This study is a critical discourse analysis aiming to understand how British news media describe female sex workers when victims of violent and sexual crimes. It seeks to develop an understanding of how discourse can undermine, or support sex workers who have been victimised and how it can create or negate stigma. This study gives prominence to the issue of crime victim identity and to better understand how the victim status is created, changed, or perceived through the reporting of media. Sex workers face a high level of violence as well as discrimination and stigma in regard to their profession. Four newspaper organisations have been chosen to analyse the discourse in articles reporting on violent and sexual crimes against female sex workers. These newspapers are Independent, The Guardian, Daily Mail, and The Sun. The data is then compared to Nils Christie’s (1986) theory of the ideal victim. The study finds six discourses present in the data material, Victimblaming, Labelling, Media sensationalism, Vulnerability, Legitimisation, and Any woman. Some of the attributes of the ideal victim can be tied to the discourses in this study. Victimblaming, labelling, and media sensationalism questions the victim’s reasons to be in the place of the crime, the activity she engaged in as well as her guilt in regard to the crime; vulnerability and legitimisation portray the victim as weak in accordance with Christie's (1986) ideal victim.
2022-01-31