Constructing “Bad Girls”: Representations of Violent Girls in the Canadian and U.S. News Media

Youth crime and depictions of youth crime in Canada: Are news depictions purely moral panic?

“…Prior researchers claim that actual crime statistics have little to do with crime reporting and that media portrayals of youth criminality and crime tend to be exaggerated and can be classified as moral panics (Andersen et al, 2019;Best, 1999;Jewkes, 2015;Schissel, 2006;Welch et al, 2002). This analysis provides mixed support for this assessment and adds nuance to the literature on representations of youth crime.…”

“…Thus, the intersection of gender, class, race, and age was a factor shaping media accounts that fueled moral panics around youth crime. Previous research has highlighted the significance of gender and race to moral panics (Andersen et al, 2019;DeKeseredy, 2010;Kilty, 2010;Littlefield, 2008;Thompson et al, 2000;Welch et al, 2002). However, greater attention should be paid to the intersection of class, age, race, and gender, and how this intersection is embedded within media coverage.…”

“…Instead of highlighting the reality that young people are particularly vulnerable members in society at a heightened risk of victimization, they are constructed as being a menace to the prevailing social order. That is, media portrayals seldom acknowledge that youth typically are low in economic, political or human capital, but rather vilify them as deviant and risky (Andersen et al, 2019;Farmer, 2010;Schissel, 2008;Tanner, 2010). In fact, social surveys in Canada have shown, time and time again, young people receive the most negative attention and are consistently viewed as troublesome or troubling (Tanner, 2010).…”

“…The Juvenile Delinquents Act in 1908 was developed, in part, to resocialize racialized youth to meet middle class standards (Bell, 2015). More than a hundred years later, scholars have highlighted the ways in which Canadian and American news media continue to demonize youth of colour through the use of symbolic language referencing violence committed by racialized youth as animalistic and uncivilized (Andersen et al, 2019;Farmer, 2010). What is more, Canadian news media frames have failed to communicate the struggles of youth of colour by deliberately or strategically omitting discussions of racism entirely (Jiwani, 1999).…”

“…The current assumption taken up in Canadian mass media is that youth are behaving in ways never seen before and that youth crime is spiralling out of control (Andersen et al, 2019;Doob & Sprott, 1998;Silcox, 2017;Welch et al, 2002). However, official data suggest that crime amongst youth is actually decreasing (Doob & Sprott, 1998;Silcox, 2017).…”