Abstract
This paper aims to analyze the way in which the media reports of sex offences tend to reinforce traditional sexual scripts and gender identities. Compared to investigations into male sex offenders, female sex offending is relatively underresearched, undertheorized, and misunderstood (Hayes and Carpenter, 2013). We argue that the media’s reinforcement of traditional scripts has hindered the development of awareness of sex offending by women, depicting them as aberrations, that is, as “female pariahs.” As Harris (2010) notes, female sex crimes cannot be explained by male theories of crime. To address this issue, we examined 487 media reports from Australia and the United Kingdom and found that, as key stakeholders in public debate, the media does indeed play a crucial role in shaping the public perceptions of female sex offenders as aberrations and pariahs. This distorted view influences approaches to understanding and acknowledging sex offending by women as well as hindering the safe and timely reporting of offences by victims.
Highlights
This paper explores how media reports sex offenders, in particular, female sex offenders
Gleb 2007 [10, p. 16] reports that, of the 853 sex offenders adjudicated in Magistrates Courts across Australia in 2004-5, only 12 were women, these statistics were not broken down according to age of victim, and there are no statistics to date reporting the numbers of female pedophiles in Australia
The fact that Australian statistics tend to be far lower than those reported in the United States and United Kingdom suggests that there are some anomalies in the way official statistics are kept in this country or that female sexual abuse is highly underreported, or both
Summary
This paper explores how media reports sex offenders, in particular, female sex offenders. Most sex offending research has tended to focus on male perpetrators and female victims [4,5,6,7]. Shows an increase in numbers of both convicted female sex offenders and male victims under 16. 16] reports that, of the 853 sex offenders adjudicated in Magistrates Courts across Australia in 2004-5, only 12 were women, these statistics were not broken down according to age of victim, and there are no statistics to date reporting the numbers of female pedophiles in Australia. The fact that Australian statistics tend to be far lower than those reported in the United States and United Kingdom suggests that there are some anomalies in the way official statistics are kept in this country or that female sexual abuse is highly underreported, or both
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