Depictions of Female Offenders in Front-Page Newspaper Stories: The Importance of Race/Ethnicity

This paper examined how a female offender’s race/ethnicity influenced how she was portrayed by the media. Existing literature on gender stereotypes, racial and ethnic stereotypes, and media depictions of offenders provided the basis for this study. Few have focused solely on the media’s treatment of offenders, in general, and fewer have looked closely at how the media depict female offenders, in particular. This study, therefore, filled a void. We predicted that minority women would be portrayed less favorably than white women, and conducted a content analysis of front-page newspaper articles that featured female offenders to test our expectation. The articles were gathered from two different U.S. newspapers for the 2006 calendar year—the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. We found that stories about white female offenders were more likely to contain excuses for their alleged or actual offenses and were, therefore, more likely to take on an overall favorable tone than stories about minority female offenders.

Keywords:

Media depictions of offenders, media treatment of offenders, female offenders, differential treatment by race/ethnicity, gender stereotypes techniques of neutralization, racial/ethnic discrimination,

PDF

___

Antunes, G. E., & Hurley, P. A. (1977). The representation of criminal events in Houston’s two daily newspapers. Journalism Quarterly, 54(4), 756-760.
Armstrong, I. (1999). Women and their ‘uncontrollable impulses’: The Medicalization of women’s crime and differential gender sentencing. Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law, (1), 67-77.
Ballinger, A. (1996). The guilt of the innocent, and the innocence of the guilty: The cases of Marie Fahmy and Ruth Ellis. In A. Meyers & S. Wight (Eds.), No angels: Women who commit violence (pp. 1-28). San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers.
Barak, G. (1994). Between the waves: Mass-mediated themes of crime and justice. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 21(3), 133-147.
Barlow, M. H. (1998). Race and the problem of crime in “Time” and “Newsweek” cover stories, 1946 to 1995. Social Justice 25(2), 149-183.
Barnett, B. (2006). Medea in the media: Narrative and myth in newspaper coverage of women who kill their children. Journalism, 7(4), 411-432.
Berrington, E., & Honkatukia, P. (2002). An evil monster and a poor thing: Female violence in the media. Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 3(1), 50-72.
Bond-Maupin, L. (1998). “That wasn’t even me they showed”: Women as criminals on America’s Most Wanted. Violence Against Women, 4(1), 30-44.
Brennan, P. K. (2002). Women sentenced to jail in New York City. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing.
Brennan, P. K. (2006). Sentencing female misdemeanants: An examination of the direct and indirect effects of race/ethnicity. Justice Quarterly, 23(1), 60-95.
Broverman, I. K., Vogel, S. R., Broverman, D. M., Clarkson, F. E., & Rosenkrantz, P. S. (1972). Sex-role stereotypes: A current appraisal. Journal of Social Issues, 28(2), 59-78.
Buckler, K., & Travis, L. (2005). Assessing the newsworthiness of homicide events: An analysis of coverage in the Houston Chronicle. Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 12(1), 1-25.
Bustillo, M. (2006, July 27). Jury finds Yates legally insane, not guilty in children’s deaths. Los Angeles Times, pp. A1, A16.
Cavender, G., Bond-Maupin, L., & Jurik, N.C. (1999). The construction of gender in reality crime TV. Gender & Society, 13(5), 643-663.
Chermak, S. (1994). Body count news: How crime is presented in the news media. Justice Quarterly, 11(4), 561-582.
Chermak, S. (1998). Predicting crime story salience: The effects of crime, victim, and defendant characteristics. Journal of Criminal Justice, 26(1), 61-70.
Chesney-Lind, M. (1999). Media misogyny: Demonizing “violent” girls and women. In J. Ferrell & N. Websdale (Eds.), Making trouble: Cultural constructions of crime, deviance and control (pp. 115-140). New York: Walter de Gruyter, Inc.
Daly, K. (1994). Gender and punishment disparity. In G. S. Bridges & M. A. Myers (Eds.), Inequality, Crime, and Social Control (pp. 117-133). Boulder: Westview Press.
