ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the normative question of whether there is some genuine public interest served by crime news. I approach this question by looking at a parallel with theories of punishment. Although punishment and crime news are different in important ways, I suggest that some of the reasons that speak in favour of the former might also speak in favour of the latter. I look at the fact that both punishment and crime news have a communicative role. I evaluate three communicative roles that both punishment and news might be proposed to play: (1) shaming of offenders; (2) denouncing crime; and (3) expressively marking the significance of crime as a violation of important values. I defend (3), that the public interest in crime news lies in the need for expressively marking significant and extraordinary events that ought not to be met with silence.
