Missing white woman syndrome
Missing white woman syndrome is a term used by some social scientists, as well as media commentators, to denote perceived disproportionate media coverage, especially on television, of missing-person cases toward white women and girls as compared to cases involving male subjects or women of color. Supporters of the phenomenon posit that it encompasses supposed disproportionate media attention to female subjects who are young, attractive, white, and upper middle class. Although the term was coined in the context of missing-person cases, it is sometimes used of coverage of other violent crimes. The phenomenon has been highlighted in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and other predominantly white countries, as well as South Africa.
Despite the popularity of the term "missing white woman syndrome", there have been few empirical studies examining the subject. A 2016 study found that black missing persons received a disproportionately low share of news coverage when compared to their rate of missingness. This study also found that once a missing persons case appeared in the news, white girls' and women's cases received more intense coverage than cases involving missing persons of other demographics. In addition, in a later 2019 study, gender was a significant factor in media coverage of missing person cases. This study found that female victims receive more coverage overall, and national and out-of-state attention is even more skewed towards representing women. The 2019 study also found missing person cases involving White people received more media attention than those involving Black people; however, the authors also reported that non-black women of color are just as over-represented as white women in news coverage, suggesting that the misnomer of "missing white woman syndrome" is rather a function of the under-representation of black women in media cases. Analysis has also found that missing women are twelve times more likely than missing men to receive attention in Louisiana, despite men and women going missing at similar rates nationally.
The phenomenon has led to a number of tough-on-crime measures, mainly on the political right, that were named for white women who disappeared and were subsequently found harmed. In addition to race and class, factors such as supposed attractiveness, body size, and youthfulness have been identified as unfair criteria in the determination of newsworthiness in coverage of missing women. News coverage of missing black women was more likely to focus on the victim's problems, such as abusive boyfriends, criminal history, or drug addiction, while coverage of white women often tended to focus on their roles as mothers, daughters, students, and contributors to their communities.
Origins and criticism
American news anchor Gwen Ifill is credited with originating the phrase at the UNITY: Journalists of Color journalism conference in 2004. At the conference, she said: "I call it the missing white woman search syndrome. If there is a missing white woman we're going to cover that every day." Charlton McIlwain defined the syndrome as "white women occupying a privileged role as violent crime victims in news media reporting", and posited that missing white woman syndrome functions as a type of racial hierarchy in the cultural imagery of the U.S. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva categorized the racial component of missing white woman syndrome as a "form of racial grammar, through which white supremacy is normalized by implicit, or even invisible standards".Studies, reports and analyses
United States
In 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article detailing the disparity between the coverage of the Laci Peterson case, and that of Evelyn Hernandez, a Hispanic woman – both of whom disappeared in 2002. A report that aired on CNN in 2006 noted the differences in the level of media coverage given to missing white women, when compared to the level of coverage given to LaToyia Figueroa, a pregnant black Hispanic woman. Figueroa disappeared in Philadelphia in 2005, the same year Holloway disappeared. A 2010 study of news coverage of missing children found that black missing children cases were significantly underrepresented, when compared to national statistics. Missing black girls were significantly underrepresented in national news reporting. The coverage of death cases for black boys was significantly greater than expected. Coverage of non-black female kidnapping cases was greater than expected. A subsequent study found that children from minority groups, especially black children, were more likely to remain missing for longer periods of time.A 2013 study that addressed media coverage of missing children, focusing on sex, but not race, found that "the results revealed that gender and age play only a minor role in deciding which abduction incidents are covered by newspapers, as well as the extent to which they are reported on. Specifically, newspapers dedicated more words to female victims than male victims, and reported more on younger children than older children when they were the victim of a nonfamily abduction." In 2015, a report was published that re-examined the results from Min and Feaster's 2010 study about media coverage of missing children and confirmed that the media coverage of white missing persons was disproportionate compared to non-white people, but found that the coverage of women was not as biased as the 2010 study concluded.
In 2016, Zach Sommers, a sociologist at Northwestern University, published a study explaining that while there is a sizable body of research that shows that white people are more likely than people of color to appear in news coverage as victims of violent crime, there is relatively little when it comes to missing persons cases. Sommers cross-referenced the missing persons coverage of four national and regional media outlets against the FBI's missing persons database and found that black people were disproportionately less likely to appear in the news when compared to their rates of missingness; he also found that among those missing persons who appeared in the news, the coverage was much more intense for white women and girls than other demographic groups.
Professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva theorised that the subtle standard of placing a premium on white lives in the news helps to maintain and reinforce a racial hierarchy with white people at the top. For example, black women are perceived as members of both a marginalized racial group and a marginalized sex group. Crucially, though, black women have an "intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism". In other words, like white women, black women are subject to sexism, but the form of that sexism differs for black women because of the compounding effects of racial discrimination, with missing white woman syndrome argued to be a pertinent manifestation of this social phenomenon. Some sociologists have argued that the tone of media coverage for black female victims differs markedly from coverage of white female victims in that the former are more likely to be blamed for purportedly putting themselves in harm's way, either knowingly or unknowingly. Victim blaming in this context reinforces the notion that black female victims are not only less innocent, but also less worthy of rescue relative to white women. Other observers note the lack of publicity given to black female victims of police brutality in news coverage, attributing the silence to a tradition of "sexism and patriarchy" in American society.
