Amanda Knox, Raffaele Sollecito and Rudy Guede were accused of sexually assaulting and murdering British Meredith Kercher in 2007 . Meredith Kercher, a 21 year old exchange student was discovered in her bedroom at her flat, a post-mortem examination reveals evidence of sexual activity at some point before Kerche died. Police claims Kercher was murdered because she refused to take part in violent sex . In 2008, Guede was trialed separately and was found guilty of the murder. Knox and Sollecitio were trialed in 2009; Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and Sollecito to 25 years. In October 2011, they were acquitted of Kercher’s murder but this was overturned in 2013, and Knox and Sollecito were found guilty for the second time in January 2014. Knox has been both demonised and celebrified in the coverage that followed her arrest and conviction for the murder of Meredith Kercher . She has been painted as both a villain and an innocent victim of a gross miscarriage of justice. Her guilt or innocence is not read in the evidence, but is instead based on her failure to conform to expected feminine behaviour; her character as a hedonistic, sex-crazed deviant confirms her guilt of the crime. Knox has been experienced a character assassination by the media, her identity dissected and reassembled from the discourses of femininity and criminology. The representations of Knox demonstrate the complex interplay between transgression and power. Power refers to a set of relations that change over time, which operates through knowledge. Discourse relates to systems of power, which shape what is known and how it is known by individuals and society. A transgression is a violation of a moral, social or legal code.
Representations of Knox a...
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Knox’s alleged crime is framed by social discourses in the courtroom and in media coverage. Women’s violent actions are predominately seen and understood through her female gender. A lack of vocabulary exists to examine and understand violent women, and thus these paradigms have a strict hold on our perceptions of the deviant women. Amanda Fox has been unable to escape her reputation as a sinister seductress, a femme fatale, and has experienced trial by media. Knox is deviant in her failure to conform to social and moral expectations of her feminine in gender – in emotional composure and sexual agency. The lenses used to examine and dissect Knox are tools used to affirm male dominance in society and “put women in their place” and deny them agency. The fear of unknowable femininity creates suspicion about the conduct of women and their hidden agendas.
This account of Mary Brown provides historians with insight into the social and legal practices of the 18th century. This case identifies the social unrest and anxiety regarding the popularity of theft, and in this case shoplifting. This case reiterates this units themes, including, the gendering of crime. London society believed shoplifter most often to be women. The Old Bailey records, reaffirm the notion of gendered crime, and that women were more often than men accused and convicted of shoplifting. However,
Women of color are treated differently; law does not function as a social mediator between relationships of all people. The focus is on women of colour and how non-white communities are considered inherently violent. By such stereotypes, rape myths create a belief that certain races are more dangerous than others, creating fear based on the social construction of society. Using the ``Slut Walk`` article as an example: women have argued ``it is different for a white middle class women to wear something slutty and march in a parade than a women of colour.`` Due to the social construction black woman are more likely to have their characters stereotype and are seen more promiscuous compared to white woman. (Julie Dowsett Lecture).Stereotyping has even gone so far where a police official made a comment about York university students, referring to the females saying “they should not dress like a slut” to reduce assault (Slutwalk 249). Such rape myths put women on the line, claiming that it is their fault for getting sexually assaulted because they provoke men. “Such stereotypical assumptions find their roots in many cultures, including our own. They no longer, however, find a place in Canadian law” (R. v. Ewanchuck
There are many differences when it comes to gender within the trial of Thomas and Jane Weir. Women were usually domestic workers within the household and society, doing jobs such as child-rearing, weaving, and roles of mother, sister, daughter, wife and caretaker in the community. Men were either seen as the husbands of the female witchcraft users or someone of an intense authority figure. “Sir Andrew Ramsay, Lord Abbotshall then Provost of Edinburgh” were all men with high statuses within the community in Edinburgh in which Thomas lived. Women during the time of witchcraft in Scotland came to be connected with the Devil by possession while most men do not have carnal knowledge of the work of the Devil himself
Filetti, Jean S.”From lizzie borden to lorena bobbitt: violent women and gendered justice.” Journal of American Studies 35.3(2001):471-484. .
The Casey Anthony trial has been arguably the most controversial case since the trial of O.J. Simpson and has been speculated over ever since the verdict had been given in July of 2011. It was decided by a jury of her peers that Anthony was not guilty of murder, for the death of her daughter Caylee. Many believe that Anthony should have been found guilty however, very little Americans actually comprehend the justice system.
In City of Dreadful Delight, Judith Walkowitz effortlessly weaves tales of sexual danger and more significantly, stories of the overt tension between the classes, during the months when Jack the Ripper, the serial murderer who brutally killed five women, all of them prostitutes, terrorized the city. The book tells the story of western male chauvinism that was prevalent in Victorian London not from the point of view not of the gazer, but rather of the object. Walkowitz argues that the press coverage of the murders served to construct a discourse of heterosexuality in which women were seen as passive victims and sexuality was associated with male violence. Much of City of Dreadful Delight explores the cultural construction and reconstruction of class and sexuality that preceded the Ripper murders. Walkowitz successfully investigates the discourses that took place after the fact and prior social frameworks that made the Ripper-inspired male violence and female passivity model possible and popular.
