Media s Influence On Female And Child Offenders - 1548 Words

This essay will look at how various forms of media examine female and child offenders, and how these same criminals can also be viewed as being victims. The media is able to shape the way the public perceive a certain criminal through aspects such as personal information, history of violence and appearance (Fries, 1820). Therefore, creating the opportunity to generate a media story in which the ideal criminal is involved. Included within the essay will be how the medias fixation with gendered and social norms can cause a female or child offender to be considered as being depraved. Also, this essay will demonstrate how today’s media supports the now discredited theory of criminologist, Cesare Lombroso, that asserted physical attributes†¦show more content†¦This can be seen in the case of Aileen Wuornos where in which the media delved into her sexual history working as a prostitute, claiming that she had slept with over 250,000 men. By doing so, the media was able to c reate a deviant persona about Wuornus, which therefore goes against the expected gendered norms of a female of not being sexually promiscuous, deeming her criminal. With regards to female sentences, it can be seen on the one hand that the criminal justice system deals with female crimes more leniently than with male criminality, as referred to as the chivalry theory (Pollok, 1983). As many female offences are usually petty wrongdoings, such as shoplifting which makes up for nearly a half of all indictable convictions (Ministry of Justice, 2014), due to their gender, it is most likely that females are to be cautioned over receiving a prison sentence. However, this was not the case for Maxine Carr in 2003. A whirlwind of media interest surrounding Carr’s involvement, with the murders of two young girls from Soham, is argued to be the definitive reason as to why Carr received a prison sentence of three years, all for perverting the course of justice. The main reason behind this media flurry is seemingly due to the persistent view of females having a nurturing role. Once a female digress’ from this idea, they are demonised by the media. It is