Dates, J. L., & Pease, E. C. (1997). Warping the world – Media’s mangled images of race. In E. E. Dennis & E. C. Pease (Eds.), The media in black and white (pp. 77-82). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Eckholm, E. (2006, August 12). Help for the hardest part of prison: Staying out. New York Times, pp. A1, A12.
Edwards, S. S. M. (1986). Neither bad nor mad: The female violent offender reassessed. Women’s Studies International Forum, 9(1), 79-87.
Entman, R. (1990). Modern racism and the images of blacks in local television news. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 7(4), 332-345.
Entman, R. (1992). Blacks in the news: Television, modern racism and cultural change. Journalism Quarterly, 69(2), 341-361.
Entman, R. (1994). Representation and reality in the portrayal of blacks on network television news. Journalism Quarterly, 71(3), 509-520.
Entman, R. (1997). African Americans according to TV news. In E. E. Dennis & E. C. Pease (Eds.), The media in black and white (pp. 29-36). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Fairchild, H. H., & Cozens, J. A. (1981). Chicano, Hispanic, or Mexican American; What’s in a name? Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 3(2), 191-198.
Farr, K. A. (1997). Aggravating and differentiating factors in the cases of white and minority women on death row. Crime & Delinquency, 43(3), 260-278.
Farr, K. A. (2000). Defeminizing and dehumanizing female murderers: Depictions of lesbians on death row. Women & Criminal Justice, 11(1), 49-66.
Fausset, R., & Simmons, A. M. (2006, July 21). Fury meets Katrina hospital arrests. Los Angeles Times, pp. A1, A22.
Fedler, F., & Jordan, D. (1982). How emphasis on people affects coverage of crime. Journalism Quarterly, 59, 474-478.
Feuer, A., & Lueck, T. J. (2006, January 13). Long chain of alarms preceded death of girl, 7. New York Times, pp. A1, B5.
Fishman, G., & Weimann, G. (1985). Presenting the victim: Sex-based bias in press reports on crime. Justice Quarterly, 2(4), 491-503.
Gandy, O. (1997). From bad to worse – The media’s framing of race and risk. In E. E. Dennis & E. C. Pease (Eds.), The media in black and white (pp. 37-44). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Gardikiotis, A. (2003). Minorities and crime in the Greek press: Employing content and discourse analytic approaches. Communications, 28(3), 339-350.
Garofolo, J. (1981). Crime and the mass media: A selective review of research. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 18(2), 319-350.
Garvey, M., & Leonard, J. (2006, December 26). Why L.A. jail cells have revolving doors. Los Angeles Times, p. A1, A22-A23.
Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink: The power of thinking without thinking. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Grabe, M. E. (1999). Television news magazine crime stories: A functionalist perspective. Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 16(2), 155-171.
Grabe, M. E., Trager, K. D., Lear, M., & Rauch, J. (2006). Gender in crime news: A case study test of the chivalry hypothesis. Mass Communication and Society, 9(2), 137
Healey, J.F. (1997). Race, ethnicity, and gender in the United States: Inequality, group conflict, and power. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
How do Americans view one another? The persistence of racial/ethnic stereotypes. (1998). Diversity Digest, Winter 1998. Retrieved January 28, 2008, from http://www.diversityweb.org/Digest/W98/research2.html.
Huckerby, J. (2003). Women who kill their children: Case study and conclusions concerning the differences in the fall from maternal grace by Khoua and Andrea Yates. Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy, 10, 149-172.
Humphries, D. (1981). Serious crime, news coverage, and ideology: A content analysis of crime coverage in a metropolitan newspaper. Crime & Delinquency, 27(2), 205.
Hurwitz, J., & Peffley, M. (1997). Public perceptions of race and crime: The role of racial stereotypes. American Journal of Political Science, 41(2), 375-401.
Johnstone, J. W. C., Hawkins, D. F., & Michener, A. (1994). Homicide reporting in Chicago dailies. Journalism Quarterly, 71(4), 860-872.
