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Crime reporting in journalism has been around since the start of journalism. In the early days, crime reporting primarily focused on property crimes and minor offenses. This was due in part to the fact that early newspapers were more on people-centered stories. It was not until publishers realized how profitable sensationalism could be that the focus shifted to more serious crimes.

While the history of crime reporting is deeply entangled in sensationalism, there are some who used crime reporting to bring to light injustices in the country, especially for racial violence that was taking place in America. Some of the reporters who used crime reporting for good were Moses Newson and Simeon Booker, Ida B. Wells, Nellie Bly, and Edna Buchanan.

Image of Moses Newson and Simeon Booker

Moses Newson and Simeon Booker were not crime reports as they originally worked on bringing attention to racial issues in America. They were both assigned to cover the story of Emmett Till. Till was a young boy who was killed by lynching for supposedly whistling at a white woman. The men responsible for his death were found not guilty but later admitted to being involved in Emmett's death. 

Booker attended Emmett's funeral and took the famous image titled "Till in the Coffin". This story helped bring to light the violence racial issues are bringing to America and the need to act.

Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist, and she focused on lynchings that happened in America. She eventually published a report known as A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynchings in the United States, 1892-1893-1894. This publication provided a statistical record of lynchings in the United States.

Nellie Bly was an investigative journalist, and she focused on many topics throughout her career. Some of her most memorable work, however, involved crime reporting. During her career, she exposed the malpractices that took place in asylums. Due to her coverage of the abuse that took place in American asylums this led the Supreme Court to start investigating mental institutions. 

Image of Nellie Bly

She also covered New York's baby black market and her interactions with dealers and mothers looking to sell their children in an article titled "Nellie Bly Buys a Baby". Bly contributed a lot to journalism and brought attention to injustices that took place in America.

There are many problems with crime reporting, as it can often be used to sway public opinion and mess with the criminal justice process. However, it is important to keep in mind how crime reporting can be used in positive ways. Many incredible people have used crime reporting to bring attention to social issues.

Today, crime reporting has become engraved into our society. News networks oftentimes mainly focus on crimes. There are also people who solely focus on reporting on violent crimes; this practice has become known as true crime. Just like in the early days of journalism, people are still interested in crime, and with the increase in interest, new ways to report on crime have appeared. 

Despite the harm sensationalism has done to crime reporting, there is still an active audience, and it is important for people to be able to distinguish between crime reporting that is focused on grabbing their attention and crime reporting that is focused on giving out facts.