Missing and Marginalized
Examining the Impact of ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you disappeared without a trace the next day? Last year in Canada, a total of 73, 620 children and adults were reported missing, and while an average of 85% of these cases are removed due to the missing persons being located, many still remain missing; it goes without saying that the experience is extremely distressing for family and friends.
The research shows a clear imbalance in the attention that racial and ethnic minorities receive when compared to White people.
A robust police investigation and repeated exposure in the media is vital in resolving missing persons cases. But what happens when that exposure is seriously lacking or outright denied? The research shows a clear imbalance in the attention that racial and ethnic minorities receive when compared to White people. This disparity is best observed in the “Missing White Woman Syndrome”, a term coined by the late PBS anchorwoman Gwen Ifill, which describes a phenomenon where middle-to-upper-class White women receive vast amounts of media coverage and a vigorous police investigation, whereas their coloured counterparts receive very little in comparison.
A person’s age, race, ethnicity and social class are the decisive factors in determining the level of police attention and media coverage received in any given missing person’s case. The criteria impacts the way in which White woman from lower-socio-economic classes are treated, but more importantly, it leaves racialized and ethnic women to be the most vulnerable.
White Females Are Impacted by the Syndrome Too
…if a woman does not fit the aforementioned archetype […], then it is unlikely for anyone outside of the victim’s family to care for their plight, or for the attention given to the case to be positive.
The “Missing White Woman Syndrome” phenomenon discriminates against White women who fall outside the ‘damsel in distress’ archetype, particularly White women from a lower socio-economic status. According to CNN correspondent, Tom Foreman, most disappearances that are covered are chosen because media outlets believe that viewers would be interested in the case and become emotionally invested in it, noting that “pretty, white damsels in distress draw viewers….”
This narrative of a ‘damsel in distress’ in need of rescuing is what draws in viewers and ratings, however if a woman does not fit the aforementioned archetype (i.e. being a young, pretty, white, middle-to-upper class ‘good girl’ from a nice background), then it is unlikely for anyone outside of the victim’s family to care for their plight, or for the attention given to the case to be positive.
This lack of care and negative attention towards a missing person’s case due to objectionable elements present in the woman’s background was seen in the cases of Misty Copsey and Claudia Lawrence.
The Disappearance of Misty Copsey
As detailed by true crime YouTuber, Danelle Hallan, in the above video, and by Michael Whelan in his Unresolved podcast, Misty Copsey was a 14-year-old White American girl who went missing on September 17, 1992 after attending the annual Puyallup Fair in Washington. When she did not return home, her mother, Diana, reported her as missing, however, police assumed that Misty was a runaway and no investigation was done until foul play was suspected one month later; a further six months would pass before they interviewed key witnesses or searched for evidence.
“Police and the media repeatedly ignored Diana and refused to give her any attention, and as a result Misty’s case has remained unsolved for nearly thirty years.”
The police’s initial inaction was likely due to statistical probabilities, since, according to the National Runaway Safeline, one in five youths run away before reaching the age of 18 with most returning home within 2 days to a week. Therefore, they most likely did not want to expend time and resources on a teenage girl who likely ran away of her own volition and was likely return home within a week.
But when police uncovered Diana’s past of several DUI’s, an incident of welfare fraud a decade prior, and struggles with alcoholism, they doubled down in their belief that Misty had chosen to run away. The Sheriff even went on national news and radio stations urging them and the public to ignore Diana’s pleas because of her troubled past, and that Misty was a runaway. Police and the media repeatedly ignored Diana and refused to give her any attention, and as a result Misty’s case has remained unsolved for nearly thirty years.
The Disappearance of Claudia Lawrence
“She was torn to shreds as if she was a reality TV contestant rather than a victim…”
As shown in the above documentary, Claudia Lawrence was an attractive, White 35-year-old working class English woman who was employed as a chef at the University of York when she mysteriously disappeared on March 18, 2009. While the police investigation remained steadfast and diligent, media coverage of the case turned negative and outright sexist when it was revealed that Claudia had been having numerous affairs with married men. The media’s fixation on Claudia’s scandalous love life and her portrayal as a party girl and immoral homewrecker dominated most of the articles written about her instead of focusing on her actual disappearance and seeking resolution to the case. One Daily Mail article reported Claudia as “a heavy drinker who was ‘reckless’ and ‘easily led’” and as someone who got a “kick” out of going after married men. Another reported that Claudia: “[…] went for married men because she could”.
