engleski

Media presentation and stereotypes of child sexual abuse perpetrators

The main objective of this study was to determine how the newspapers present child sexual abuse (CSA) perpetrators. A longitudinal content analysis (2007–2016) of a random cluster sample of 1.159 CSA news printed in Croatian daily newspapers was conducted. Perpetrators are presented as single/individual, male, elderly perpetrator, usually a church figure or person in charge of childcare. They are a known person to the child or a complete stranger. Use of derogatory terms to describe the perpetrator is greater in episodic news dealing with criminal offenses that highlight background information on the perpetrator and victim. Also, perpetrators are often wrongly described as pedophiles, while a portion of the news still incorrectly describes perpetrators as mentally ill persons. Finally, the news prematurely reveals the identity of the perpetrators, and predictors of identity disclosure are emphasized. News reports still support common stereotypes regarding the perpetrators, making them difficult to detect and recognize.

child sexual abuse perpetrators ; media presentation ; stereotypes ; content analysis

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