[acb-hsp] Framing DV Fatalities

[J.Rayl]

Framing Domestic Violence Fatalities: Coverage by Utah Newspapers.

by Cathy Ferrand Bullock

This study explores the framing of one year's worth of domestic violence fatality

coverage by newspapers in Utah, which are embedded within a strong patriarchal culture.

Deductive and inductive framing analyses were used to identify the primary content-related

frames and determine whether coverage included views that challenged patriarchy.

Most coverage portrayed domestic violence fatalities in ways that supported patriarchal

institutions. However, a small group of articles acknowledged domestic violence's

roots in patriarchy and men's subordination of women, confirming that mainstream

newspapers can and sometimes do publish views that challenge the dominant ones. This

coverage may help point to ways to reframe coverage of domestic violence fatalities.

Keywords: domestic violence, violence against women, Utah newspapers.

Every year, hundreds of American women are killed by their current or former romantic

partner (Fox & Zawitz, 2004; Rennison, 2001, 2003), and some of their stories are

brought to the public by the mass media. Research has suggested that media coverage

of domestic violence often portrays a distorted picture (Berns, 1999; Bullock & Cubert,

2002; Consalvo, 1998a) that may support men's subordination of women (Kelly, 1988;

Meyers, 1997). This is sobering given the many agenda-setting and framing effects

studies that highlight media's power to help shape individual and public views of

which issues are important and influence what policy makers and others think about

those issues (for example, see Brewer & McCombs, 1996; Terkildsen & Schnell, 1997;

Valkenburg, Semetko, & de Vreese, 1999; Walsh-Childers, 1994). However, even within

patriarchal systems, competing views exist (Consalvo, 1998b; Gitlin, 1980; Hall,

1977). This raises questions about how mainstream media embedded within cultures

heavily influenced by patriarchal institutions will portray gender- and power-based

issues such as domestic violence, defined here as a man's psychological and/or physical

abuse of his current or former female romantic partner. Do such media incorporate

views that challenge men's subordination of women within or, perhaps more likely,

outside their primary frames of domestic violence?

The current study carves out one piece of that question for examination, focusing

on a culture where church influence is strong. Using framing analysis, I examined

one year's worth of coverage of domestic violence fatalities in Utah newspapers to

identify the primary content-related frames and determine whether the coverage included

views that challenged patriarchy. The goal was to deepen understanding of the power

of media framing to construct issues such as domestic violence in ways that may obscure--or

highlight--their roots in gender-based power imbalances.

The study is built on three important assumptions. First, I begin with the idea that

domestic violence is a newsworthy social problem and that newsworthiness matters

because it encourages coverage, which can then improve awareness and potentially

shape public opinion and policy. More than 1,200 women--approximately one-third of

all women murdered in the United States--die at the hands of their current or former

spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend each year (Fox & Zawitz, 2004; Rennison, 2003).

These deaths leave holes in families, communities, and work places. Domestic violence-related

deaths are high in news values such as conflict and human interest, while the broader

social problem of domestic violence has the potential for strong relevance to and

impact on society (for criteria for judging newsworthiness, see Itule & Anderson,

1994; Mencher, 1993; The Missouri Group, 2005).

Second, I start from the standpoint that news is socially constructed and, as noted

by Molotch and Lester (1974), that this construction does not revolve around a news

item's inherent significance but around the needs and activities of news promoters,

assemblers, and consumers. This starting point emphasizes the importance of considering

social and cultural factors that may shape news as well as which individuals, groups,

and institutions hold power in society.

Third, I work from the feminist perspective that the power structure--in particular

the law-and-order system, which handles domestic violence fatality cases and to which

the media turn for information--largely serves the needs of patriarchy, defined as

"the systemic institutionalization of women's inequality within social, political,

economic, and cultural structures" (Meyers, 1997, p. 3). This study is grounded in

the idea that news will generally be socially constructed in ways that help maintain

patriarchal power structures and their inherent marginalization of women. (1) Scholars

have pointed out that male-dominated language and meanings, the workings of the law

enforcement and legal systems, and work routines within news organizations all contribute

to the hegemonic ideology of men's subordination of women (Jones, 1994; Kelly, 1988;

Meyers, 1997; Ptacek, 1988; Stanko, 1988; Websdale, 1999). However, as Consalvo (1998b)

noted, "there will always be competing views that challenge the dominant views, and

hegemony does allow for some competing views to be heard" (p. 207; see also Gitlin,

1980; Hall, 1977).

Dominant and competing views within patriarchal cultures are of interest in this

study, and Utah was selected as an environment with strong patriarchal influences

in which to look for both. A majority of Utah's population belongs to one religious

body--the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Church, 2006; "Largest

Latter-day," 2005). The church in general is among the institutions that commonly

help maintain hegemony (Hall, 1977)--in this case a patriarchal ideology through

which men subordinate women. While the LDS Church is built on a patriarchal framework,

it emphasizes values inconsistent with domestic violence. This offers a background

against which to examine newspaper coverage for views that support or challenge patriarchy.

Based on deductive and inductive framing analyses of Utah newspapers' domestic violence

fatality coverage, I argue that most coverage portrayed domestic violence fatalities

in ways that supported patriarchal institutions such as the law enforcement and legal

systems and obscured connections between violence against women and societal structures

that help preserve gender-based power imbalances. However, a small group of articles

acknowledged domestic violence's roots in patriarchy and men's subordination of women

and showed that mainstream newspapers sometimes do place views before the public

that challenge the dominant ones.

Literature Review

Domestic Violence, Utah, and the LDS Church

This study focuses on domestic violence fatalities, but understanding these deaths

requires understanding domestic violence in general. (2) define domestic violence

as a man's physical and/or psychological (including verbal, emotional, and economic)

abuse of his current or former female romantic partner. This definition focuses on

domestic violence as a unique genre of abuse with its own pattern of behaviors growing

from one partner's need for domination and control of the other (Crowell & Burgess,

1996; Dobash & Dobash, 1979; Dutton, 1995; Mahoney, Williams, & West, 2001). It also

focuses on men's violence against women. As Meyers (1997) explained, "Men cannot

be the victims of sexist violence, for they constitute the dominant class and their

victimization can occur only within a context that differs from that defined by sexist

violence" (p. 8). (3)

Studies on battered women's experiences have suggested that psychological and physical

abuse are often intertwined and that this abuse can escalate over time as the abuser

tries to maintain control over his victim, sometimes culminating in the victim's

death (Dutton, 1995; Walker, 1979). Campbell (1992, 1995) estimated that roughly

two-thirds of women murdered by their current or former intimate partner had previously

been physically abused by that partner. Portrayals of domestic violence that ignore

psychological abuse as well as portrayals of domestic violence fatalities as the

result of one isolated incident in the relationship contradict many women's experiences.

