With female murderers recognised for the newspaper representations they receive, it is of interes... more With female murderers recognised for the newspaper representations they receive, it is of interest to study the nature of them in relation to real life criminal cases. This dissertation provides an analysis of the newspaper portrayals of killers Myra Hindley and Rose West, and considers them within the ‘mad’, ‘bad’ and ‘sad’ labels placed on women who kill. With existing research on Hindley and West’s portrayals focused around their criminal trials, this dissertation instead explores their depictions at the time of their whole life tariff impositions. This study involved the use of a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 40 newspaper articles, that enabled language used in their coverage to be formulated into themes informing of their depictions. The findings in this study have illustrated that Hindley and West’s portrayals heavily reflected the ‘bad’ woman narrative similarly addressed in existing research. In addition, it finds support for their representations as the less acknowledged ‘mad’ and ‘sad’ woman that not only reinforced their ‘badness’, but challenged the reactions we expect with these two narratives. By also discovering portrayal categories not acknowledged by research, this study demonstrates how female murderer representations are more complicated than we assume, and leaves questions regarding why Hindley and West were portrayed in this complex way.
With female murderers recognised for the newspaper representations they receive, it is of interes... more With female murderers recognised for the newspaper representations they receive, it is of interest to study the nature of them in relation to real life criminal cases. This dissertation provides an analysis of the newspaper portrayals of killers Myra Hindley and Rose West, and considers them within the ‘mad’, ‘bad’ and ‘sad’ labels placed on women who kill. With existing research on Hindley and West’s portrayals focused around their criminal trials, this dissertation instead explores their depictions at the time of their whole life tariff impositions. This study involved the use of a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 40 newspaper articles, that enabled language used in their coverage to be formulated into themes informing of their depictions. The findings in this study have illustrated that Hindley and West’s portrayals heavily reflected the ‘bad’ woman narrative similarly addressed in existing research. In addition, it finds support for their representations as the less acknowledged ‘mad’ and ‘sad’ woman that not only reinforced their ‘badness’, but challenged the reactions we expect with these two narratives. By also discovering portrayal categories not acknowledged by research, this study demonstrates how female murderer representations are more complicated than we assume, and leaves questions regarding why Hindley and West were portrayed in this complex way.
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Papers by Sophie Conway