Room for Improvement: How does the Media Portray Individuals Who Engage in Material Depicting Child Sexual Abuse?

Lara Christensen; Katarina Pollard

doi:10.1007/s12119-022-09945-x

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Room for Improvement: How does the Media Portray Individuals Who Engage in Material Depicting Child Sexual Abuse?

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Room for Improvement: How does the Media Portray Individuals Who Engage in Material Depicting Child Sexual Abuse?

Lara Christensen and Katarina Pollard

Sexuality and Culture, Vol.26(4), pp.1326-1338

2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-022-09945-x

PMCID: PMC8898075

PMID: 35283619

Appears in UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection

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Abstract

Criminology

Criminal justice

Child sexual abuse material

Child exploitation material

Child sexual abuse

Child sex offender

Media

UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages

The media has a powerful ability to shape public perceptions. Given the current disjuncture between social attitudes and the law in relation to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) it is important to explore the representation of CSAM offenders in the media. The aim of this exploratory study was to identify how CSAM offenders are depicted in the print media. Newspaper articles published from 1 August 2019 to 31 August 2020 on CSAM offenders in Western countries were searched. A qualitative content analysis was employed, revealing three themes across the 56 articles: (1) the headings of the articles downplayed the abusive offending; (2) offender’s motivations indicate heterogeneity in offending; and (3) sentencing remarks communicated denunciation and the harms of offending. While the first theme identified that there is still space for improvement in the reporting of these crimes, the second theme indicates the various motivations portrayed should assist the public in identifying that these offenders are heterogenous in their motivations, thus potentially countering some previously held stereotypes. Finally, the denunciation and the harms taken from the messages delivered by the judiciary in the sentencing remarks could offer a positive educational tool for some members of the public. These findings should be valuable for media, law enforcement, and psychology disciplines.

Details

Title: Room for Improvement: How does the Media Portray Individuals Who Engage in Material Depicting Child Sexual Abuse?
Authors: Lara Christensen (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit
Katarina Pollard (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and Society
Publication details: Sexuality and Culture, Vol.26(4), pp.1326-1338
Publisher: Springer New York LLC
Date published: 2022
DOI: 10.1007/s12119-022-09945-x
ISSN: 1936-4822; 1095-5143
PMID: 35283619; PMC8898075
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/.
Grant note: University of the Sunshine Coast
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society; Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99614808902621
Output Type: Journal article