SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This article examines how spousal femicides were framed in Ontario newspapers in the first decade of the twentieth century. Newspaper accounts served as a primary source of information, understandings, and perspectives on crime, criminality, and the law. Accounts of intimate killings presented the events as 'news worthy' and simultaneously sought to minimise challenges to patriarchal values in marriage. Media coverage employed an individualised model of crime and focused on perpetrators as non-normal (failed) or abnormal men. Intemperance, immigration status, and social class were used to 'other' perpetrators. Victim blaming was relatively uncommon except in cases of female infidelity.
Publication Date
2019-01-01
Publication Title
SOLON Law, Crime and History
Volume
9
Issue
1
First Page
29
Last Page
61
ISSN
2045-9238
Deposit Date
September 2019
Embargo Period
2024-10-29
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Kelly, Katharine
(2019)
"Examining Constructions of Perpetrators and Victims in Early Twentieth Century Canadian Newspaper Accounts of Femicides,"
SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective): Vol. 9:
Iss.
1, Article 1.
Available at:
https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk/solon/vol9/iss1/1
