Researchers have argued that the stories chosen by newspapers as exceptional or newsworthy are based on an assessment of current moral values. Reporting of crime stories is thus understood as part of the defining process of criminological problems. The current study examined the reporting of 2,685 homicide cases in England and Wales in 3 national newspapers (the Times, the Mail, and the Mirror) during the period 1993 through 1997. The nature of reporting distortions were systematically charted in order to explore the contribution of newspaper accounts of homicide to the social construction of homicide in England and Wales. A range of variables were assessed to explain homicide story salience. Results of logistic regression analysis indicated that the circumstance of the killing played a crucial role in the decision to report on the homicide. While homicides involving child victims were highly likely to be reported, infant homicides were not. Sexual homicides were most likely to be reported by all three newspapers, followed by homicides motivated by money and homicides motivated by jealousy or revenge. The newspaper accounts converged to present a distorted version of homicide that underscored particular versions of “otherness” and danger. These distorted versions of criminological problems may, in fact, spawn political and social responses to these problems that are based on media representation rather than on empirical criminal analysis. Figures, tables, references