According to former Met detective chief inspector Clive Driscoll in a BBC article about Claudia’s case, the media’s portrayal “… painted a picture that Claudia somehow deserved what happened to her. It had a big impact on how people viewed her and subsequently how the public responded to the investigation” . Adding to this is Claudia’s friend, Suzy Cooper, who stated that “… she wasn’t seen as a missing person, but as a woman of loose morals. The tabloids leapt on the idea and, as a result, some of the public started to dislike her rather than have empathy with her. She was torn to shreds as if she was a reality TV contestant rather than a victim and, as her friend, it was awful to watch. It was so misogynistic. To this day, there are still people on social media saying she deserved whatever happened to her.”
Ten years later, Claudia’s case remains unsolved.
The Misty Copsey and Claudia Lawrence cases illustrate that the “Missing White Woman Syndrome” phenomenon negatively impacts White females who fall outside the ‘damsel in distress’ archetype, particularly White women from a lower socio-economic status. In Misty’s case, attention from police and media evaporated because of her mother’s personal issues with alcoholism and past troubles with the law, while with Claudia’s case the media’s portrayal of her turned hostile and misogynistic, and even engaged in victim blaming due to her active night life and purported affairs with married men.
This shows a blatant double standard by the police and the media when it comes to investigating and reporting on missing White female victims. Would Misty’s case have been ignored by police and media if she were a middle-to-upper class female whose mother was not a recovering alcoholic with no criminal history? Most likely not. Would the media have engaged in blatant sexism and victim blaming towards Claudia if she were a single, stay-at-home ‘good girl’, or even a man who was having numerous liaisons with married women? Most definitely not.
Therefore, if the victim is lacking in the clean, innocent and respectable image, and the social background that many other well-known cases of ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’ possess, then those White women and girls will most likely receive little to no coverage, much like their black counterparts.
The Plight of Black Females
Zach Sommers, a sociologist at Northwestern University, conducted what is probably the first and most seriously empirical study into the impact of ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’. His research concluded that Black people receive far less media coverage than their White counterparts, and that “Missing White Woman Syndrome is a real, empirical phenomenon.” Sommers observed several media outlets and found that 33% of the missing persons receiving coverage were White women and girls, but stories about those individuals comprised almost 50% of the total coverage. On the other hand, Black women received merely 14.32% of all media representation of missing persons and accounted for only 9.03% of all articles about missing persons.
What is perhaps the most egregious example of Black females being neglected and given the cold shoulder by both the media and the police is the disappearance of twins Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook.
The Disappearance of Dannette and Jeannette Millbrook
… their family has had to fight tooth-and-nail for over twenty years for the case to be re-opened. That fight continues to this day.
As explored in the above Oxygen channel documentary, and the comprehensive 7-part podcast, The Fall Line, the Millbrook twins were two Black American, 15-year-old working-class teenagers who disappeared without a trace while walking home on March 18, 1990. Their case was given almost no attention by police and media, with only one story about their disappearance being aired only one time on a local news network.
The police neglected to interview witnesses or ask the family any questions until a week later, there were numerous errors in the report (such as misspelling the twins’ surname as ‘Millbrooks’), and after a year the case was closed based entirely on hearsay that one or both of the twins had gotten pregnant and decided to run away, or that Child Protective Services had removed them from their mother’s care. Police investigators and media outlets were uninterested in giving attention to the twins’ case due to this hearsay, and their family has had to fight tooth-and-nail for over twenty years for the case to be re-opened. That fight continues to this day.
This case is one that illustrates that missing Black women are unlikely to receive as much police and media attention as White people. This conveys the message that Black women are unimportant and do not matter enough to police or media outlets to be given any significant coverage.
Indigenous Women and Girls Suffer the Worst
The plight of Indigenous women and girls in North America cannot be overstated; this particular demographic suffers appallingly in missing persons cases, and the statistics are alarming. According to the 2007 Provincial Partnership Committee on Missing Persons’ Final Report , Indigenous women made up 60% of the Saskatchewan’s missing women cases, despite being only 6% of that particular province’s total population. Statistics by the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that Indigenous people disappear at twice the per capita rate of White Americans despite only being a small part of the population. Furthermore, an article published by Independent stated: “Despite thousands of women going missing every year, and thousands being raped over their lifetimes, startlingly few statistics are available.”
…the lack of statistics available sends a message that they are not important enough for police to care about.
This shows that Indigenous women and girls are vastly over-represented in missing persons cases relative to their population size. The figures imply that police at the very least are failing or unwilling to fulfill their obligations to serve and protect an ethnic minority from danger. This is most likely due to racial prejudices rooted in centuries of racism, stemming from when North America was first colonized, and the Indigenous peoples were viewed as savage, sub-human inconveniences. Furthermore, Indigenous peoples were driven from their native lands and herded onto small reservations, they suffered genocide by colonizers, had their children taken away, and were discriminated against in every facet of colonial society. The high numbers of missing Indigenous women and the lack of statistics available sends a message that they are not important enough for police to care about.
