Sex Sells, But Does it Help? A Survey of Media Coverage in a Medium Secure Unit Treating Sex Offenders
| Published date | 01 October 2007 |
| Pages | 15-21 |
| Date | 01 October 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200700026 |
| Author | Piyal Sen,Deji Adeleke |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Piyal Sen
Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, Priory Secure Services, Chadwick Lodge, Milton Keynes
Deji Adeleke
Clinical Research Fellow, Chadwick Lodge, Milton Keynes
Sex Sells, But Does it Help?
A Survey of Media Coverage
in a Medium Secure Unit
Treating Sex Offenders
Abstract
This article reports on a study designed to review the media coverage of patients in a medium secure unit and to
demonstrate the value to such units of having a media strategy. Most of the patients in the study had a history of
sexually motivated offending, a significant proportion against children. The pattern of a typical media report and the
organisational response is discussed, while broader political developments over the study period are noted.
Key words
Medium secure unit, sexually motivated offending, media, media strategy
murdered by a deranged psychiatric patient living
in the community – an excellent example of trial
by media (Lalani and London, 2006)!
Media reporting of sexual offending follows a
similar pattern. The first systematic study of such
reporting, sampling all news stories in the British
press between 1951 and 1985, found that the news
coverage of sex crimes had increased dramatically
during this period, tended to converge on a few
extreme cases of sexual offending and the emphasis
was much more on law and order agendas,
completely omitting the social complexity of sexual
offending (Soothill & Walby, 1991).
A similar study in Northern Ireland carried out
between 1985 and 1997 came to exactly the same
conclusion, with the vast majority of the news items
focused on specific cases with virtually no coverage of
issues such as prevention or treatment (Greer,2003).
A study in Rhode Island, USA,focused on child
molesters, also found that the coverage highlighted
the most bizarre, unusual or extreme cases and
intended to exaggerate the danger posed by strangers
(Cheit, 2003). The most recent study was carried out
in New Zealand and looked at the extent and nature
It is well accepted that the stigma and discrimination
associated with mental illness has been one of the
major barriers preventing people with mental health
problems from seeking help (US Department of
Health & Human Services, 1999).As many as a
quarter of the total number of people with mental
health problems in a developed country like the USA
do not seek help due to this stigma (Brown &
Bradley, 2002). The media is one of the commonest
sources of information for the general public on
mental illness, and consistently portrays stereotypical
images of the mentally ill as violent, unkempt,
unpredictable and dangerous (Cross, 2004; Harper,
2005). A good example of this was the dramatic
headline that appeared in the Daily Mail on February
21 2003, following the murder of Margaret Muller,
an American woman who had been jogging and
was later found dead in Victoria Park,Hackney, east
London. The headline simply said: ’400 care-in-the-
community patients living by murder park’.This
referred to the number of patients with a history of
mental health problems who had been housed close
to the park. It was following this headline that police
came up with the theory that the victim was
Mental Health Review Journal Volume 12 Issue 3 October 2007 © Pavilion Journals (Brighton) Ltd 15
RESEARCH
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