted from the simple fact that at the time, Hubbard was a young black man and Anderson was a young white woman? Many bloggers and commenters have argued that there are widespread and systematic race and gender disparities in the amount of media coverage dedicated to abduction or missing persons cases like those of Hubbard