How can we make preventing sexual violence headline news?
by: Alisha Somji
posted on Monday, August 31, 2015
“It’s always the same story — crimes and consequences,” said one prevention advocate, sharing thoughts on how the news frames sexual violence at a 2014 research and practice symposium for the National Child Advocacy Center.
Those words from more than a year ago accurately predicted the findings of BMSG’s latest news analysis: When it appears in the news, sexual violence is typically framed as a criminal justice problem — one that demands only criminal justice responses after the fact. Milestones like arrests or trial dates drive coverage about sexual violence, and the voices of police officers, detectives and other criminal justice representatives dominate the news. At times, these stories also use language that perpetuates troubling rape myths.
Why does news framing of sexual violence matter? Criminal justice responses are a vital component to comprehensively address the issue, but when stories are framed exclusively as a criminal justice problem, crucial context is missing. Data from the U.S. Department of Justice shows 63% of sexual assaults are never reported to law enforcement, meaning criminal justice coverage leaves out the majority of incidents. To tell the whole story, reporters will have to look beyond arrests and trials. As well, troubling language can make it harder to understand who commits or experiences sexual violence, and what should be done to stop it before it happens.
“Talking about context is critical,” says Karen Baker, director of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. “Only with the context in view can we understand that sexual violence is a public health and social justice issue, and that it’s preventable.”
How, then, can advocates and reporters provide the information needed for readers to better understand the issue? Making prevention part of public conversation about sexual violence requires drawing attention to the broader environment. This includes discussing the root causes of sexual violence, actors with responsibility and power to prevent it, and social norms that shape how we understand it.
For example, reporters can interview sources representing institutions like hotel chains or universities to see how they are working to prevent sexual violence. Reporters and prevention advocates can also call for institutions to take action by highlighting both incidence data and preventive strategies and solutions.
Our analysis suggests some reasons for optimism. Institutions such as universities and the military are already a part of the news conversation. The few times when responsibility for addressing sexual violence does appear in the news, it’s most often laid at the feet of institutions, rather than individuals. This type of story frame — we call it a “landscape” for the context it provides — matters because it reveals how the environments that help shape us can support prevention solutions and policies. Without those depictions in news, most readers will default to individual blame.
In one article, U.S. Attorney General Joseph Hogsett responded to a child pornography case with the assertion that “protecting the most vulnerable of our citizens remains one of the highest priorities of my office.” While Hogsett did not offer specifics, his mere mention of ending sexual violence is important.
The fact that ending sexual violence is part of the coverage at all suggests exciting opportunities to build on that groundswell of attention and shift the conversation towards prevention.
To read the full news analysis and to learn more about the implications for journalists, prevention advocates, and others who seek to create and sustain a future in which preventing sexual violence is headline news, check out our report, “What’s missing from the news on sexual violence? An analysis of coverage, 2011-2013.”