Domestic violence crosses age, race, socioeconomic, and other boundaries, leaving

no one immune, although some groups appear to face greater risk (Fox & Zawitz, 2004;

Rennison, 2001, 2003; Violence and Injury, 2001). It accounts for a striking percentage

of female murder victims. According to U.S. Department of Justice figures (Rennison,

2001), intimate partner homicides committed by a current or former boyfriend, husband,

or same-sex partner accounted for approximately 32% of all murders of women and girls

12 or older in the United States in 1999. The Utah Intimate Partner Violence Death

Review Team, using a slightly different definition, reported that intimate partner

violence accounted for 49% of the 131 female homicides in Utah between 1994 and 1999

(Violence and Injury, 2001). (4) In its January 2005 report on domestic violence

in Utah, the Governor's Violence Against Women and Families Cabinet Council described

domestic violence as "one of the fastest growing and most serious violent crimes

in Utah today" (p. 3).

Domestic violence is inconsistent with the American ideal of strong, healthy marriages

and families. In many ways, Utah epitomizes the public endorsement of the ideal--but

that endorsement does not necessarily challenge the status quo.

It is estimated that at least 70% of the state's population belongs to the LDS Church

(The Church, 2006; "Largest Latter-day," 2005). This body points to strong families--composed

of a husband and wife in a committed relationship living with and nurturing their

children--as an essential part of God's plan for people, the basis of strong communities,

and the main environment in which children develop positive characteristics (The

Church, 2002b, 2002c, 2002d, 2002g). The LDS Church teaches that men and women are

equally important before God and equal partners in marriage, but each partner is

given a separate role and fathers are responsible for presiding over the family (Hinckley,

1995). In addition, men and women assume different roles within the Church, with

men holding the priesthood and "the authority to act in God's name" (The Church,

2002a, para. 1; see also The Church, 2002f).

This lends support to Hall's (1977) idea that the church helps maintain hegemony,

in this case by assigning men and women separate roles and institutionalizing women's

subordination within the family and church. Paradoxically, the LDS Church also views

fathers and mothers as equal partners, which is inconsistent with the idea that men

have a right to abuse women. The Church's current and past presidents, viewed by

LDS faithful as prophets whose words are to be followed as revelation (Holland, 2004),

have repeatedly condemned domestic violence (Benson, 1989; The Church, 2002e, para.

5; Hinckley, 2002; Hunter, 1994). In addition, the LDS Church offers counseling through

its regional family services offices and provides leaders of local LDS congregations

with information about domestic violence and child abuse. (5) Still, these words

and actions take place within the Church's patriarchal framework and do not challenge

the societal structures that support gender-based power imbalances.

The Social Construction of News, Agenda Setting, and Framing

Viewed from a social constructionist perspective, newspaper content reflects the

way journalists and news organizations work within and interact with the greater

social structure (Demers, 1996; Dunwoody & Griffin, 1999; Gans, 1979; Manoff & Schudson,

1986; Parenti, 1986; Roshco, 1975). The result, as Sigal (1973) stated, is that "news

is not reality, but a sampling of reality" (p. 187).

This suggests that news is not determined solely (or even necessarily at all) by

its inherent significance (Molotch & Lester, 1974), but by such considerations as

the resources (money, time, and staff) a news organization has and is willing to

make available to pursue information, sources journalists use, the beats covered

by news organizations, and the news values emphasized by journalists (Breed, 1955;

Fishman, 1980; Gans, 1979; McManus, 1994; Molotch & Lester, 1974; Sigal, 1973, 1986;

Underwood, 1995). It also points to the importance of the ideology of journalists,

their sources, and the broader society in shaping news coverage (Fishman, 1980; Sigal,

1973, 1986).

Questions about what shapes news construction are relevant when considering who or

what determines the media agenda (McCombs & Shaw, 1993), and more than 30 years of

studies have found correlations between issues on the media agenda and issues the

public considers important (for a summary of agenda-setting research, see McCombs

& Reynolds, 2002). "Through their day-by-day selection and display of the news, the

editors of our newspapers and the news directors of our television stations exert

a powerful influence on public attention to the issues, problems, and opportunities

that confront each community," McCombs (1997, p. 433) noted.

In addition, while cause and effect can be slippery, studies have indicated that

agenda setting by media can influence action. For example, Walsh-Childers (1994)

concluded that an Alabama newspaper's coverage of infant mortality, in conjunction

with other factors, helped educate policy makers about the situation, stimulate public

support for policy changes, and accelerate policy change. Brewer and McCombs (1996)

found that a San Antonio, Texas, newspaper's focused efforts to cover public issues

affecting children and influence the community's agenda were followed by increased

funding for children's programs by the city.

Framing studies indicate that how media cover social issues is also important. Pan

and Kosicki (1993) noted that framing "may be studied as a strategy of constructing

and processing news discourse or as a characteristic of the discourse itself" (p.

57). The current study focuses on the latter--frames within the news text that may

favor certain views and interpretations of domestic violence fatalities. Entman (1993)

explained:

 To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make

 them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to

 promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation,

 moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item

 described. (p. 52, emphasis in original)

The amount and placement of coverage, whether information is repeated, and whether

material is linked with familiar symbols can make a difference in how noticeable

or meaningful it appears--an important aspect of framing (Entman, 1991, 1993). Frames

can also be shaped by word choice (Entman, 1991; Pan & Kosicki, 1993). Feminist scholars

have noted the importance of language in shaping portrayals of women in general and

issues such as domestic violence (Kelly, 1988; Lamb, 1991; Lamb & Keon, 1995; Meyers,

1997). In addition, framing can be shaped by journalists' script structures, such

as a storyline built around the who, what, where, when, why, and how elements (Pan

& Kosicki, 1993). Studies have supported the idea that framing can affect what individuals

think about risk options, political issues, and social issues (Kahneman & Tversky,

1984; Terkildsen & Schnell, 1997; Valkenburg, Semetko, & de Vreese, 1999). Iyengar

(1991) examined television news frames that emphasized specific happenings (episodic

frames) compared to those that put events in a broader context (thematic frames)

for a number of political issues, concluding "that exposure to episodic news makes

viewers less likely to hold public officials accountable for the existence of some

problem and also less likely to hold them responsible for alleviating it" (pp. 2-3).

Research on agenda setting and framing effects would suggest that whether and how

newspapers cover domestic violence fatalities--including the frequency of coverage,

labeling, information included (or omitted), and episodic or thematic focus--could

make a difference in how readers view such deaths and what should be done about them.

That makes questions about how media cover domestic violence fatalities important.