Kym Pasqualini, president of the National Center for Missing Adults, observed that media outlets tend to focus on "damsels in distress"—typically, affluent young white women and teenagers. In a 2016 Esquire article about the disappearance of Tiffany Whitton, journalist Tom Junod observed that white women of lower social status, such as Whitton, a 26-year-old unemployed drug addict who was on parole, do not get much media attention, as "media outlets are ruthlessly selective, and they tend to prefer women who are white, pretty, and, above all, innocent". Her mother stated that producers of shows like Nancy Grace told her they weren't interested in her daughter's case. Dr. Cory L. Armstrong wrote in The Washington Post: "The pattern of choosing only young, white, middle-class women for the full damsel treatment says a lot about a nation that likes to believe it has consigned race and class to irrelevance."
In 2017, a research paper from the University of South Florida studied media coverage and found "disparities in coverage were seen based on race and age. In addition, the narratives of the reports were framed as cautionary tales, and victims were seen as active participants in their disappearance." According to a 2019 study, missing person cases involving both white women and white men received more media attention than those involving black women and men. The authors reported that non-black women of color were just as over-represented as white women in news coverage of missing persons, suggesting that "missing white woman syndrome" is mainly a function of the under-representation of black women in media cases.
Between 2007 and 2020, the National Crime Information Center database maintained by the Criminal Justice Information Services Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation saw an annual average of 664,776 missing person files entered into its database. In its 2020 compilation of NCIC missing and unidentified person files, the FBI found that of the missing person files for whom the person's race and sex were known, 321,830 were White or Hispanic, 182,529 were black, 10,776 were Asian, and 9,571 were Native American, while 264,760 were male, 159,029 were white or Hispanic women, and the only racial category with [Missing and murdered First Nations in Canada|Indigenous women|more female files than male was Native Americans]. For the 80,442 active missing person files at end-of-year, 48,710 were white or Hispanic, 28,201 were black, 2,035 were Asian, and 1,496 were Native American, while 44,048 were male and 20,990 were white or Hispanic women.
In comparison, white and Hispanic people accounted for 61.6% and 18.7% respectively of the U.S. population in the 2020 United States census, while black people accounted for 12.4%, Asian people accounted for 6%, and Native Americans accounted for 1.1%. In its 2020 Demographic Analysis, the United States Census Bureau estimated that the male-to-female sex ratio in the United States ranged from 98.1:100 to 98.2:100. Only 13 states require that local police departments enter missing or unidentified person files into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Additionally, in its 2019 Uniform Crime Report, the FBI found that 54.7% of murder victims in the United States for whom their race was known were black and that 78.3% for whom their sex was known were male, while approximately 14% of the U.S. population as a whole was black in the Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey and the Census Bureau estimated that the U.S. population retained the female majority in its sex ratio.
The Wyoming Urban Indian Health Institute published a study in 2020, led by professor Emily A. Grant, which found marked differences in news coverage of missing and murdered Native Americans compared to coverage of white people who were murdered or missing. Missing Native Americans in Wyoming were less likely to be profiled in media unless they were found dead compared to being profiled while still missing; news stories tended to feature more negative information about the lives of Native Americans; and such articles were less likely to feature a photo of the missing person if they were Indigenous.
Canada
According to a 2008 study published in The Law and Society Association, Indigenous women who go missing in Canada receive 27 times less news coverage than white women; they also receive "dispassionate and less-detailed, headlines, articles, and images".United Kingdom
In January 2006, the London Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Ian Blair, accused the media of institutional racism in its reporting of murders. He contrasted the reporting of the death of the male white lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce with the murder of the male Asian builders' merchant Balbir Matharu. He said "murders in minority communities do not seem to interest the mainstream media". He said that the death of Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old black boy, was clearly an exception to this. He said he had been surprised at how much coverage the murders of two 10-year-old white girls in Soham had received.University of Leicester Criminology Professor Yvonne Jewkes cites the murder of Milly Dowler, the murder of Sarah Payne, and the Soham murders as examples of "eminently newsworthy stories" about girls from "respectable" middle-class families and backgrounds whose parents used the news media effectively. She writes that, in contrast, the killing of Damilola Taylor, a 10-year-old boy from Nigeria, initially received little news coverage, with reports initially concentrating upon street crime levels and community policing in London, and largely ignoring the victim. Even when Damilola's father flew into the UK from Nigeria to make press statements and television appearances, the level of public outcry did not, Jewkes asserts, reach "the near hysterical outpourings of anger and sadness that accompanied the deaths of Sarah, Milly, Holly, and Jessica". According to BBC News, the killing of Damilola Taylor had shocked the UK.
Two cases of missing white girl syndrome that have been given as contrasting examples: the murder of Hannah Williams and the murder of Danielle Jones. It was suggested that Jones received more coverage than Williams because Jones was a middle-class schoolgirl, whilst Williams was from a working-class background with a stud in her nose and estranged parents. Another explanation for the difference in the coverage has been given: the eroticisation of the victim by news reports about a sexual relationship between Jones and her murderer, her uncle.
A 2023 report by Missing People said cases of missing Black and Asian people are less likely to be solved.