Female offenders are far more rare then males, and there has only been a handful of Australian women who have gained popular media attention for series crimes over the past ten years. For the purpose of this media analysis I chose to look at two Australian female offenders, who committed and were charged with serious crimes as well as being popular media entities that continue to gain newsworthiness today. Kristi Abrahams and Gunn Britt Ashfield both murdered a child of the age of six, were sentenced to long sentences in jail and gained solid media attention in the Australian press. Although quite a time period between the two offenders, these two females are given different narrative attention on why they committed these murders and are portrayed …show more content…
It wasn’t until April of 2011 that she confessed to murdering her daughter and hiding the body, several months after the investigation was on its way (Blanco 2015). Media coverage of this story as it was quite recent is easily accessible and continues to be a relevant story in the media today. Abrahams has been portrayed by media as a victim of circumstance, reports on her often mentioned her troubled childhood and history of family abuse. The ABC news (Wells 2013) reported that she had an intellectual ability and suffered from severe domestic violence when she was a child. Similarly, the Sydney Morning Herald reported in their article ‘Duty of Care: What happened to Kiesha?’ (Whitaker 2013) that Kristi suffered from an extreme learning disability and grew up in an aboriginal household filled with abuse and neglect, moving from different foster homes from an early age. Both these articles, although far more the Sydney Morning Herald (Whitaker 2013), play on the mad narrative, Abraham’s terrible upbringing, which explains the violent outburst on her child which caused her ultimate death. Although this narrative plays out easily in the media coverage of her, it does not stop the media from lashing out on her in negative ways. The Daily Telegraph quoted Justice Harrison in July …show more content…
The media coverage of her was more difficult to find due to the large time period between then and now. However she served 18 years in jail and was released in 2011, which is what I will focus most of my findings on as she was prominent in the media at this time. An article from The Age discusses the crime committed against six year old John and surprisingly does not focus mainly on the mother, but rather on the tragic incident that occurred (Ryle, Baker & Papadopoulous 1993). The article choses to focus on the end of John’s life opposed to the circumstances in which he died. However, the title of the article reads Boy Beaten For Hours and describes Ashfield as “shaking and sobbing” and a detailed description of her appearance and how she acted in court is given (Ryle et at 1993). This kind of treatment is reserved for female killers as it is rarely commented on what a male offender is wearing. Daily Telegraph (Morri & Klein 2011) reported as she was released on bail that she “brutally” murdered her six year old son 18 years ago and states not one family member greeted her as she was released and she made no eye contact with reporters. The Daily Telegraph takes a more bad viewpoint of Ashfield and makes her as to be as unrelatable as possible to the public, isolating her from normal females
Barbara was born in 1948, convicted for manslaughter, due to emotional duress, sentenced for 25 years, to be suspended after 10, arrested in 1996. Barbara’s story stood out the most to me and i found it very interesting and sad. Barbara 's life has been filled with tragedy since she was young. Barbara was molested by her grandfather when she was a child, and was too young to understand what had happened at the time. Barbara ended up telling her mother about what happened recently after, but her mother told her to keep it to herself. When Barbara got older she learned that her grandfather also molested her mother as well. This made Barbara very confused and question her mother.
Ashley Smith was a young girl that was placed in a juvenile detention centre at age 15 for throwing apples at a mail man. Her short sentence quickly extended into a life sentence because of so many infractions within the prison system. Ashley suffered from extreme mental health issues and was place in a psychiatric prison facility, however this facility was shown in the documentary to be corrupt and their actions with Ashley were extremely illegal. Furthermore, Ashley wasn’t given the proper help and treatment that she needed, instead she was physically and verbally abused by guards in the prison, and she ultimately passed away in the prison. Her death is still being debated about whether
The article is about a four years old boy who was starved to death by his mother and was left in his cot for two years. She was found accountable for killing him and was given 12 years for killing him and three years for child cruelty, as shown in the (Pidd,2013) newspaper article.
The criminal justice system is dynamic and has changed rapidly since the works of Cesare Beccaria and Cesare Lombroso during Enlightenment Period and this reflects in the issue of intersectionality with the changing approaches taken towards concepts of gender, race and class. Sexual assault will be a predominate study used throughout the essay to examine the different approaches and issues between traditional and non-traditional justices. This essay will first establish where are these intersectionalities found in terms of sexual assault cases and the challenges victims face in the legal process with traditional approaches then followed by a comparison to the transition towards non-traditional alternative justice system has responded with a deeper insight into restorative justices and its effects on resolving these challenges. The role of alternative justice and the key challenges in disproportionate crimes are also important aspects of intersectionality in Australia as they aim to resolve challenges women and the mentally disabled encounter during processing through court in the criminal justice system.