Mass Media and Domestic Violence

Based on past research, it appears that media tend to cover violence against women

in ways that obscure questions about male/female power imbalances and reinforce the

patriarchal status quo. These findings have appeared in various mainstream media,

including popular women's magazines (Berns, 1999), metropolitan daily newspapers

(Consalvo, 1998b; Meyers, 1994), and local television news (Meyers, 1997). Meyers

(1997) summarized the implications:

 The predominant problems with news about violent crime against

 women--such as blaming the victim and reinforcing harmful cultural

 stereotypes and myths--lie not with individual journalists but with

 the social structures and values that deny male violence against

 women [is] a serious, systemic problem rooted in misogyny and

 patriarchy. By reflecting this cultural blindness, the news

 reinforces it--and thereby contributes to the perpetuation of

 violence against women. (p. ix)

However, media can express alternative ideas about domestic violence and draw attention

to it as a broader social issue. Consalvo (1998b) found this in two minority newspapers'

coverage of the domestic violence-related murder of a Filipina woman but not in a

local mainstream newspaper's coverage. "Because the Northwest Asian Weekly and International

Examiner do not have the ideological and economic constraints that are present for

mainstream presses such as The Seattle Times," Consalvo noted, "they are more free

to present views that challenge dominant ideological beliefs" (p. 207). Bullock and

Cubert (2002) found alternative views of domestic violence fatalities within mainstream

newspapers in Washington state, but this coverage was rare and did not necessarily

address men's subordination of women. Using framing analysis, they identified four

main themes: (1) a "just the facts" frame that suggested this was a law enforcement

or legal situation and the authorities had it under control, (2) a frame that suggested

the people involved were different (so this couldn't happen to the reader), (3) a

frame that indicated abusers were not normal and should be easily identifiable, and

(4) a frame that blamed the victim and/or excused the perpetrator. A small number

of articles avoided the misconceptions and portrayed domestic violence fatalities

within a broader social context. The current study builds on this work.

Research Questions

I addressed two research questions. The first was a set intended to explore whether

the topic of interest was covered and to analyze several basic characteristics of

that coverage.

* Did Utah newspapers cover domestic violence fatalities during the year studied

(April 1, 2002, to March 31, 2003)? Specifically, were domestic violence fatalities

that occurred in Utah during that period covered? How much attention in terms of

number of cases covered and number of articles published was devoted to Utah-related

cases (at least some portion of the case took place in Utah or involved people who

live or have lived in Utah, Utah law-enforcement personnel, Utah domestic violence

statistics, etc.) compared to cases with no Utah connection? Were the crimes labeled

using terms such as "domestic violence" or "abuse"?

Choosing to cover domestic violence-related deaths is the first step in raising awareness

and challenging men's subordination of women. Journalists also have choices about

which cases to cover. Do they highlight domestic violence within their own environment?

Do they focus on cases with no Utah connection, possibly raising awareness without

bringing the problem uncomfortably close to home? Calling domestic violence what

it is represents another step in raising awareness of the social problem and gives

readers the language needed to discuss it and seek solutions. As Burstein (1995)

noted, "Naming domestic violence forces us to confront the cost of power imbalance

in relationships" (p. 965).

* How were domestic violence fatalities framed by Utah newspapers during the year

studied, and how did those frames compare to those identified by Bullock and Cubert

(2002) in newspapers in Washington state? Were views that challenged patriarchy represented

in the Utah newspapers' coverage?

Utah newspapers' framing of domestic violence fatalities and the presence or absence

of views that challenge the dominant ones are the central issues in this study. To

better understand that framing, it will be compared with the results from a smaller-scale

study of domestic violence fatalities. Even if the primary content-related frames

do not challenge the status quo, alternative views may exist within the coverage.

As Entman (1991) pointed out, "The frame does not eliminate all inconsistent information;

texts inevitably contain some incongruent data" (p. 7).

Method

I analyzed all news and feature articles, editorials, letters to the editor, and

other opinion pieces that focused primarily on domestic violence fatalities in all

Utah newspapers from April 1, 2002, through March 31, 2003. (6) Photographs were

set aside for future analysis. Fatalities were chosen because these were the domestic

violence cases in which it was clear there were problems between the victim and perpetrator.

If journalists are going to cover domestic violence and acknowledge it as such, these

likely would be stories in which they would do so.

The Utah Press Association's clipping service was instructed to collect (1) all articles,

photographs, etc., dealing with domestic violence (i.e., husband killing wife, not

terrorism on U.S. soil) and (2) all material dealing with cases in which one person

was suspected of killing or trying to kill an acquaintance. (7) The first instruction

helped in the collection of material about domestic violence fatalities in general

(summaries of domestic violence fatality statistics, vigils for those killed by abusers,

etc.) as well as domestic violence fatality cases. Coverage that specifically mentioned

domestic violence was identified through this instruction. The second instruction

ensured that coverage of fatalities not identified as involving domestic violence

would be collected. Clippers did not need to decide what qualified as domestic violence

fatalities; they gathered all cases in which a person killed or tried to kill someone

he or she knew.

I then removed articles not related to the study's focus, retaining coverage in which

the primary focus involved men killing or clearly attempting to kill (8) female partners

with whom they were or had been romantically involved through marriage, cohabitation,

or dating. That included incident-based reporting dealing with specific cases as

well as general reporting of domestic violence fatalities in a broader context. Articles

that dealt primarily with other topics and mentioned domestic violence fatalities

in passing (such as annual summaries of all homicides in the state) were excluded.

To maintain the focus on romantic partner homicide and men's violence against women,

cases in which men killed others but did not try to kill their female romantic partner

and cases in which women were the killers were omitted.

The coverage included stories generated by wire services, such as the Associated

Press, as well as stories generated by the newspapers' staffs. Consistent with the

purpose of taking a comprehensive look at the framing of domestic violence fatalities,

all coverage was included. Regardless of origin, each story reflected publication

and editing decisions made by Utah newspaper journalists and contributed to the framing

presented to readers.

A total of 588 articles met the inclusion criteria. Most--545 articles--could be

assigned to a particular fatality case; the remaining 43 did not fit a specific case.

For example, some discussed domestic violence in general, using several recent fatality

cases as examples.

I used both deductive and inductive framing analyses, as described by Semetko and

Valkenburg (2000). Because one goal was to use Bullock and Cubert's (2002) earlier

framing analysis of coverage by newspapers in Washington state for comparison, I

used an expanded version of these researchers' code book to look for specific variables

relevant to my research questions and to the frames Bullock and Cubert identified.

