Ethnicity, the search for rapists and the press

Grover, Christopher and Soothill, Keith (1996) Ethnicity, the search for rapists and the press. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 19 (3). pp. 568-584. ISSN 0141-9870

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Abstract

Media reporting of rape continues to provoke concern. This article focuses on the press reporting of the discovery and search for alleged rapists. On examining nine British newspapers for one complete year (1992), a serious distortion in the media reporting of ethnicity emerges at this early stage of the criminal process. While there is an over‐representation of minority ethnic men accused of rape coming to the notice of the police, the cases identified as involving minority ethnic (particularly black) men as assailants, are much more likely to be reported widely. The distortion is then intensified by associating minority ethnic (and again particularly, black men) with certain types of rape. However, there are important differences between newspapers in their coverage. Furthermore, while media coverage of the search for rapists is a matter of concern, it also needs to be seen as part of the wider process of the social construction of rapists. Nevertheless, the conclusion is that the media coverage of rape tends to distort in ways which may well exacerbate hostility against minority ethnic groups.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/socialscience/appliedsocialscience
Subjects:
?? britainrapeethnicityracismmediapolicyapplied social sciencesociology and political sciencecultural studiesh social sciences (general) ??
ID Code:
59065
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
09 Oct 2012 15:08
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 13:19