Sexual violence (any sexual act committed against an individual without that persons freely given consent) stories throughout news reporting are extremely significant as discourses on delinquency notify us of a culture’s moral, political and social order. (D'Artrey, 2008) The frequently used term ‘sex sells’ is very apparent in modern day news reporting. The question is not whether the press deploys the details of the offence in order to sell copy; they clearly do, rather to what extent does this happen and subsequently what critical issues are created from this? (Greer, 2012) The language used throughout news reporting of sexual violence is the central catalyst creating widespread issues. The concept of the ‘ideal victim’ and the element of female offenders being portrayed as ‘doubly deviant’ compared to their male counterparts are two of the most problematic disputes constructed from news reporting of sexual violence. …show more content…
It is frequently claimed that male individuals dominate the news as ‘aggressive and dominant’ offenders of sexual crimes and the public appear to embrace this ideal. When a news report is released involving a female as the offender of a crime of this type she is often portrayed throughout the media more bitterly than that of her male counterpart. Females often being described as ‘the sex offender no one suspects’, (Kingston, 2014) with many criminologists identifying overrepresentation patterns in the news reporting of women’s victimisation regarding sexual violence. (Gill,