(9) All coverage in the Washington study could be assigned to a particular fatality

case even when the emphasis was on domestic violence as a broader issue, and both

the original code book and my revised version were designed for analysis of incident-based

coverage. Thus, for this deductive analysis, I used the 545 articles that could be

assigned to a case. The article was used as the unit of analysis, and all coding

was completed by the researcher and four undergraduate Journalism and Communication

majors. The code book was pretested on a sample of articles, revised, and retested

until intercoder reliability with Holsti's formula was 90% or better for all items

and all pairs of coders.

I followed this deductive analysis with an inductive framing analysis of the main

batch of coverage to determine whether new domestic violence fatality frames were

present and to ensure that important frames (and alternative views) were not overlooked.

I read and reread all coverage and made notes on the themes and patterns in each

article (or each domestic violence fatality case, if a case included little coverage).

Each article was read at least twice. The notes were then synthesized into a list

of primary content-related frames. The 43 articles that did not fit a particular

case were analyzed separately using inductive framing analysis.

Results

Research Question #1

Perhaps the most basic media framing question is simply whether the issue of interest

was covered. Utah newspapers collectively ran 588 pieces that dealt in some way with

domestic violence fatalities, and the 545 articles that could be assigned to a particular

case covered 87 cases. However, coverage appeared in only 18 of Utah's 70 newspapers,

and 7 of the 18 newspapers ran only one domestic violence fatality-related piece

(see Appendix). Domestic violence fatalities--specific incidents and the broader

issue--were absent from almost three-quarters of Utah newspapers during the year

studied.

Looking at the question another way, domestic violence fatalities that occurred in

Utah during the year studied were covered. According to the Utah Domestic Violence

Council's public information reports for the period, eight Utah women were killed

in the state by their current or former male partners (Utah Domestic Violence Council,

2003, 2004). (10) One woman who survived an attack by her estranged husband was also

mentioned in a paragraph dealing with his suicide. All nine cases were covered by

at least one Utah newspaper, with 108 of the 545 articles that could be assigned

to a case devoted to these (see Appendix). Most of the pieces (95, or 88.0%) were

concentrated in Utah's 6 daily newspapers, which would likely see surveying news

from around the state as part of their informational role. Five nondailies, most

often covering cases that occurred within or near their communities, accounted for

the rest of the articles. The state's other 59 nondailies did not cover these cases,

even when they occurred within the newspaper's circulation territory.

These 9 cases accounted for only a fraction of the coverage. Pieces that could be

assigned to a specific case dealt with 78 cases not included in the UDVC reports

for 2002 and 2003 because the murder attempt was unsuccessful, the deaths occurred

in Utah before 2002, or the deaths occurred outside Utah. The second part of the

research question encompassed all the cases and addressed whether the newspapers

tended to cover cases that were or were not Utah-related. Of the 545 articles that

fit a particular case, 402 (73.8%) were Utah-related. These were spread among 40

(46.0%) of the 87 cases covered. Thus, more than half of the cases covered had no

connection with Utah, but more articles were devoted to the Utah-related cases.

Taken as a group, the newspapers that devoted attention to the topic covered fatalities

that occurred within the state during the study period plus a sample of additional

cases from within and outside Utah. Consistent with newspapers' emphasis on events

and issues that impact local readers (Itule & Anderson, 1994; Mencher, 1993), the

greatest attention was given to cases with a Utah connection.

While some newspapers covered the topic, they tended not to call it "domestic violence"

or "abuse." Of the 588 articles, only 230 (39.1%) mentioned domestic violence or

any related word or phrase, (11) abuse, or trauma. Specifically, 189 (34.7%) of the

545 articles that could be assigned to a case and 41 (95.3%) of the 43 articles that

dealt with domestic violence fatalities in a more general way mentioned one or more

of these terms.

When present, labeling of domestic violence in the 545 articles that could be assigned

to a case tended to involve legal terminology. Of the 183 articles that mentioned

domestic violence or a related term, 102 (55.7%) used only legal-oriented phrases

connected with charges, citations, judges' orders, and so on. For example, one man

was "charged with.., interstate domestic violence" (Welling, 2002, p. A1). Sixty-three

articles (34.4%) used only nonlegal phrases, such as "injuries received in a domestic

violence incident" (Hammond, 2002, p. A1). The remaining 18 articles (9.8%) used

both. This labeling helped shape the framing.

Research Question #2

The second research question asked, first, how domestic violence fatalities were

framed by Utah newspapers and how those frames compared to those identified by Bullock

and Cubert (2002) in newspapers in Washington state in 1998. Bullock and Cubert identified

a police frame, a frame suggesting that those involved in the domestic violence incidents

were different from other people, a frame that blamed the victim and/or exonerated

the perpetrator, and a frame suggesting that abusers were abnormal and should be

easy to identify. I detected two similar frames and one new frame in the Utah coverage.

Frame #1. This frame mirrored Bullock and Cubert's (2002) police frame, with articles

using a no-frills, fact-oriented approach that tended to focus on the who, what,

where, when, and how of the crime. The coverage relied heavily--sometimes exclusively--on

factual, unattributed information and on information from official sources, such

as police, sheriff's deputies, court documents, and lawyers. As a result, it focused

on the role of patriarchal institutions (the law enforcement and legal systems) in

domestic violence. This was reinforced by the use of legal-oriented phrases in the

labeling of domestic violence.

Consistent with Iyengar's (1991) description of episodic framing, the coverage tended

to focus on domestic violence fatalities as isolated incidents of the sort the police

and courts are designed to handle rather than as cases with common elements illustrating

a larger social problem that requires public attention and action. Only 21 (3.9%)

of the 545 articles that could be assigned to a particular case placed domestic violence

in a broader context by mentioning other domestic violence cases, domestic violence

statistics, domestic violence agencies and their work, or anything else that might

portray domestic violence as a larger problem faced by more than just this victim.

(12)

Also within the law enforcement/legal system frame, coverage generally either did

not explore why the death occurred or dealt with it in terms of the abuser's immediate

motive, ignoring connections to socially approved, gender-based power imbalances.

For example, a four-paragraph (Ogden) Standard-Examiner article explained that a

man was arrested for killing his son and injuring the boy's mother "after a domestic

dispute" and reported that a police lieutenant said "the suspect had argued with

the boy's mother earlier in the day" ("Child Killed," 2002, p. A2). While framing

the death in terms of the immediate events and motive, the story ignored domestic

violence's roots in patriarchy.

Most articles failed to describe the couple's history or convey that the relationship

was troubled, much less discuss domestic violence's deeper societal roots. Of the

545 articles that could be assigned to a specific domestic violence fatality case,

only 131 (24.0%) discussed past problems in the victim and perpetrator's relationship,

mentioned the victim obtaining or trying to obtain a protection order against this

perpetrator, or described verbal and/or emotional abuse of the victim by the perpetrator.

