Fuel to the fire? Newspaper reporting of sexual offending across the US, UK, Norway, and New Zealand

Pål Grøndahl,Caitlyn P Drinkwater,Gwenda M Willis,Ragnar Kristoffersen,Ingeborg J Sandbukt,Daniel Richardson,Christine Friestad

doi:10.5964/sotrap.4205

Abstract

Research suggests that the news media plays an important role in shaping public opinion about sex crimes and the people who commit them, thereby influencing the development of laws and policies. The media has potential to fuel non-evidence-based policies that are ineffective and counterproductive. Alternatively, the media offers a powerful vehicle for educating the public and promoting evidence-based practices and policies. The current study aimed to examine newspaper reports of sexual crimes across four countries with different criminal justice responses to sexual offending. Constructed week sampling was used to generate samples of newspaper articles over a six-month period in 2015. Episodic articles were coded to examine how people accused/charged with sexual offenses were portrayed, the extent to which articles aligned with stereotypes, and the extent to which rehabilitation was mentioned as a solution (n = 240). Episodic and thematic articles were combined to code for systemic/environmental solutions to sexual crimes (n = 290). Overall, Norwegian articles demonstrated more neutral and less informative portrayals of individuals who have sexually offended, compared to US, UK, and New Zealand. At the same time, Norwegian articles were less likely to discuss solutions to sexual offending. Rehabilitation was rarely discussed as a solution. However, environmental/systemic solutions were discussed in approximately one third of articles. Implications for framing sexual abuse as a public health problem rather than a criminal justice problem are discussed.

Highlights

The media occupies a prominent position in social discourse surrounding sexual offending with potential to fuel ill-informed and ineffective responses
It has been argued that the media tends to sensationalize sexual crimes by focusing on exceptional cases, contributing to an inaccurate representation of individuals convicted of sexual offenses
Why was this study done? We wanted to compare the newspaper coverage of sexual offending in four countries (US, UK, New Zealand, and Norway) to see how newspaper articles (i) describe the persons suspected of sexual abuse, (ii) to what degree media reporting of sexual offending aligns with common stereotypes of persons who have sexual abused, and (iii) to what extent any kind of solutions to the problems of sexual offending were offered

Summary

Introduction

The media occupies a prominent position in social discourse surrounding sexual offending with potential to fuel ill-informed and ineffective responses. We wanted to compare the newspaper coverage of sexual offending in four countries (US, UK, New Zealand, and Norway) to see how newspaper articles (i) describe the persons suspected of sexual abuse, (ii) to what degree media reporting of sexual offending aligns with common stereotypes of persons who have sexual abused (e.g., the stranger-danger notion), and (iii) to what extent any kind of solutions to the problems of sexual offending were offered. Very few of the articles had any use of sympathetic language when they described individuals charged or accused of sexual crimes. There was a trend for US and UK articles to align more closely with stereotypes about sexual offending compared with the New Zealand and Norwegian articles. There were few articles that mentioned individual solutions to sexual offending such as rehabilitation, which was not mentioned in any of the Norwegian articles. Environmental/systemic solutions were discussed in approximately one third of articles

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Conclusion