Aboriginal women account for 24.9% of the general population and 32.5% of the incarcerated female population (Amey Bell, Shelly Trevethan & Nicole Allegri, 2004). Aboriginal female offenders are also responsible for violent crimes (Bell et al., 2004). Aboriginal female offenders have an adverse childhood; the childhood for Aboriginal women are centred around family violence, instability and substance abuse (Colleen Dell & Jennifer Kitty, 2012). The Canadian government is attempting to solve the over representation by implementing bills such as 718.2(e) (Gillian Balflour, 2012). This becomes a challenge to the correctional system since Aboriginal female inmates account for a great number of the prison population despite the bill 718.2(e).
"Grand jury prepared child abuse indictment against JonBenet Ramse'ys parents, newly released documents show." NBC News 25 oct 2013, n. pag. Web. 2 Mar. 2014.
London Borough of Brent (1985) A Child in Trust: the report of the panel of inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Jasmine Beckford, London, Brent.
Vanessa George is a convicted female sex offender ‘’a person who commits a crime involving a sexual act’’. A wife for more than 20 years, a devoted mother to her two daughters, and a loving nursery nurse to all staff and children was convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and taking indecent images of the toddlers in her care at the Plymouth nursery little teds where she worked as a nursery nurse. Once seen as a lovely bubbly character and now as an evil monster. It all started from her obsession with the internet, where she discovered her co offender who she used to share and swap indecent images with. Vanessa George’s job and previous reputation helped to conceal her sexual offences for so long. But why would a loving passive female turn into such an evil monster?
On June 20, 2001, a terrible tragedy occurred, as Andrea Yates drowned all five of her children in the bath. After drowning each child child, she picked them up, tucked them in her bed and called in her next victim until all 5 children were deceased. After she had successfully drowned each child, she calmly called her husband and notified local police that she was in need of an officer. As this case reached international news, many pondered what would make the mother of five do such an abysmal thing. Once the investigation began, it became acknowledged that Andrea Yates was influenced by several psychological perspectives and was not in her right mind when she committed the heinous crime.
Representations of victims such as Allison Baden-Clay who was a regular mother, loving wife with kids can lead the public to assume only those who share her traits can be victims as well (Christie, 1986, p.19). Those who are incapable physically and have never done anything wrong in their life will be given the benefit of doubt and advantage in their case, in comparison to other victims different to them. This also overlooks the fact which asserts males are more likely to be assaulted and be victims of crime, which many are still not aware of (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2013). Therefore, the public will accept the stereotypes of the attributes a victim consists of, without being aware of the reality where anyone can be
as Jennifer, a victim states, “I feel our childhood has been taken away from us and it has left a big hole in our lives.”
When Deborah was only sixteen she became pregnant with her first child by Cheetah and boy she liked when she was younger. Cheetah and Deborah got married and then had their second child. Deborah became very unhappy in the marriage because Cheetah started drinking and doing drugs. He started abusing Deborah. Cheetah pushed Deborah so much she almost killed him if it wasn’t for Bobbette. Deborah’s brothers Sonny and Lawrence were doing well except for Joe. Joe was another case. Joe went to the military, and the family was hoping that would do him good; but he came out worse than when he went in. Joe was threatened and beaten up by a boy named Ivy. Joe was in so much rage he went and stabbed him and killed him. Joe eventually turned himself in to the law, was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced fifteen years in prison.
The Web. 28 Feb 2014 Christopher, Liam. “Mother ‘vindicated’ after girl’s murder suspect held.” Daily Post. 18 Aug. 2006: 19:. Proquest Newsstand.
The media, both in the mainstream and alternative sources, determine how the community views crime and how it represents the victims of crime, criminals and law enforcement officials. Media organisations have arguably become the main source of news, entertainment, recreation, and product information in society. For many people, media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, social media and television broadcasts inform viewers about events that affect their everyday lives. This essay will explore the many variations of how crime is misrepresented in society through mass media organisations. Over the years, research has shown an increase in crime is largely over-represented in media coverage, compared to actual crime rates in society.
White, R., and Perrone, S. (2009) Crime, Criminality and Criminal Justice. Melbourne: Oxford University [Chapter 2 ‘Crime and the Media’]