A Victim Community

Although historically ignored, crime victims are now very firmly on the map. For politicians, newspapers, the media and the public at large, criminal injury and loss are a source of constant concern and anxiety. Criminologists and media analysts have studied much of this concern in recent years but what has not been investigated is how communities experience high profile crimes and the media intrusion that inevitably follows. This book seeks to address this gap by exploring how the communities of Soham and Dunblane, that witnessed high profile crimes, lived with the tragic events at the time and the attention of the world’s media afterwards. Based on a two-year qualitative study of these communities, this book looks beneath the surface of the relationships, dilemmas and unexpected triumphs of communities struggling to come to terms with the most harrowing of events, within the glare of the media spotlight. Combining empirical observations with media analysis and social theory, this book offers something new to the criminological audience: the concept of the victim community. Nicola O’Leary is Lecturer in Criminology in the Department of Criminology and Sociology at the University of Hull, UK.