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String of Stranger Sexual Assaults: The Construction of an Orthodox Account of Rape (From Constructing Danger: The Mis/Representation of Crime in the News, P 16-35, 1995, Douglas Beall, ed. - See NCJ-162999)

NCJ Number
163000
Author(s)
S Fraser
Date Published
1995
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article claims that the media usually present issues from a male-centered point of view, and women's issues are often absent or distorted.
Abstract
The author discusses her claim that the media usually present issues from a male-centered point of view, and underscores the issues using the example of how sexual assault is reported in the newspapers. Society's institutions, the educational system, governments, and the media have never acknowledged the realities of women's lives and therefore the media cover those issues as afterthoughts and fillers, with tongue in cheek at best and journalistic contempt at worst. Reporting of sexual assault against women does not include any analysis of men as perpetrators, of sexual assault as a crime in general, of why women are blamed for not keeping themselves safe, or criticism of how the criminal justice system deals with this kind of crime. The various misrepresentations evident in crime reporting, such as sensationalism, exaggeration of law and order issues, and overemphasis of atypical assault, can distort crime or even make it invisible; a series of silences and distortions work to misrepresent crime in the news. Figures, notes