To add to the above, the recent case of Amber Tuccaro exemplifies the institutionalized discrimination that murdered and missing indigenous women face by authorities and the media in North America.
The Case of Amber Tuccaro
When Amber’s mother reported her missing, she was dismissed by police who told her that Amber was likely just out partying and would call eventually. That never happened.
As detailed in the above video, Amber Tuccaro was a 20-year-old, Canadian single mother of a then 14-month-old infant son, and a member of the Mikisew Cree First Nation community. On August 18, 2010, Amber vanished while hitchhiking alone to Edmonton, Alberta, being last seen by a friend getting into a vehicle with a man. When Amber’s mother reported her missing, she was dismissed by police who told her that Amber was likely just out partying and would call eventually. That never happened.
Police later removed Amber’s missing person profile from their online database of missing persons within a month, despite her not being found, and nine months later, police also destroyed all of Amber’s belongings from her hotel room without cataloging them or offering to give them to her mother. During Amber’s disappearance, media attention was lacking with hardly any news coverage or articles being circulated.
In 2012, Amber’s skeletal remains were found by horseback riders. The case remains unsolved to this day, although recently in July, Alberta’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued a public apology to the Tuccaro family for their handling of the case.
Conclusions
Summing up, the ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’, while impacting all demographics in missing persons cases, leaves racialized and ethnic women to be the most vulnerable with Indigenous women and girls being the most strongly affected demographic group.
… there is an inability of these newsrooms to relate to missing Black or Indigenous women’s backgrounds and experiences, and so the choice is made to give exposure to what they could relate to — the background and experiences of middle-to-upper class White women.
Concerning White women and girls, the Misty Copsey and Claudia Lawrence cases illustrate that if the White female is not the “damsel in distress” because they are poor, or because they have unsavoury elements in their background, then they are deemed unworthy of attention. Additionally, Black and Indigenous women are seriously marginalized by the media and police, with the latter being the most susceptible to predators. This is due to a continuing history of racist discrimination in North America that both demographics share, where because they were not White, they were viewed as sub-human and unequal, and were terribly oppressed in society by colonial Whites.
Another reason for this marginalization in the media, according to investigative reporter Shawndrea Thomas who was interviewed by Jill Sederstrom, is that there is a lack of diversity in the mainstream media’s newsrooms; the racial and ethnic makeup of newsrooms across North America are overwhelmingly White. Due to this racial gap, there is an inability of these newsrooms to relate to missing Black or Indigenous women’s backgrounds and experiences, and so the choice is made to give exposure to what they could relate to — the background and experiences of middle-to-upper class White women.
To remedy these injustices, more coverage in the mainstream media needs to be given to missing people of colour, particularly Black and Indigenous women.
In essence, the media has pushed a very classist and racist view of victims, since in choosing to give vast amounts of attention to attractive White women from middle-to-upper class backgrounds, they are in effect telling viewers that lower-class and/or racialized women are unworthy of receiving justice or any resolution when they go missing. This in turn has resulted in countless cases being ignored and rendered harder to solve since adequate attention is not given to women who do not fit this narrow archetype.
To remedy these injustices, more coverage in the mainstream media needs to be given to missing people of colour, particularly Black and Indigenous women. A method of achieving this would be for local politicians to put pressure on news networks (i.e. television, radio, newspapers, and magazines) to give greater coverage and exposure to missing women of colour, and not limit their focus to the ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’ archetype.
Social media can also play an even greater role in correcting the injustice, and can tremendously help in bringing attention to the thousands of cases of missing and marginalized women. A great example of this is the ongoing trend of true crime YouTubers who dedicatedly uploaded videos to their channels where they cover unsolved cases of missing and murdered women and girls, thus raising awareness of lesser known cases across a vast audience. Some of the most popular channels, which have hundreds of thousands of views, that do this include: Kendall Rae, Danelle Hallan, LordanARTS, Stephanie Harlowe, Shauna Rae, Georgia Marie and Eleanor Neale.
In addition to YouTube videos, there has been a proliferation of podcasts devoted to true crime and missing persons cases that also help to bring attention to these cases. Some of the more popular ones include: Crime Junkie, The Trail Went Cold, Trace Evidence, Unresolved and The Vanished.
On the other hand, authorities and the mainstream media can also post online articles, fliers, posters, pictures and stories about missing persons with calls for help and information from the public. There would be no need to take away airtime for any cases on television and radio given the internet’s limitless space and potential to reach millions across the world.
