Faceless: High-profile murders and public recognition

This paper reports on the outcome of an investigation into whether or not members of the public would recognise high-profile victims and perpetrators and, if so, whom. The study was based on the premise that prominent media coverage would cause a greater number of perpetrators to be recognised than victims and that those victims who were recognised would be white children. Field research was conducted in a university and in non-university settings, such as fast food outlets, bus stops and shopping centres. All 20 images used were black and white headshots. Most photographs showed one person, but two photographs had two images. A total of 103 people were surveyed. The majority of our sample (78%) were unable to name any victims or perpetrators. These results provide strong evidence to suggest that despite 24-hour rolling news and the prominence of high-profile victims and perpetrators on the front pages of national newspapers, the public fails to remember who these victims and perpetrators are. We discuss why this may be so.