ABSTRACT
This chapter uses frame analysis to examine how female aggression is portrayed in crime-news coverage. Scholars have debunked fears of female aggression as a moral panic, in which isolated incidents are taken out of context to allege widespread social breakdown. Yet, there is no empirical research examining how moral panics are shaped by intersections among race, gender, and sexuality or the “controlling images” of Black and/or queer girls in news coverage. Analysis of six landmark cases of female aggression (2003–2014) identified three dominant frames: 1) pure victims, in which news coverage idealized victims; 2) pure criminals, in which coverage vilified perpetrators as folk devils; and 3) blurred lines between victim and criminal, in which coverage called into question the perpetrator and victim categories. Findings indicate that queer young women of Color were framed as gender disordered, gang-affiliated, violent predators and were punished more harshly than White, heterosexual young women. Implications for research on media effects and criminal justice policy are considered.
