The Mediated Portrayal of Intimate Partner Violence in True Crime Podcasts: Strangulation, Isolation, Threats of Violence, and Coercive Control

Abstract

In this directed qualitative content analysis of four season-long true crime podcasts, the researcher examined how different types of intimate partner violence (IPV) were portrayed. Across the podcasts, controlling behaviors, emotional abuse, and coercive control were commonly depicted. Physical violence was not the most common form of abuse depicted, but it was presented in sensationalistic ways—with a pointed focus on strangulation and bruising. Overall, the podcasts provided a much more realistic portrayal of IPV at the individual level than traditional news sources, yet did not go far enough in describing the societal conditions that permit abuse.

‘My Favourite Genre Is Missing People’: Exploring How Listeners Experience True Crime Podcasts in Australia

“…Feminist scholars have critiqued true crime's tendency to provide in-depth psychological explorations of the mind and motivations of perpetrators with limited emphasis on women victims, who become the proxy for audiences to enjoy the affective experience of getting 'inside the killer's mind' (Murley 2019: 219). Although recent research into representations of domestic violence in TCPs has shown that long-form podcasts focus on recognising the role of context and male entitlement in domestic violence (Slakoff 2022), participants' desire for psychology and motivations suggests the potential continuation of these patterns and the importance of systematically exploring violence against women narratives in Australian TCPs.…”

“…This subversive potential has also been noted by Murley (2019), who argues in her analysis of four first-person female true crime memoirs that these texts can explore trauma and the misogyny of violence against women while simultaneously critiquing the exploitation embedded in the genre. Additionally, Slakoff's (2022) analysis of the portrayal of domestic violence in long-form TCPs found that the podcasts recognised the role of context and male entitlement in domestic violence. Moreover, others have recognised TCPs as informal justice mechanisms that utilise the efforts of hosts, listeners and family members to seek justice in response to the formal justice system's longstanding failures in addressing and recognising violence against women (Pâquet 2021).…”

“When Can I Call Home?” Coercive Control, Structural Isolation, and Functional Isolation Among Attendees of Residential Behavioral Modification Programs

“…Such behaviors establish power over the victim such that the victim no longer feels as though they may make independent decisions (Hagan et al, 2021). Patterns of coercive control are generally defined by three things: intentionality of the abuser, control of the abuser over the victim as a result of the threats made, and victim’s perception of the behavior (Hamberger et al, 2017; Slakoff, 2022).…”

“…Coercive control within the context of these programs is a form of abuse in which an individual uses controlling behaviors to intimidate, isolate, threaten, stalk, or abuse others who do not hold significant power or authority (Callaghan et al, 2018; Slakoff, 2022; Stark & Hester, 2019). Although coercive control is generally conceptualized as occurring between intimate partners (Stark & Hester, 2019), the same dynamic can be found among authority figures and their subordinates.…”

The Routledge Companion to Gender, Media and Violence

“…For Slakoff (2021), mediated portrayals of intimate partner violence (IPV) in true crime podcasts frequently fixate on physical violence over other forms of IPV such as controlling behaviours. Slakoff coded transcripts from four true crime podcast series, with the primary code of "physical violence" subdivided into subcodes such as "hitting," "slapping," "strangulation" and the unexpected addition of "bruising" (2021, p.8).…”