This dad was arrested for murdering his family. So why aren't we seeing his mugshot more?

A week later, despite Chris’ pleas of innocence and desperate public appeals to find his ‘beloved’ family, he has been accused and charged of murdering his wife and daughters Bella, four, and Celeste, three. He has allegedly confessed to murdering his wife, and disposing of all three bodies – after claiming to have acted in response to his wife, whom he says strangled the girls.

But until that arrest, the American media flooded their stories with images of a picture-perfect family; something most of us aspire to create in our own lives.

The media did that to build the story, to show us who this family was. That’s their job, right?

And, did it help that the Watts, a conventionally good-looking white family, was presented to the public as such, with all the positive racial and social connotations possible?

This is the conundrum the media faces: it's their job to sell stories as much as it is to tell them - so these cases are presented to appeal to the largest demographic - white people - to make them relatable in a "that could be me/my sister/my neighbour" way.

Is that why we were shown those images to paint the picture - to make us click? To make us care?

And is that why, despite Chris Watts' arrest, we're still seeing stories leading with the 'happy family' image?

"The media always leads with the happy family image, but if a man is a loving and caring father, why has he killed his family?"

McGrath firmly believes that it's not simply a matter of depression that explains family murders.

"There's a dire lack of resilience in these murderers," she says. Her concern for, and interest in, the absence of coping skills in many men is one of the reasons why McGrath runs the resilience program, Bounce Back.

"Dads need to teach their sons how to be good men. Otherwise, we see family violence increasing as it currently is."

Which is why, despite being taken into custody, it's curious many news sites especially are still running Watts family photos as a lead image, rather than Chris Watts' mugshot. We are seeing heartwarming photos of a murdered family - with the person who has been charged with brutally ending their lives.

So why does that still matter? Why is that a problem, as long as it's telling a newsworthy story?

It matters because it's a portrayal the accused murderer doesn't deserve - and, more importantly, that his victims don't deserve.

Take, for another example, the case of the Little family from Port Lincoln. In 2016, Melissa's husband Damien - a good-looking 24-year-old 'Aussie bloke' - shot their sons, four-year-old Koda and nine-month-old Hunter, and then drove off a pier and into the ocean.

Melissa stood by her husband, explaining later that he struggled with mental health issues. That's her prerogative to do.

But even before that was revealed, the media recycled one image - a professional shot of the happy family of four - to represent the case. Over and over again.