News coverage in general has been criticized for failing to address the deeper reasons

behind events (Carey, 1986), as well as for failing to follow and develop stories

over time (Mencher, 1993). Carey noted that the how and why of events are not likely

to emerge in an individual story but that "interpretation, explanation, and thick

description can be added as part of ongoing development" (p. 151). With many of the

87 cases covered during the year studied, no such development occurred. Forty-three

(49.4%) were covered in only one article in one newspaper during the year studied,

and most of these articles were short, incident-oriented pieces as opposed to more

in-depth, follow-up coverage intended to put the crime in context.

Together these journalistic choices created coverage that tended to omit or obscure

the ideas of domestic violence as a longer-term experience that leads to the victim's

death, as stemming from patterns of domination and control, as part of the larger

problem of gender inequality that allows men to brutalize women. What remained were

isolated domestic disputes that can be addressed by the police and courts.

Frame #2. The second frame--those involved in domestic violence are inherently different

from other people (suggesting that something about them makes them more susceptible

to being abusive or victimized)--also appeared in Bullock and Cubert's (2002) analysis.

Jasinski (2001) noted that focusing on victims' and abusers' personality characteristics

"satisfies most people's need to view violence as a behavior exhibited by someone

who is different from themselves" (p. 9). The current deductive framing analysis

included 16 personality characteristics and other items that might indicate the victim

or perpetrator was different. (13) At least one of these was present in 274 (50.3%)

of the 545 articles that could be assigned to a case. Counting the remaining articles

with no Utah connection, which one could argue also set the people in them apart

as different, the total was 377 articles, or 69.2%.

Inductive flaming analysis supported these results and identified additional ways

in which perpetrators and victims were set apart. For example, some articles had

a Utah connection but emphasized that the perpetrator and/or victim were from elsewhere.

A (Provo) Daily Herald article announced, "An Illinois man accused of pushing his

wife to her death in Zion National Park is scheduled to face trial on Nov. 4" ("Trial

Set," 2002, p. A3). Other perpetrators and/or victims were from non-LDS religious

groups ("Dying Vegas Woman," 2002; "Husband Arrested," 2002; "Rabbi Convicted," 2002).

Two themes Bullock and Cubert (2002) identified as separate frames appeared in the

Utah coverage as part of the framing that those involved in domestic violence are

inherently different. The first was the idea that the victim is to blame and/or that

the perpetrator can be exonerated. In the Utah coverage, 214 (39.3%) of the 545 articles

that could be assigned to a case included one or more of 10 items indicating that

the abuser had an excuse or could be exonerated, while 72 articles (13.2%) included

at least one of four items indicating victim blaming. (14) Blame and exoneration

worked as subthemes within the flame that those involved in domestic violence are

unlike the rest of us. Surely we would never make the mistakes the victim made. And

the perpetrator had problems, which could be interpreted as making him different,

providing him with a motive or excuse, or both.

Bullock and Cubert's (2002) fourth frame--that perpetrators/abusers are abnormal

and should be easy to identify--did not appear as a separate frame in the Utah coverage.

A subtheme that the perpetrator was abnormal and, therefore, inherently different

(although not that he should be easily identifiable) was suggested through some deductive

items and through inductive analysis. For example, an (Ogden) Standard-Examiner article

noted that Richard Jeremy Funk, charged in the deaths of his ex-wife and ex-mother-in-law,

"indicated he can read people's auras and stimulate computers with his brain waves"

(Gurrister, 2002).

The coverage framed victims and abusers as inherently different in a wide variety

of ways, suggesting that something about them made them more susceptible to being

victimized or abusive. At the same time, it excluded the idea that domestic violence

involves gender inequities based in societal structures.

Frame #3. The final frame, which emerged through inductive framing analysis, emphasized

that these deaths affect people other than the victim and perpetrator, such as their

children, other family members, and friends as well as members of their community.

Bullock and Cubert (2002) did not identify such a frame, so related items were not

included in the deductive analysis. That remains for a future study.

The headlines helped convey the frame: "Domestic Murder-Suicide Leaves Kids to Pick

Up the Pieces of a Broken Family" (Mullen, 2003), "Death of 2nd Daughter Adds to

Family's Tragedy" (Fattah, 2002), "Taking Control of the Night: Many Gather to Combat

Domestic Violence" (Lampros, 2002). Sometimes legal charges, such as domestic violence

in the presence of a child ("Attempted Homicide," 2002), helped convey this frame.

In some instances, the effect on others was a key element of the story, as in the

case of the girl who watched her father shoot her mother (Fattah, 2003): "In testimony

that at times moved several jurors to tears, a 12-year-old Payson girl recalled watching

her drunken father march to his truck, retrieve a shotgun and march back to her house

and her terrified mother" (p. B3).

This frame had the potential to highlight domestic violence's direct or indirect

effect on everyone. However, given the lack of labeling, omission of any but superficial

explanations for the crime, and failure to place individual cases in the broader

context of domestic violence, the coverage did not acknowledge domestic violence

and its patriarchal roots as the problem. The frame was often more general, conveying

that these deaths--whatever they are--affect others.

A (Provo) Daily Herald article (Warnock, 2003) on the case of a man arrested for

stabbing his ex-girlfriend was a typical example. The article seemed to imply that

the couple's recent breakup and the victim's involvement with another coworker might

help explain the stabbing. The article quoted a sergeant from the sheriff's office

noting that "four to five people who witnessed the stabbing were 'very shaken up'"

(p. A4). Clearly, the attack affected others but, given the way the information was

presented, domestic violence had nothing to do with it.

In answer to the second research question, the primary content-related frames in

the Utah newspapers' coverage were in many ways similar to those Bullock and Cubert

(2002) identified in Washington state's newspapers and the Utah framing supported,

rather than challenged, patriarchy. The law enforcement/legal system frame obscured

domestic violence's roots in men's subordination of women and emphasized the role

of established, patriarchal institutions (the law enforcement and legal systems)

in addressing the problem. Framing those involved in domestic violence as inherently

different from others focused attention on individuals and away from socially approved,

gender-based power imbalances. Finally, framing emphasizing that these deaths affect

people other than the victim and perpetrator failed to link the fatalities to domestic

violence, making deeper issues related to this social problem irrelevant.

While the primary frames failed to include alternative views of domestic violence,

such views were, in rare instances, present outside those frames. These were found

among the articles that could not be assigned to one fatality case.

Most of the articles (41 of 43, or 95.3%) used terms such as "domestic violence"

or "abuse" and all placed domestic violence in a broader context by indicating in

some way that it is a larger problem faced by more than one victim. For example,

one group focused on the deaths of four Fort Bragg soldiers' wives and domestic violence

in the military. Other articles used two Utah domestic violence-related homicide

cases over Labor Day weekend in 2002 or three cases in February 2003 as the news

peg for a broader look at the issue. Some discussed resources available to victims

or described the cyclical pattern or warning signs of abuse.

