News Coverage of Officer-Involved Domestic Violence: A Comparative Content Analysis

Abstract

An increasing amount of international academic and media attention focuses on officer-involved domestic violence (OIDV), with U.S. prevalence rates ranging from 20 to 40 percent. The majority of this research is derived from the United States, whereas research relating to OIDV in Canada is non-existent. Accordingly, data for this content analysis were drawn from online Canadian newspapers published between 2000 and 2014. More than 250 cases were analyzed to compare how the media portray police officers and civilians who perpetrate intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada while simultaneously producing preliminary empirical data on OIDV in Canada. Findings reveal significant differences between media constructions of OIDV and civilian IPV in terms of typifications, causal interpretations, moral evaluations, and treatment recommendations made by claimsmakers. The preliminary data on OIDV in Canada shares several commonalities with U.S. research. This thesis concludes with a discussion of policy implications and directions for future research.