Essay On Domestic Violence In The Media

While it may not come as a surprise to know that the media tends to sensationalize crimes like domestic violence as a quick and easy way to entice viewers/readers, in reality the representation of the crime is skewed as news reports tend to show male on female violence and usual about the female who comes forwarded with her case, is hospitalized, or was murdered. Researchers like Kohlman, Baig, Balice, DiRubbo, Plancencia, Skale, and Aquino claim that focusing mainly on stories like these will only serve to reinforce gender stereotypes, normalize the crime as an everyday occurrence, and desensitize the viewers/readers to future tragedies involving domestic violence (2014). Thanks to the media’s continuous portrayals of domestic violence as a brutal crime mainly instigated by the masculine partner many citizens will be conditioned to assume that whenever a crime like this happens one party will almost always be innocent while the other party will …show more content…
Under normal circumstances this wouldn’t be a major issue, however people have become fearful of how often in the media that domestic violence leads to hospitalization, long-term emotional scarring, and death. Researchers like McQueeney claim that due to the media’s numerous depictions of domestic violence there has been in significant increase of consolation and support groups for women over the past decade (2016). While it is fine that these support groups exist, the main concern is the message that is being delivered as people are going to immediately assume that conflicts within a relationship will eventually result in a criminal sentencing down the line. Based on that line of thinking the perpetrator (the male usually) would be treated as a criminal by their peer who rather see them go to jail then contact