However, many of the articles looked to current social institutions (the law enforcement

system, courts, victims' service agencies) or superficial changes within those institutions

(such as tougher laws) for solutions. For example, an editorial in the (Ogden) Standard-Examiner

("Law Must Protect," 2002) after the Labor Day weekend deaths noted that the system

wasn't working, recommended renaming protective orders given that they don't protect

women, and suggested instituting laws that would put men who abuse their wives and

violate protective orders in jail indefinitely and with no bail.

Most articles in this group of 43 avoided mentioning domestic violence as a power-and-control

issue, but there were notable exceptions. Describing domestic violence in a Salt

Lake Tribune column, Graham (2003) wrote, "It's all about power and control" (p.

C2) then discussed what that means to an abuser. Graham stopped short of connecting

abuse to the patriarchal structure of society, but a (Provo) Daily Herald article

did so. In an article on abuse within LDS families, Cowley (2002) quoted a victims'

advocate linking abuse to patriarchy:

"The LDS Church teaches that the male is the patriarch of the family," he said. "From

what I've seen when working with LDS victims, it does seem that male abusers often

misconstrue that or other similar doctrines to justify the abuse." (p. A3)

Later, Cowley included the LDS Church's position against abuse.

References to gender-related power imbalances or the role of society's patriarchal

structure in men's violence against women were uncommon. More often, the articles

labeled domestic violence and portrayed it as a broader social issue without overtly

challenging patriarchy, envisioning change or solutions (if any) within the current

system.

Implications

Based on this study's findings, Utah newspapers' coverage of domestic violence fatalities

can be divided into three categories. In the first and largest, coverage (or lack

of coverage) obscured domestic violence in general; ignored domestic violence's roots

in socially accepted, gender-based power imbalances; and tended to portray solutions

as resting with male-dominated institutions such as the law enforcement and legal

systems. This coverage represented views consistent with the strong patriarchal culture

in which the newspapers were embedded.

As a group, Utah newspapers covered the domestic violence fatalities that occurred

in the state during the period studied plus additional cases from within and outside

Utah. However, many Utah newspapers did not cover domestic violence fatalities or

included only a small number of articles--an important omission from the standpoint

of agenda setting and framing. These deaths and the broader social issue they represent

were not elevated to the media agenda, where they might attract attention, foster

discussion, and encourage action by the public and policy makers. In addition, as

Entman (1991) pointed out, sizing is an essential aspect of framing: "The frame can

be shrunk to miniaturize an event, diminishing the amount, prominence, and duration

of coverage, and thus mass awareness. The frame in this way measures and helps determine

a news event's political importance" (pp. 9-10). The lack of coverage by most Utah

newspapers potentially downplays domestic violence as a topic worthy of attention,

discussion, and individual and collective action. Ignoring men's violence against

women is perhaps media's most fundamental way of reinforcing the patriarchal status

quo.

Furthermore, cases that were covered generally were not called domestic violence

or abuse. Even articles that labeled these fatality cases sometimes did so in ways

that disguised men's subordination of women. As Meyers (1997) reported, phrases such

as "domestic disturbance" or "domestic violence" can be problematic: "By obscuring

who is at fault, the news represents the crime as independent of other such crimes

and divorced from larger issues concerning power and control within a patriarchal

society" (p. 110; see also Bograd, 1988; Lamb, 1991; Lamb & Keon, 1995).

Kelly (1988) has attributed the limited terms for and definitions of sexual violence,

including domestic violence, to men's dominance of language and their vested interest

in limiting the definitions of violence they perpetrate. "Language," she said, "is

a further means of controlling women" (p. 130). This makes the newspapers' use of

legal terminology for labelling domestic violence particularly troubling. Legal-oriented

terms help focus on the law enforcement and legal systems, where domestic violence

is in the hands of the proper authorities. As portrayed by these newspapers, current

social structures and institutions are not part of the problem--they are the solution.

Yet, as Stanko (1988) pointed out, "affairs of the state, the workplace, and the

traditional 'protecting' institutions, like the military and the criminal justice

system, still largely belong to and are controlled by men" (p. 76).

The law enforcement/legal system frame as a whole conceptualizes domestic violence

as a law-and-order issue, focusing on the authority of male-dominated institutions

and ignoring gender-related power imbalances inherent within these institutions.

Presenting each domestic violence fatality as an isolated case reinforces this conceptualization

by allowing newspapers to assign individual incidents to the law-and-order realm

and ignore the broader societal picture of men's subordination of women.

The framing of victims and abusers as inherently different from other people may

also obscure the connections between domestic violence and patriarchy. Focusing on

abusers and victims as the "other" frames domestic violence as an individual problem

and a problem involving deviance, rather than as common, socially accepted power

and control exercised by men over women.

While this study did not examine framing effects, the results discussed above raise

questions about whether the coverage may serve as a comforting signal to readers

that domestic violence couldn't happen to them, that the proper authorities already

have domestic violence under control, and that no individual or public action is

necessary. The third frame--these deaths affect people other than the victim and

perpetrator--would potentially seem to counteract the idea that anyone is immune

to the effects of domestic violence and even serve as a call to action. After all,

if these deaths affect children and neighbors and communities, shouldn't we do something

about them? In fact, the flame omits the real problem. Without linking the fatalities

to domestic violence and its roots in socially accepted power imbalances that minimize

the importance of men's violence against women, the coverage fails as a meaningful

call to action. In sum, this first category of coverage portrayed views of domestic

violence fatalities that support patriarchy.

The second category of coverage--a much smaller subset than the first--used labels

such as "domestic violence" and "abuse" and portrayed domestic violence as a broader

social issue but still did not challenge patriarchy. Again, the articles tended to

portray solutions to domestic violence as resting with current social institutions

or superficial changes within those institutions and did not address domestic violence

as a power-and-control issue. These pieces seem consistent with the LDS Church's

public stance against domestic violence while also being consistent with Utah's patriarchal

culture.

The third category, an even smaller subset of coverage, included views that challenged

the status quo. These pieces traced domestic violence to its roots in patriarchy

and men's subordination of women, acknowledging domestic violence as a power-and-control

issue. Such articles were rare, but they are significant in that they show that alternative

views of domestic violence are sometimes presented through mainstream newspapers

embedded within a strong patriarchal culture. Furthermore, while an analysis of the

effects of such coverage remains for future studies, the presence of alternative

views means that these ideas have the potential to enter and help shape the public

debate over how to address the problem of domestic violence. In addition, this coverage

helps point to ways to reframe coverage of domestic violence fatalities.

