Beauty and bullets

A content analysis of female offenders and victims in four Canadian newspapers

Bibliographic Data

ID2399255
AuthorsRachael E Collins, Rachael Collins (0000-0001-7935-9929, University of Saskatchewan, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume52
Issue2
Pages296-310
Publication date2016-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1440-7833 • E-ISSN: 1741-2978
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1440783314528594
OpenAlexW2023381770
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited26

Media-generated discourse can provide a framework for its consumers to construct representations of the world they live in. These representations, however, are often disproportionate to the true incidence of crime or risk of victimization. In order to examine the extent to which the gender of the offender or victim impacts portrayals of crime, content and discourse analyses were carried out on four Canadian city newspapers over a span of 30 years. The results from the 1190 sampled crime articles revealed that, although portrayals of female offenders accurately depict them as generally lower-risk, both female offenders and female victims were treated equivocally. Women offenders were dichotomized into sexualized bad girls or malicious black widow archetypes. Similarly, female victims were depicted either as bad victims who were blamed for their circumstances, or good victims who garnered sympathy through negative portrayals of the offenders. The findings are discussed within the context of gender differences surrounding the social discourse of violence, particularly chivalry

Beauty · Content analysis · Context (archaeology) · Criminology · Media studies · Newspaper · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies · Social Psychology

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