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This paper focuses on the place of victims in the mediatization of the criminal recidivism (1997-2008). Our corpus gathers four newspapers of the national daily press. The study starts with a paradox: While the victim has risen as a preeminent figure in politics and the media since the 1980s, it turns out that in those newspapers, victims are seldom invited to debate with other social actors. The paper identifies the reasons underlying this “staged” debate and its consequences. More precisely, it shows on one hand that the debate the four newspapers construct is shaped as a debate they think is appropriate rather than the one that is actually taking place in the public sphere. On the other hand, it questions the resistance of this type of press to thinking about the evolution of the public expression and how this debate is organized.