For example, research has highlighted the role sources play in shaping news coverage

(Sigal, 1973, 1986). Much of the domestic violence fatality coverage studied involved

basic reporting on specific incidents with little acknowledgment that the deaths

involved domestic violence and little follow-up coverage, meaning journalists would

be unlikely to use victims' advocates, batterers' treatment personnel, domestic violence

survivors, or other such experts representing alternative views as sources. However,

some of the newspapers also published domestic violence-related letters to the editor

and other opinion pieces, which domestic violence experts could write, and articles

on domestic violence-related events such as vigils, for which domestic violence experts

could serve as information sources.

In addition, when there were multiple domestic violence-related deaths within a community

over a short time, journalists sometimes stopped treating each incident as an isolated

one and began looking at domestic violence as a broader social issue. Such situations

may offer chances for domestic violence experts to contact journalists with information

about domestic violence, its roots and patterns, ways to help victims, and broader

social policy considerations.

The current study raises but does not address additional questions that may be important

in reframing coverage of domestic violence fatalities. For example, how much do reporters

and editors know about domestic violence, how does that knowledge (or lack of knowledge)

shape their coverage, and how might a better understanding of journalists' knowledge

and assumptions help the victims' advocacy community reframe coverage? How do readers

respond to the coverage of domestic violence fatalities? What messages does the coverage

convey to victims in particular? Is the framing of domestic violence fatalities different

in other environments in which patriarchy is strong? This study is merely one step

in the search for ways in which alternative messages about domestic violence are

being or can be presented in media, but the results are encouraging given that such

messages were offered within a strong patriarchal culture.

"People can learn," Klein, Campbell, Soler, and Gbez (1997) have noted. "They can

change the way they think and behave. Witness the success of prevention programs

aimed at raising awareness about recycling, cigarette smoking, and drunk driving"

(p. 90). In the case of domestic violence, a crucial step in any such program will

surely be working to encourage newspapers to incorporate domestic violence in the

media agenda and reframe coverage so that it acknowledges domestic violence's roots

in socially accepted subordination of women by men.

Appendix: Frequency of Domestic Violence Fatality Coverage

 by Utah Newspapers April 1, 2002, to March 31, 2003

 Number Percentage of

 Newspaper of pieces total pieces

 Dailies

 * The Salt Lake Tribune 129 21.9

 * Deseret News (Salt Lake City) 118 20.1

 * Standard-Examiner (Ogden) 106 18.0

 * The Daily Herald (Provo) 81 13.8

 * The Spectrum (St. George) 75 12.8

 * The Herald Journal (Logan) 38 6.5

 Nondailies

 Tooele Transcript Bulletin 18 3.1

 * Spanish Fork Press 7 1.2

 * Uintah Basin Standard 4 0.7

 * Utah Statesman (Utah State University) 3 0.5

 * Park Record 2 0.3

 Davis County Clipper 1

 Enterprise 1

 Intermountain Catholic 1

 Intermountain Commercial Record 1 1.2

 * Payson Chronicle 1

 Richfield Reaper 1

 Salt Lake City Weekly 1

 Total: 588 100.1 **

 * These newspapers included coverage of one or more of the nine cases

 mentioned in Utah Domestic Violence Council public information reports

 for the period studied.

 ** Figures do not total 100% due to rounding error.

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Cathy Ferrand Bullock

Utah State University

Notes

(1) The reasoning behind this draws on Gramsci's (1971) notion of hegemony. Gitlin

(1980) defined Gramsci's concept of hegemony as:

 a ruling class's (or alliance's) domination of subordinate classes

 and groups through the elaboration and penetration of ideology

 (ideas and assumptions) into their common sense and everyday

 practice; it is the systematic (but not necessarily or even usually

 deliberate) engineering of mass consent to the established order.

 (p. 253)

According to Hall (1977), agencies and institutions such as the media, family, education

system, church, military, law, and law enforcement systems help maintain hegemony.

(2) There is no universal agreement on what to call "domestic violence." As Meyers

(1997) has pointed out, terms such as "domestic violence," "battering," and "intimate

partner violence" obscure the fact that women are most often the victims and men

the abusers, thus hiding the related issues of gender and power, while "wife beating"

seems to leave out men's violence against female romantic partners to whom they are

not married. Meyers opted for the terms "sexist violence" and "anti-women violence"

because they place "violence against women within a social context of patriarchy

and male supremacy" (p. 8). In the current study, I generally use the term "domestic

violence," acknowledging that it is flawed but also that it is the kind of term most

likely to appear in media coverage.

(3) As part of the larger study of which the current research is a part, Utah newspapers'

coverage of women's violence against their male romantic partners was also analyzed

(with the understanding that such cases involve a different theoretical context),

and analysis of coverage of all fatalities involving male or female romantic partners

was summarized in a report prepared for the Utah Domestic Violence Council (Bullock,

2005).

(4) Included in the Utah statistics were females 15 or older whose deaths were (a)

perpetrated by a current or former husband or boyfriend and (b) labeled homicides

by the medical examiner.

(5) As Laurel Carter, a marriage and family therapist and director of the Family

Institute of Northern Utah, pointed out, nothing would have more influence in the

LDS community than hearing the Church's president, a leader believed by LDS faithful

to be God's prophet, condemn domestic violence (personal communication, August 18,

2005).

(6) In some ways, this sample was the result of careful decisions based on methodological

considerations; in other respects, it was necessitated by practical concerns. The

decision to examine all coverage from a one-year period was intended to generate

enough material for a meaningful analysis and mirror the sampling method used in

the earlier study with which this one is being compared. Examining all material within

that year (as opposed to sampling from one or more years) helped ensure that the

sample included any fluctuations in domestic violence fatalities and their coverage

that might typically occur over the course of a year.

The purpose in including both news and opinion pieces was twofold. First, the study

was intended to take a comprehensive look at framing of domestic violence fatalities

by Utah newspapers, and both kinds of coverage contributed to that framing. Second,

because the plan was to compare the Utah newspapers' framing to that in Washington

newspapers studied by Bullock and Cubert (2002), I wanted to include the same kinds

of coverage. The earlier study included news and opinion pieces. In both studies,

news and feature articles accounted for the majority of the pieces analyzed (95.4%

in Utah, 96.1% in Washington).

The decision to use coverage from April 1, 2002, to March 31, 2003, was largely based

on practical considerations related to when grant money was available to begin. To

generate the most up-to-date data, I analyzed the most recent coverage, rather than

coverage from the same year analyzed in the Washington state study. This adds time

as a variable when comparing coverage in the two states. It is worth noting that

the environment within which the Utah study was set--a culture heavily influenced

by a patriarchal institution--did not change between the two data collection years.

