Who's the real victim?

• Author: Saltzman, Joe
• Position: Television coverage of violent crime - Column

It has been an American tradition to admire the outlaw, the Western gunslinger, the young couple who rob banks, and the citizen vigilante. Today, television coverage of news events that eventually end up in court has created a new kind of hero for the 1990s - the abused victim who takes the law into his or her own hands in a quest for personal justice.

Juries, and a public fired up by massive courtroom TV coverage of sensational trials, have concluded that a woman who cut off her husband's penis or two brothers who murdered their parents had good reasons to do so. The victims of these criminal acts gradually come to be held responsible for being attacked, and the persons committing the crimes slowly emerge as victims themselves.

It is easy to see how this has happened. Television news usually is limited to covering an event after it has occurred. With rare exceptions, the coverage of a breaking news story consists of interviews with eyewitnesses and officials, pictures of the scene of the crime, and a reporter summing up what has happened and trying to figure out what will happen next.

In a murder, for instance, all that remains of the victim is a covered body and some old photographs. This material is supplemented with statements from survivors who knew and cared about the victim. The accused murderer occasionally is seen being arrested or, more often, either going to court, coming from it, or appearing in the courtroom. Statements about the alleged killer come from surprised friends, relatives, and neighbors.

Even if victims are alive and well, the focus shifts from them to the accused, who, if counseled properly, usually are apologetic for what has happened. Their lawyers, struggling to get their clients the best deal possible, often go into the attacker's personal history to paint a picture that consists of deprivation, abuse, and temporary insanity. Slowly, the original victim is forgotten and the accused - a human being crying out to be understood - becomes a more sympathetic victim trying to set things right.

This process happens daily in our judicial system, whether or not a camera is in the courtroom. Juries, listening to lengthy testimony about the individual accused of the crime, are persuaded to be sympathetic to that person's plight. A rape trial ends up being a horrible ordeal for most women, since attorneys try to create the impression that the criminal act of rape is just a misunderstanding. The victim, especially an...