Ethical Considerations

At this stage of the investigation process is where ethical considerations begin to be addressed. This stage involves assessing whether the use of the media could help with the case, or if it would hinder the case and perhaps cause ethical concerns. Logically in many investigations where the use of the media would be helpful, this is where this stage would fit in. For example, to encourage the community to help in the search for a missing child. Or to get the face of a suspect in the news so that the public may call in with information if they recognise the person or believed they saw something related to the crime. However, as mentioned the media can also hinder in the investigation of a crime, and cause ethical concerns. For example this could happen if a person was wrongly accused of a serious crime such as a murder, if the media was to hound them and ruin their reputation publicly, it could potentially lead to terrible consequences, this would also be an ethical problem as it is not right to accuse a person as being guilty before they are actually convicted.
This stage can also be very important, especially in the cases where the media can be useful as it can lead to a suspect being apprehended or can bring to light new leads to be investigated.  

In the OJ Simpson case the media flew into frenzy as soon as the rumour that his ex-wife had been murdered. This especially occurred when Simpson was fleeing from turning himself in at the police station. Images and news of the slow speed police chase was all over the news and an apparent “suicide note” was read to the media. Also ethical concerns regarding the media occurred at the very beginning of the case when the media showed up outside the house of Nicole Brown and began taking pictures of her body and of the crime scene, this led to the police placing a blanket over the body and contaminating evidence – if the media had not shown up this evidence may not have been contaminated, and may have been able to be used for the prosecution of OJ Simpson.  

Also within the OJ Simpson case the investigation was published to such an extent within the media that when it eventually came to his trial, the majority of people within the jury are likely to have heard or seen stories within the media, this could have effected their view of the case and could even have led to them being bias either for or against Simpson depending on what they had seen in the media. Therefore with this example it shows that when the media is used incorrectly, it can lead to, or at least affect the investigation to the extent that a guilty person could be acquitted. 

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