The case of Meredith Kercher’s murder in Perugia, Italy became a very sensationalist story due to the involvement of an American young woman, Amanda Knox, who represented both America’s sweetheart, being young and beautiful, and Italy’s black widow, due to her associations with sexual promiscuity and drugs. While no clear evidence was ever found to ink her and her Italian boyfriend to the murder, they were imprisoned, together with a Black man, Rudy Guede, whose drug-related activities quickly turned the media against him. In this high-profile case, the issues of privilege and diversity had a great impact on the development of the murder case, because, in lack of clear evidence, the characteristics of the suspects, their behavior , and the way in which the public perceived them, had a great impact on their credibility.
Amanda Sollecito and Raffaele Sollecito can be considered privilege because they were both white and from the upper middle class. Because Amanda was a young and White American, she enjoyed privileges that were refused to the Black suspects. Thus, the police officers were more likely to believe her accusations regarding Patrick Lumumba, the Congolese bar owner. Lumumba even accused the police of having prejudiced him due to his skin color and ethnicity. Indeed, Amanda Knox, while being vilified by the media in Perugia, was nevertheless treated as America’s ‘sweetheart’ in America. Furthermore, Sollecito, a young man from a good family, was depicted as extremely handsome in the photos of him the media presented. His image as a young student appealed to the media more than Lumbumba’s. Apart from White privilege, Sollecito also enjoyed male privilege, which means that his sexual morality was not questioned, as compared to his girlfriend.
The victim’s background also justified the sensationalism of the case. Meredith Kercher was a young, white and beautiful university student from England and her characteristics justified the ‘witch hunt’ that was launched by the police and by the media on her account. Her image as an innocent White girl was used by the media to promote the case as a sensationalist story. The great scandal that the case caused both in Italy and abroad are to a great extent related to the nationality and race of the victim. The diversity of the suspect pool is contrasted with the European, white background of the victim.
Thus, privilege has two faces. In Amanda’s case, her beauty functioned as a disadvantage for her, because her persona became fascinating for the media and the investigators. Each of her actions was interpreted and her behavior was deemed inappropriate for a girl whose flat mate had been killed. For example, after the corpse was discovered, cameras caught Amanda kissing Sollecito, which was considered inappropriate. Her colleagues criticized her for not seeming shocked, and the media revealed The media revealed how she dreamed of going shopping with her mother. While people react differently to shocking events, and one cannot be accused of murder based on the behavior he or she has right after the murder, all of these observations on Criminologist Francesco Bruno explained that Amanda Knox was perceived as a black widow who engaged her male friends in a sexual frenzy (Baker 2008). The criminologist further argued that, if Amanda had been considered ugly under current standards, this image would not have been created.
While the accusations against Lumumba proved to be false, the police soon found another Black suspect, Rudy Guede, who had left the country soon after the murder, but when caught, confessed that he had been in the house when Meredith was murdered. Guede was negatively portrayed in the media as the typical offender, and, even though he accused Sollecito of having committed the crime, and the police initially believed him the public opinion was completely against him. Amanda and Sollecito were perceived as innocent by many people, and their stories were more plausible simply on account of their background and appearance. Guede appeared more as a villain due to his race, and his background also recommended him as a more likely suspect.
Furthermore, while no evidence was found to justify the story of an orgy which went out of control the investigators and the media continued to look at the case from this perspective. The sensationalism of a story involving two young white university students was much more important than the truth. A simple case of a Black man killing his white girlfriend would only reinforce the old stereotypes of the aggressive Black male and the helpless White woman, without adding anything new to the story, whereas the idea of college students committing a terrible act as a result of moral decay was a more current issue, and the story sold successfully to the international public (Baker 2008). Consequently, the press and the investigators were not willing to allow this theory to die too easily.
In this case, the diversity of the suspects in the case, and their particular characteristics and behavior, were extremely important in the way they were portrayed in the media, and affected their credibility to a great extent. Due to her gender, nationality, age and physical appearance, Amanda Knox received the most media attention. While she had privilege due to her nationality, whiteness and social class, she was nevertheless prejudiced based on her gender. Her behavior and her reactions were deemed inappropriate in the context of the murder, and consequently, she was immediately considered a femme fatale, who orchestrated the entire murder. Privilege and diversity can represent extremely important factors influencing the outcome of a murder case.
References
Baker, N. (2008). Amanda Knox documentary-sex, lies and the murder of Meredith Kercher. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQFNbu4BMWI
