Gendered Constructions of Deviance: Women as Perpetrators of Violent Crime in Finnish Tabloid Press

Abstract

The tabloid press feeds on cases of true crime that have specific potential for sensationalism. Cases of violent crime with women as suspects are known to have high news value because they transgress common expectations about gender and violence and are frequently met with a mixture of abhorrence and fascination. This chapter presents an analysis of the portrayals of women suspected of violent crimes in Finnish tabloids. The materials analysed are news stories published in two Finnish tabloids in 2009–2011, years when several high-profile cases of women’s violence aroused vast media attention. The analysis focuses on ways in which gendered, normative understandings inform the reporting and specifically guide the construction of images of the suspected women as deviant, ill-willed, and deceptive. A specific focus in the analysis is the use of normative assumptions of emotional displays and affective attachments, which do significant discursive work in constructing contradictions, gendered dichotomies, and ultimately the othering of women suspected of violent crime.