| Description |
This study is a content analysis of media reports exploring how women who kill their abusive partners are portrayed in the media. Public opinion on this issue has changed over the years. Historically, intimate partner abuse was hidden within homes and viewed as a strictly domestic issue not to be dealt with by law enforcement. Now there seems to be a better understanding of how serious it is-this study seeks to discover how a changing public opinion might impact case outcomes. News articles throughout the 2000s were selected and the following themes were identified and coded: a history of violence in the life of the woman, battered woman syndrome, the women as mothers, negative portrayals of the women, and their racial/ethnic background. Using the lens of these themes, the cases were reviewed and sorted based on their eventual outcomes: no charges filed, the charges being dropped, or a prison sentence for the women being discussed. Exploring this topic is crucial in addressing the problem of criminalizing survivors of abuse. Each of these cases involves women with various identities that affect the way they are treated in the legal system, and an intersectional approach is necessary to properly view their circumstances. There is a lack of understanding from law enforcement on how to handle intimate partner abuse situations, as well as large discrepancies in the outcomes of the survivors-some spend years in prison for firing a shot in the direction of their partner, while others never have charges brought against them. Ultimately, there should be a unified understanding across the country on how to respond to these situations: the aggressive, traumatizing approach of the criminal justice system against survivors must change. |
