Providing readers with information they can use to make decisions regarding their personal safety is one of the main services of a news organization.

This is one reason why news organizations, including The Marquette Tribune, devote time and space to covering crime and accidents.

Often, though, news organizations are caught deciding between the desire to give readers the most detailed information available and the need to respect the victims of crimes.

This balance is a delicate one, said Erik Ugland, an assistant professor of broadcast and electronic media.

"In most cases, readers are best served by having access to all newsworthy information," Ugland said, "but in certain circumstances, the balance is a little bit more delicate because of the stigma that is still attached to the victims of certain crimes."

Some examples of debates that arise in newsrooms over crime coverage include the appropriateness of publishing the identity of crime victims, publishing the address of where a crime occurred and where a victim lives, and publishing the identity and residence of alleged perpetrators of crime.

Certain crimes, such as sexual assault and those involving minors, pose even greater pressures because the victims may be more susceptible to backlash.

It is important that news organizations take into consideration the information that readers absolutely must know, said Ron Smith, deputy copy chief for the day desk at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

"The question we are trying to answer every day in our job is what does the reader need to know to make an informed decision," he said.

Many news organizations have policies that address these situations. Recently, we at the Tribune have reevaluated our own policies pertaining to crime coverage, specifically sexual assault.

In most cases, we publish the block number of where crimes occur instead of the specific address (if one is even available). However, in some instances we have published the specific address of a crime if the crime occurred in a large apartment building that has many units. The rationale behind this is we want to give readers an accurate description of where the crime occurred without identifying a victim.

We have since decided to alter our policy. We will now publish the block number of where sexual assault crimes occur, including those occurring in or near apartment complexes.

Our rationale is that it may still be possible to identify a victim who lives in an apartment building because some complexes have individual addresses for specific units. By publishing the block number, we are still giving readers an accurate description of where the crime occurred but ensuring that victims of certain crimes will not be identified.

Our goal in covering crime is not to intimidate our readers, but to give them an understanding of the issues they should be mindful of on campus.

Andrew Johnson is the editor in chief of The Marquette Tribune. He can be reached at (414) 288-7246 or at [email protected]. The Newsroom Insider is published every other Tuesday.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 27, 2005.