"Crimewatch UK": Women's Interpretations of Televised Violence

Abstract

This chapter examines audience interpretations of a soap opera, a television play, a feature film, and Crimewatch. It also examines the differing interpretations of women who had experienced violence and those who had no such experience, and considered differences based on sociocultural locations such as social class and ethnicity. The chapter reviews women's interpretations of and responses to the portrayal of violence against women on television. We were interested in how the lived experience of violence and sociocultural locations shape interpretations and responses to televised violence. The chapter explores how the viewing groups evaluated the different types of crime covered, how they assessed crimes involving property compared to those of violence, and how they viewed the different types of violence presented, especially the rape-murder. Many women with experience of violence said that the program ought to be more explicit about the real horrors of violence and the impact of rape.