Citation

Innes M. Br. J. Criminol. 1999; 39(2): 269-286.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/bjc/39.2.269

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article examines how the police seek to use the media in an instrumental fashion, as an investigative resource in murder enquiries. The majority of murders are comparatively easy for the police to solve. There are however, a small number of particularly serious and difficult to solve murders and it is during investigations into these types of crime that the police may employ a range of tactics to use the media as part of their wider investigative strategy. A discussion of police media strategies is provided and decisions about their strategic deployment are linked to the structural concerns of the police and media organizations.