By: Alyssa Vincent
Over 600,000 people go missing in the United States annually.[1] In September 2021, one of those people was a young woman, 22-year-old Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito.[2] In June, three months before she went missing, Gabby left on a cross-country road trip with her longtime boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, to explore the national parks.[3] She was last heard from by her family on August 25, and was reported missing on September 11 after her family discovered that Laundrie returned to his family home in North Port, Florida on September 1, without Gabby.[4] Unfortunately, Gabby was located, deceased, after a search that amassed a large part of the national parks in Wyoming, where she was last seen. [5]
What sets Gabby’s case apart from hundreds of thousands of others is the media attention it received. Soon after Gabby was reported missing, her case went viral, taking over all social media platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.[6] Her story was plastered across every news source and updated constantly, and the coverage it received led to a number of critical tips that aided police in narrowing their search for Gabby.[7]
While Gabby deserved all of these resources, the media attention she received brought awareness to an issue that does not come close to garnering this amount of exposure—minority missing persons. This phenomenon is known as “missing white woman syndrome” (MWWS), which “refers to the overabundance of coverage that mainstream media outlets dedicate to missing persons cases of White women and its correlating lack of coverage of missing people of color.”[8] The term was coined in 2004 by Gwen Ifill, a PBS anchor and a Black woman, who likely had no idea when referenced the term in passing how popular the term would become—and how pervasive the issue continues to be today.[9] It’s a story that plays out time and time again: “typically White, conventionally attractive, innocent, female, young, and rich” are disproportionately overrepresented in the media while minority missing persons are largely ignored.[10] A 2016 study of online news coverage of missing persons found that White women are overrepresented in news media coverage, and even when Black missing persons are covered, they receive less exposure than that of White women.[11] Moreover, a 2019 study of media coverage and MWWS found that missing Black women and girls were less likely to have repeated news coverage and were more likely to have their “legitimate employment” mentioned in their exposure, which the authors posit as reporters making efforts to humanize them, an effort that does seem to be necessary for missing White women and girls.[12] Further, missing Black children are more likely to be labeled as runaways rather than missing, and as a result, are less likely to be reported in AMBER Alerts than White children.[13]
Across the country, Gabby’s case has reintroduced the conversation—the hundreds of thousands of minority missing persons deserve justice just as much as she does.[14] In particular, this heightened awareness brought attention to two active minority missing persons (among many others)—Black Illinois State University graduate student Jelani “JJ” Day, who disappeared on August 24, and Miya Marcano, a Hispanic Valencia College student who had not been heard from since September 24.[15] The increase in publicity each of their cases placed increased pressure on police to find them, resulting in days-long searches that, unfortunately, resulted in finding both of their bodies, deceased.[16]
The fight is only just beginning. While recent events have sparked interest in this issue, and a number of minority missing persons have benefitted from this increased attention, this is not a social media trend that can or should go away—permanent solutions are needed in order to truly address this issue. While there are a few non-profit organizations that have taken justice into their own hands, such as the Black & Missing Foundation,[17] all eyes should remain on the two most powerful resources that have the ability to create systemic change: the media and the legislature. As Moss points out, “[t]he most feasible method to reverse the effects of Missing White Woman Syndrome is to advocate for and implement legislative measures that are tailored to address the proven racial disparity in missing persons cases.”[18] The Florida legislature has addressed the disparities in reporting under the AMBER Alert system by adopting the RILYA Alert system in 2003, named after a 4-year-old Rilya Wilson who disappeared from the foster care system, which puts out alerts for missing children without the stringent standards required for the AMBER Alert system, and includes alerts for children who have been classified as runaways.[19] But we don’t need to wait around for the legislature. Reporters should take notes from those who take intentional steps in order to cover a diverse array of cases, such as Annette Lawless of KAKE-TV in Wichita, Kansas, who combs missing-persons databases to find cases rather than waiting to hear from police.[20] Gabby Petito, Jelani Day, and Miya Mercano have reminded us that all missing persons deserve justice—they and countless others are more than a hashtag.
[1] Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Crime and Information Center Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics (2020).
[2] Christina Maxorious, A Timeline of 22-year-old Gabby Petito’s case, CNN (Oct. 12, 2021, 3:55 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/16/us/gabby-petito-timeline-missing-case/index.html.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Katherine Rosman, How the Case of Gabrielle Petito Galvanized the Internet, N.Y. Times, (Oct. 12, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/style/gabby-petito-case-tiktok-social-media.html.
[7] Maxorious, supra note 2.
[8] Jada L. Moss, The Forgotten Victims of Missing White Woman Syndrome: An Examination of Legal Measures that Contribute to the Lack of Search and Recovery of Missing Black Girls and Women, 25 Wm. & Mary J. Race, Gender & Soc. Just. 737, 741 (2019).
[9] ABC10, Experts say ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’ played a role in media coverage of Gabby Petito, YouTube (Sep 22, 2021), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6XZjxQpLfI.
[10] Slackoff & Fradella, Media Messages Surrounding Missing Women and Girls: The “Missing White Woman Syndrome” and Other Factors that Influence Newsworthiness, 20 Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society 80, 81 (2019).
[11] Zach Sommers, Missing White Woman Syndrome: An Emprical Analysis of Race and Gender Disparities in Online News Coverage of Missing Persons, 106 J. Crim, L. & Criminology 275, 311 (2016).
[12] Slackoff & Fradella, supra note 10, at 89.
[13] Moss, supra note 8, at 751.
[14] See Helen Rosner, The Long American History of “Missing White Woman Syndrome”, The New Yorker (Oct. 8, 2021), https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-long-american-history-of-missing-white-woman-syndrome; Katie Robertson, News Media Can’t Shake ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome,’ Critics Say, N.Y. Times, (Sep. 22, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/business/media/gabby-petito-missing-white-woman-syndrome.html.
[15] John W. Fountain, I am in Peru, Illinois, asking about Jelani Day, who is every bit as human as Gabby Petito, Chicago Sun Times (Sep 24, 2021, 6:31 PM), https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2021/9/24/22692451/jelani-day-gabby-petito-peru-illinois-missing-persons-isu-john-fountain; Grace Toohey, Miya Marcano’s body found bound, tied, sheriff says; family questions investigation, Orlando Sentinel (Oct. 6, 2021), https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/crime/os-miya-marcano-family-criticizes-investigation-20211006-kvxe5c3f5rhgtjmmlnkug2r6oq-story.html.
[16] Id.
[17] https://blackandmissinginc.com/
[18] Moss, supra note 8, at 744.
[19] Id. at 756-57.
[20] Matt Pearce, Gabby Petito and one way to break media’s ‘missing white woman syndrome’, L. A. Times (Oct. 4, 2021, 5:00 AM), https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-10-04/gabby-petito-and-breaking-the-white-missing-women-syndrome.
