This study analyzes citizen representations in a corpus of 300 Dutch newspaper narratives published between 1860 and 2009. Results show that citizen perspectives are more frequently represented than authority perspectives, although the perspectives of authorities have become somewhat more frequent over time. In-depth analyses of the citizen perspectives show that citizens may fulfil multiple roles in the crime narratives, leading up to a functional typology of citizens as (1) story characters experiencing the news events, (2) news sources providing inside information about the events, and (3) vox pops expressing opinions and evaluations of the events. The variety of citizen perspectives included in crime news narratives and the multitude of roles they fulfill may help audience members to become informed as well as engaged and to explore their personal emotions, which may ultimately reinforce moral, cultural and societal values.

这项研究分析了1860年至2009年间发表的300种荷兰报纸叙事中的公民代表。结果显示，尽管随着时间的推移，当局的观点变得越来越普遍，但公民的观点比当局的观点更为常见。对公民观点的深入分析表明，公民可能在犯罪叙事中扮演多种角色，导致公民的功能分类为：（1）经历新闻事件的故事人物；（2）新闻源，提供有关事件的内部信息。 ，以及（3）vox pop表示事件的观点和评估。