Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Beat talk: Crime and Justice
Covering crime and justice is often one of the busiest beat assignments
in a newsroom. And it can be even more overwhelming when you're thrown
in without training.
The
Criminal Justice Journalists have been there. They are members of
the nonprofit organization CJJ, founded in 1997 to improve coverage on
crime, law enforcement and the judicial system. And they've written a little
something to help you achieve this.
CJJ offers a
guide to covering crime and justice in nine chapters that can be
read in their entirety on the Internet. The guide begins with the crime
beat, works its way through juvenile justice, drug law enforcement,
racial and ethnic issues, crime victims, and journalism ethics, and
then finishes with three chapters on courts.
Interested in learning more about libel? Chapter six, section five.
Confused about pre-trial proceedings? Chapter eight, section four.
Clicking on the
table of contents is the easiest way to view all of your
options. From there, click on whichever section you'd like to learn
more about.
Each section also has a sidebar that offers additional resources and
detailed story ideas. The first chapter on covering courts, for
example, offers 20 ideas for stories -- explain how the jury pool is
picked, compare reversal rates for judges by looking at appellate
opinions, examine the cases where inmates have filed for DNA testing
and follow up to see how many were found guilty, to name a few.
Although the guide was written in 2003, the information is still
relevant. From the way the courts work to tips on whom to interview at a
crime scene, the suggestions are just as useful three years later for
reporting this beat. CJJ added the court chapters in 2005.
The organization also sends
Romenesko-style updates on crime and
justice news
by e-mail.
(Click "Enter The News Center" on the right-hand side and then "News
Request" at the top. Don't worry if you have trouble navigating -- so
did we.) There's also a cops and courts
discussion list, a crime
and justice news archive, and an information center
with links to related Web sites (many of which don’t work anymore). But
the real jewel of this site is the link to the crime guide -- free
information on all the basics, right from your computer.
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