UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 17 FEBRUARY 2015
Max Branning would be the number one suspect in a real life situation, claims Birmingham City University’s Dr Liz Yardley ahead of this week’s revelation in EastEnders’ ‘Who killed Lucy Beale?’ storyline.
The criminologist has also highlighted how a hierarchy of victimisation makes us more sympathetic towards the murder of white, blonde females who attract massive levels of attention from the media.
“Would we be seeing a similar level of interest if the EastEnders storyline was ‘Who killed Masood Ahmed?’ or ‘Who killed Patrick Trueman?’. I think not, and that says more about us as a society than it does about the fictional world of Albert Square” claims Dr Liz Yardley, Director of the University’s Centre for Applied Criminology.
According to Dr Yardley, Britain’s fascination with the “Who killed Lucy Beale?” story is due to the fact that Lucy’s character is what she refers to as the ‘ideal victim'.
“Criminologists often draw upon this concept when discussing news coverage of crime victims. Ideal victims are people whose status as a victim is not questioned, they are seen as worthy and deserving of sympathy and compassion.
“By contrast, there are those whose victimhood is less secure, who are seen as less deserving and even culpable to a degree. Physical appearance plays a significant role in ideal victimhood: a young, white, blonde woman – indeed, like Lucy Beale – will generate more interest than an older, non-white, male.”
Dr Yardley has warned that shows such as EastEnders have an important role to play when depicting crimes, as the general public have very little real life experience of such cases.
“Whilst crimes like this feature prominently in the broadcast and entertainment media, they are very rare and not many of us will have direct experience of them. One implication is that our perceptions and understandings of them are informed to a considerable extent by what we see on television and in print. This can be problematic – media depictions of homicide, from the news to prime time television drama, are not always representative and can hinder rather than help us make sense of this type of crime.”
According to the latest homicide figures from the Office for National Statistics, 90 per cent of suspects are male. Women are more likely to be killed by a partner (53 per cent) or an ex-partner (7 per cent). Women are also more likely than men to be killed by a parent or other family member – 17 per cent compared to 4 per cent.
“This then leaves five suspects for Lucy Beale’s murder, two in the partner/ex-partner category – Lee Carter and Max Branning – and three in the family category – Ian Beale (Lucy’s father), Peter Beale (Lucy’s brother) and Ben Mitchell (described as Lucy’s ‘half-uncle’). So if I was asked to say who I think the killer is – I would say that the most likely suspects are Max Branning and Lee Carter – in that order.”