Rarity changes the tone on its own
Women commit far fewer crimes, especially violent ones. According to the World Prison Brief, women make up about 7% of people in prison worldwide - the share varies by country, but nowhere is it close to half. For a newsroom, that means one thing: a case involving a woman is already news, simply because it is uncommon.
And a rare event demands an explanation. You can write three lines about a man who hit his neighbor: he was drinking, they fought over parking. Readers will finish it without asking "why." But with a woman, they will ask. So the story fills the gap with whatever is at hand: a photo, marital status, children, her tone in court.
Women make up about 7% of people in prison worldwide
Two rules are broken at once
Criminologists call this double deviance. A man who commits a crime has broken the law. In readers' eyes, a woman has also broken an unspoken expectation: that she cares for others rather than causes harm. Both parts get examined, and the second often takes up more space in a story than the first.
That leaves stories choosing between two ready-made templates. Either "she is a victim herself": she was pushed to it, a man drew her in, she did not understand what she was doing. Or "she is a monster": cold, lacking maternal feeling, "she did not even cry at sentencing." The middle - an ordinary person making an ordinary calculation - is almost never there, though women's motives are the same: need, fear, revenge, an attempt to get out of a situation.
The story almost always lands at one extreme. The middle - where a motive is explained as matter-of-factly as a man's - stays empty.
The bias also shows up in the details that make it into the story. The set is almost always the same.
The easiest way to check is to think back: what do you remember from the last such news story?
What do you remember about the last news story on a woman on trial?
It is not just about newspapers. Research on sentencing more often finds that women receive lighter penalties on average for comparable crimes - but when a crime shatters the image of caregiving, the response can be harsher than usual. How strong each effect is remains debated.
There is also a direct test: mentally switch the gender in a story and read it again. If the paragraph about a hairstyle, tears, and "being a good mother" now sounds strange, it was not telling you about the crime.
Why do stories about women's crimes often focus on personal details?
How can you tell if a paragraph is about stereotypes, not the case?
Sources
- Share of women in prison - World Prison Brief. "Double deviance" and analyses of media coverage patterns - gender research in criminology and press content analyses. Poll percentages - votes from Miqo readers
Next in the “Women Criminals” series
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