Missing Children and the Media: The Wrong Kind of Family?

The case of Shannon Matthews, the missing nine-year-old from Dewsbury, has developed a cruel overtone: an unspoken suggestion that, because of their lifestyles, her family deserve not our pity but our censure.

For 23 days since her daughter went missing, Karen Matthews has answered questions. Some, such as whether she can identify discarded items of clothing and toys found near her home on an impoverished estate in West Yorkshire, are distressingly necessary parts of a huge police effort to find nine-year-old Shannon.