Whether the Utah coverage of domestic violence fatalities included views that challenged

and/or supported patriarchy is a valuable finding in its own right. The comparison

with the earlier study provides a way to consider what coverage that supports the

status quo looks like (as illustrated by the Washington coverage) so we have a better

chance of identifying alternative views in the Utah coverage.

(7) The clipping service was instructed to collect: "1.)Articles, photos, etc., dealing

with domestic violence (i.e., husband killing wife, not terrorism on U.S. soil).

2.) All material dealing with cases in which someone kills or tries to kill an acquaintance*

(from the death through the trial and beyond). Include articles in which we don't

know for sure who the killer is but an acquaintance is implicated. Include coverage

if someone is missing and suspected dead. Include cases in which someone hires another

person to kill his/her friend, spouse, etc. I am interested in coverage related to

domestic violence, so I am not interested in articles about political enemies killing

each other."

"*Acquaintances could be family members, estranged spouses, current or former boyfriends

or girlfriends, same-sex couples, friends, acquaintances. This category would also

include a case in which a woman's ex-husband kills her current boyfriend."

With these instructions, the coverage most likely to be missed would be articles

that dealt mainly with other topics and mentioned domestic violence fatalities in

passing. Such omissions were not a problem given that the study focused on coverage

that dealt primarily with domestic violence and excluded other coverage. According

to Cindy Still of the Utah Press Association's clipping service (personal communication,

August 2005), the employees who worked on this project were instructed to check all

sections of the newspapers and were very detail oriented.

(8) Cases in which the victim survived were included if they involved legal charges

that suggested the perpetrator attempted to kill the victim the perpetrator thought

he had killed the victim, or the victim's injuries were serious enough to suggest

that the perpetrator had intended to kill her (for example, stab wounds to the chest

and stomach).

(9) The current study builds and expands on the Bullock and Cubert (2002) work. These

researchers included all cases in which someone killed his/her current or former

romantic partner. Most cases (29 of 42, or 69.0%) involved men killing women and

these cases dominated the coverage. Also, the Washington state study only examined

coverage up through the arraignment, if there was one in a case, and only included

cases with a Washington state connection. To make sure framing comparisons between

the Washington database and the more inclusive Utah database were sound, inductive

framing analysis was conducted on subgroups of the Utah coverage to see if framing

changed. Those comparisons were: (1) Utah coverage up to the trial vs. Utah coverage

from the trial on, (2) coverage with a Utah connection vs. coverage with no Utah

connection, and (3) Utah coverage up to the trial with a Utah connection vs. all

Utah coverage. Inductive framing analysis identified no significant differences based

on these distinctions.

(10) The following statement appears in the 2003 report:

 The Utah Domestic Violence Council compiles and continually updates

 information on domestic violence related deaths from public sources

 statewide. To be listed in this report, case specific information

 must demonstrate a correlation between domestic violence and the

 death of the victim as demonstrated by corroborating public

 information. These troubling statistics document, in summary form,

 the broad scope and tragic impact of domestic violence in Utah.

 From public information available, each listed death shows domestic

 violence between cohabitants or spouses or intimate partners.

(11) Because domestic violence is referred to by many names, I instructed coders

to look for a wide range of terms, including but not limited to "domestic violence,"

"domestic abuse." "domestic dispute," "abusive relationship," "batterer," "violent

history," and "physical violence." (12) As might be expected, such contextualization

was evident in all 43 articles that didn't fit a particular domestic violence fatality

case. Still, the total number of articles that placed domestic violence in a broader

context--64 (10.9%) of 588--was small.

(13) These items (with the number of articles in which they appeared following in

parentheses) were: these people (victim, perpetrator, or family as a whole) were

antisocial or unusually quiet (6); these people were eccentric in some way (weird,

bizarre, strange) (19); these people were from a different culture (2); the perpetrator

had money issues (killed the victim for the insurance money, to avoid a costly divorce,

because he had money problems and was under stress, etc.) (80); the perpetrator used

drugs and/or alcohol (61); the perpetrator was involved with drugs other than as

a user (7); the perpetrator had mental health problems (60); the perpetrator had

a criminal record not specifically tied to domestic violence (32); the perpetrator

had occupational problems (loss of job, threat of bankruptcy, investigation by federal

authorities, etc.) (6); the perpetrator had physical health problems (3); the perpetrator

grew up in an abusive home (2); the perpetrator and victim were going through separation,

divorce, or some kind of breakup of the relationship implicated as a reason for abuse

or murder (19); the victim's behavior was unacceptable (the victim used drugs or

alcohol, was unfaithful, wouldn't let the perpetrator have a divorce, etc.) (70):

the victim was specifically blamed for her own death or the attempt on her life (4);

the victim had mental or physical health problems (0); the victim grew up in an abusive

home or had been involved in abusive relationships in the past (0). One or more of

these items appeared in 274 of the 545 articles that could be assigned to a particular

case.

(14) The items indicating that the abuser had an excuse or motivation (with the number

of articles in which they appeared following in parentheses) were: money (80); the

perpetrator used drugs and/or alcohol (61) or was involved with drugs other than

as a user (7); the perpetrator had mental health problems (60); the death was or

may have been accidental (43); separation, divorce, or any breakup of the perpetrator's

relationship (19); the perpetrator was specifically called a victim in this domestic

violence case (9); the perpetrator had occupational problems (6); the perpetrator

had physical health problems (3); the perpetrator grew up in an abusive home (2).

The items indicating victim blaming were: the victim's behavior was unacceptable

(70), the victim was specifically blamed for her own death or the attempt on her

life (4), the victim had mental or physical health problems (0), the victim grew

up in an abusive home or had been involved in abusive relationships in the past (0).

Figures total more than 214 articles for perpetrator excuses and more than 72 articles

for victim blaming because some articles included more than one form of excuse or

blame.

Cathy Fen-and Bullock is an assistant professor in Utah State University's Department

of Journalism and Communication. The work on which this manuscript is based was funded

by a new faculty research grant from Utah State. The author wishes to think colleague

Brenda Cooper and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts

and Roger Simpson for his ongoing encouragement of a broad range of research related

to journalism and trauma. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed

to Cathy Ferrand Bullock, Utah State University, Department of Journalism and Communication,

4605 Old Main Hill, Logan, Utah 84322-4605. E-mail: cbullock at cc.usu.edu

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

Publication Information:

Article Title: Framing Domestic Violence Fatalities: Coverage by Utah Newspapers.

Contributors: Cathy Ferrand Bullock - author. Journal Title: Women's Studies in Communication.

Volume: 30. Issue: 1. Publication Year: 2007. Page Number: 34+. COPYRIGHT 2007 Organization

for Research on Women and Communication; COPYRIGHT 2007 Gale Group

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