SVS Journalistic Crime Reporting Timeline - Specialised Victim Support

Stage 0 – Life Timeline

Often no articles published unless the victim has some noteworthy event or experience that gains public attention.

Stage 1 – Incident

Reporting on development in the case.
To provide public safety information.
To educate the public.
To build a support base in the nation for priority crimes and to ask for input from the community.
To provide behavioural information to the public about the offender as provided by the investigating officer as these behaviours and characteristics are likely to be of the most direct value in identifying and apprehending the unknown perpetrator/s.
To correct misinformation about the case.
To encourage anyone who may know the offender to come forward.
To develop a public communications strategy.
To let the public know that these media houses are intimately involved with the specialised victim support and form part of the liaison, independent monitoring of service delivery, capacity building of resources and needs, and partnering the victims and their families.
To switch off “comments” and to protect the victims, the country and to ensure that the killer/s do not feed off misinformation, fear, anger or accelerate the series of killings. Tip-offs or feedback could be enabled for those with useful information to provide insight and feedback directly.
To ensure journalistic crime reporting becomes a force multiplier and works hand in glove with Police Communications, Investigating Officer and the Specialised Victim Support processes.
To remember that no matter what, our core principle is that we all we collectively for the victim, then the family, community and our nation.

Stage 2 – Arrest

To ensure public awareness on the progress of the case, and the impact on victims.
To ensure that the victim’s story does not become forgotten in the public.

Stage 3 – Trial

Stage 4 – Conviction
Stage 4.1 – Conviction/Suspects Outstanding

To report on the convictions achieved, and illustrate how justice has been served (or not) for the victim.
To ensure that the victim’s story does not become forgotten in the public.

Stage 4.2 – Victim Impact Analysis

To shed light on the impact of the crime on the victim, or the victims surviving family
To ensure that the victim’s story does not become forgotten in the public.
To report on restorative justice processes in order that restorative justice is extended to the nation.
To help break the cycle of violence in our country

Stage 5 – Parole

To remind the public of the case, and inform them of parole conditions being met
To ensure that the victim’s story does not become forgotten in the public.

Stage 6 – Reintegration

We hope to see positive stories coming through from both the victim’s families and the perpetrators
- Those victims families who have picked up the pieces and pulled together with amazing outcomes despite adversity
- Those perpetrators who have spent much of their lives in prison due to their tragic personal choices that have rocked the nation, their story of prison and all they have done to reintegrate.
- For the public to see and understand the cycle of crime, the grip it has on an individual and how they have destroyed the lives of others as well as their own.