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Homicide Studies
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Slain and Slandered

A Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Femicide in Crime News

Rae Taylor

University of Central Florida, srtaylor{at}mail.ucf.edu

The present study is a content analysis of crime news to determine how femicide victims are portrayed by a Florida metropolitan newspaper. The analysis consisted of 292 domestic homicide-related articles published by one newspaper from 1995 to 2000. The data were analyzed to determine effects on newsworthiness, context revealed, and patterns of victim blame. A dichotomy concerning victim blame emerged from the analysis, suggesting victims are blamed directly and indirectly for their own femicides. Direct tactics include using negative language to describe the victim, highlighting her choices not to report past incidences, and portraying her actions with other men as contributing to her murder. Indirect tactics include using sympathetic language to describe the perpetrator; emphasizing the perpetrator's mental, physical, emotional, and financial problems; highlighting the victim's mental or physical problems; and describing domestic violence in terms that assign equal blame to both partners.

Key Words: domestic homicide • media coverage • femicide • victim blame • family violence

This version was published on February 1, 2009

Homicide Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1, 21-49 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1088767908326679
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