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Conflation, collocation and confusion

British press coverage of the sexual murder of women

Paul Mason

Cardiff University, UK, masonp{at}cardiff.ac.uk

Jane Monckton-Smith

University of Gloucestershire, UK, jmonckton-smith{at}glos.ac.uk

Despite research to the contrary, a recent British Home Office report by Kelly et al. (2005) notes that in public consciousness a 'real rape' is perceived to occur in a public place, is perpetrated by a stranger and involves aggravating violence. Further, it notes that such skewed perceptions are implicated in the high attrition rate that this offence attracts in the United Kingdom. This paper suggests that a significant factor in the reinforcing of this skewed perception is the reporting of violence against women in the print media. It is argued that murders of women are regularly sexualized by journalists and conversely that sexual assaults of women are framed within a discourse of murder. Through a discourse analysis of six case studies of rape and/or murder of women by men between 2003 and 2004, this research contends that the habitual linking of the concepts of sex and death in such reporting, which in some contexts effectively produces a conflation of the offences of rape and murder, contributes to the way in which rape is received by criminal justice professionals, victims and the wider public.

Key Words: criminal justice • discourse • murder • public opinion • rape sex crime • women

Journalism, Vol. 9, No. 6, 691-710 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1464884908096241
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