The rise of the mass media has created new opportunities to show images of suspects to a mass audience, enabling the public to participate in solving crime. However, surprisingly little is known about the effectiveness of such media-exposure.
In this study we investigate the effect of media-exposure of suspects on solving crime. We exploit random variation in the number of viewers of a crime program on Dutch TV induced by Champions League games broadcasted on competing channels.
An increase in the number of viewers of the TV-program has a large effect on the apprehension of suspects when there are many potential observers or when it is easier to recognize suspects due to the quality of the images.