Domestic Violence In The Media

TOPIC & BACKGROUND

Domestic violence is defined as “the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another” (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence 2015). Domestic violence has existed within family units since the dawn of humanity. This can be attributed many times to the idea of male dominance and authority over women, as well as the patterns of socialization and law throughout history. Anglo-American common law originally provided that the husband, as master of the household, could subject his spouse to “corporal punishment or chastisement” as long as it did not cause permanent injury

The authors point out that journalists often use episodic framing, or presenting events as isolated incidents, over thematic framing, which considers the larger social context of the event, such as why and how the event happened (Stark and Buzawa 2009). The “why” is usually a vital explanation to understanding intimate partner homicide incidents, though it is often excluded from news coverage. Journalists must approach the reporting of intimate partner violence events differently, as there is a unique relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, as opposed to violence against strangers. Volume four of Violence Against Women in Families and Relationships provides examples of problematic reporting issues associated with intimate partner homicide that journalists frequently incorporate into their stories. One example involves inclusion of irrelevant information about the perpetrator, such as the fact that he was “a religious man” who “went to church every Sunday”. Sometimes, journalists describe the perpetrator as a victim themselves, with phrasing such as “he could not stand to see his wife with another man”, which implies in many cases that the woman in the relationship practically asked for the violence. Another example that the authors show involves explaining acts of violence as stemming from past disagreements, with phrases such as “these two were always fighting” (Stark and Buzawa