Jones, R. L. (2006, February 11). 95 pounds heavier, angry son faces mother who starved him. New York Times, pp. A1, B5.
Kurokawa, M. (1971). Mutual perceptions of racial images: White, black, and Japanese Americans. Journal of Social Issues, 27, 4, 213-235.
Landrine, H. (1985). Race x class stereotypes of women. Sex Roles, 13(1/2), 65-75.
Macdonald, M. (1995). Representing women: Myths of femininity in the popular media. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Madriz, E. (1997). Images of criminals and victims: A study on women’s fear and social control. Gender & Society, 11(3), 342-356.
Naylor, B. (2001). Reporting violence in the British print media: Gendered stories. The Howard Journal, 40(2), 180-194.
Nossiter, A., & Dewan, S. (2006, July 19). Patient deaths in New Orleans bring arrests. New York Times, pp. A1, A19.
Peffley, M., Shields, T., & Williams, B. (1996). The intersection of race and crime in television news stories: An experimental study. Political Communication, 13, 309-327.
Rattner, A. (1996). The effect of legal and extralegal variables on sentencing in Israel. Justice Quarterly, 13(1), 129-152.
Reid, P. T., & Comas-Diaz, L. (1990). Gender and ethnicity: Perspectives on dual status. Sex Roles, 22(7/8), 397-408.
Richtel, M. (2006, September 29). Hewlett’s hunt for leak became a game of Clue. New York Times, pp. A1, C7.
Sabol, W. J., Couture, J., & Harrison, P. M. (December 2007). Prisoners in 2006. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. NCJ
Sacco, V. F. (1995). Media constructions of crime. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 539(1), 141-154.
Sarat, A. (1993). Research on the death penalty: Speaking of death: Narratives of violence in capital trials. Law & Society Review, 27(1), 19-58.
Smith, T. W. (1990). Ethnic Images. Retrieved January 28, 2008, from http://cloud9.norc.uchicago.edu/dlib/t-19.htm.
Surette, R. (1992). Media, crime, and criminal justice: Images and realities. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole.
Steffensmeier, D., Kramer, J., & Streifel, C. (1993). Gender and imprisonment decisions. Criminology, 31, 411-446.
Steffensmeier, D., Ulmer, J., & Kramer, J. (1998). The interaction of race, gender, and age in criminal sentencing: The punishment cost of being young, black, and male. Criminology, 36, 763-798.
Streitfeld, D., Granelli, J. S., & Menn, J. (2006, September 8). Spiraling scandal engulfs tech icon. Los Angeles Times, pp. A1, A14
Sykes, G. M., & Matza, D. (1957). Techniques of neutralization: A theory of delinquency. American Sociological Review, 22(6), 667-670.
U.S. Department of Justice. (1999). Women Offenders. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ 175688.
U.S. Department of Justice. (2008). Crime in the United States 2007. Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved on-line January 13, 2009 from http://www/fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/data/table_48.html
Van Brunschot, E. G., Sydie, R. A., & Krull, C. (1999). Images of prostitution: The prostitute and print media. Women & Criminal Justice, 10(4), 47-72.
Visher, C. A. (1983). Gender, police arrest decisions, and notions of chivalry. Criminology, 21(1), 5-28.
Warren, J. (2006, August 14). A life on hold in prison. Los Angeles Times, pp. A1, A12.
Welch, M., Fenwick, M., & Roberts, M. (1997). Primary definitions of crime and moral panic: A content analysis of experts’ quotes in feature newspaper articles on crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 34(4), 474-494.
Welch, M., Fenwick, M., & Roberts, M. (1998). State managers, intellectuals, and the media: A content analysis of ideology in experts’ quotes in feature newspaper articles on crime. Justice Quarterly, 15(2), 219-241.
Wilczynski, A. (1991). Images of women who kill their infants: The mad and the bad. Women & Criminal Justice, 2(2), 71-88.
Willemsen, T. M., & van Schie, E. C. M. (1989). Sex stereotypes and responses to juvenile delinquency. Sex Roles, 20(11/12): 623-638.
Windhauser, J. W., Seiter, J., & Winfree, L. T. (1990). Crime news in the Louisiana press, 1980 v. 1985. Journalism Quarterly, 67(1), 72-78.
Young, V. D. (1986). Gender expectations and their impact on black female offenders and victims. Justice Quarterly, 3(3), 305-327.