In July of 2008, one of the biggest crime cases devastated the United States nation-wide. The death of Caylee Anthony, a two year old baby, became the most popular topic in a brief amount of time. Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony, became the main suspect after the child supposedly was kidnapped and went missing. To this day, the Casey Anthony case shocks me because justice, in my opinion, wasn’t served. I feel as if the criminal conviction system became somewhat corrupted in this case. The entire nation, including the court system, knew that Casey Anthony was behind this criminal act, but yet she escaped all charges. I chose this case not only because it’s debatable, but also to help state the obvious, this case was handled the wrong way. Clearly the legal system was biased, which worked in Casey Anthony’s favor, freeing a murderer.
The Casey Anthony case was one that captured the heart of thousands and made it to the headline of national TV talk shows, newspapers, radio stations and social media networks for months. The root of the case was due to a clash between the parental responsibilities, the expectations that went with being a parent, and the life that Casey Anthony wanted to have. The case was in respect to the discovering the cause of Casey’s two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony’s, death; however the emphasis was placed on Casey and her futile lies, which resulted in a public outcry. The purpose of this essay is to delve into the public atmosphere and inquire about why the media and social media collectively attacked the case by uncovering the content of the case, the charges that were laid, and later dismissed, the “performers” of the trial and the publics reaction. It will further discuss how it defies universal ideologies and how the media represents this. The discussion of the complexities of the case and its connotations will incorporate Stuart Hall’s Representation and the Media, Robert Hariman’s Performing the Laws, What is Ideology by Terry Eagleton, The Body of the Condemned by Michael Foucault, and a number of news articles, which will reveal disparate ideas of representation in the media, and the role of the performers of the law and their effect on the understanding of the case.
This essay will explore reasons why females such as Vanessa George turn to the crime of sex offending. Demonstrating my knowledge and understanding of classical criminological theory, exploring biological theories such as penis envy and more contemporary views such as liberation theory within feminism. The essay will then go on to look at the inequalities female sex offenders face within the criminal justice system in comparison with males, using chivalry theory and evil woman theory to explain this.
Patty Hearst was a normal 19 year old girl, living in an apartment with her fiance and attending university in Berkeley, California, until one day her life, and the lives of everyone around her changed forever. On the evening of February 4, 1974, some members of the left-wing radical group called the Symbionese Liberation Army barged into Hearst’s home armed with guns, and beat up her fiance before kidnapping Hearst and bringing her to their house where she was kept blindfolded in a closet for 59 days. While locked in the closet, Patty Hearst was verbally and sexually abused and she was denied the use of even a toilet or toothbrush if she didn’t tell them that she agreed with the group’s ideas and beliefs. It is believed that while being locked in the closet like this, Patty was being brainwashed by the SLA and that she may have even developed Stockholm Syndrome, a condition in which a person who was kidnapped starts to empathise with their captor, and even starts defending them. This is how the Symbionese Liberation Army convinced Patty Hearst to join their group. They released an audio tape to the public in which Patty Hearst said she was changing her name to Tania and that she had decided to join the SLA. She then helped the SLA rob a bank and steal an ammunition belt from a sports store. After this, she started travelling around the country with two members of the SLA named John and Emily Harris, to try avoid being captured by the police. During this time, the police found a house where some members of the SLA were hiding out. Attempts to make the SLA members surrender ended up in a massive gunfight, ultimately ending up in the deaths of 6 SLA members. The FBI eventually found and arrested Patty Hearst on September 18, 1975. T...
that is perched in front of them” (Coyne75). She describes how the convicted women graciously
He claimed that the statistics seriously under-estimated the extent of female criminality. From an examination of official figures in a number of different countries he claimed to have identified certain crimes that are usually committed by women but are particularly likely to be unreported. Pollak went on to give reasons as to why there should be an under-recording of female crime. 1. He argues that the police, magistrates and other law enforcement officials tend to be men.
When the criminal justice system was established, the main objective was to create neutrality and fairness between the sexes. Even though people might believe that there is no such thing as ‘stereotyping’ in the criminal justice system, it is quite obvious that women are constantly being looked down upon because of their sexuality. In general, women tend to be treated like fragile objects that could break at any moment; the truth is that women can be strong and courageous just like men. Society stereotypes about women and the criminal justice system are no different. Throughout history, certain crimes have been separated into different categories based on their prevalence.
He had explained to police that women were the natural choice because he had the need to feel dominant. He had stated that he found crime easy to commit because it was what he had done before and Catherine was a crime of opportunity, she had no one to protect her, she was alone and he wanted to commit a crime. He stated that Catherine’s murder and assault was “just an idea that came into my mind, I couldn’t put it aside, it was the perfect opportunity.’ He had weighed his benefits and left with a purpose to kill someone and that night he had wanted it to be a woman, he had told police that “I knew as soon as I saw people turn away from her, I could commit a crime and chances were, I could get away with it” (Schmalleger, 2014, pg.
Society’s gender infrastructure has changed since the 1920’s and the nineteen amendment that allowed women the right to vote. Or so we thought, many of the gender expectations that were engraved into our early society still remain intact today. Women for many people still mean an immaterial, negligible, and frivolous part of our society. However, whatever the meaning of the word women one has, the same picture is always painted; that of a housewife, mother, and daughter. Women are expected to fallow the structural identity of living under her husband 's submissions. Threatening the social norm of what is accepted to be a woman in society can put in jeopardy the personal reputation of a woman, such treating her as a whore. But, what happens