Whose Responsibility is it?

Secondary Victimization in the Italian Press Representation of Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

Gender plays a key role in crime, as evidenced by the existence of a specific category of offences in which gender constitutes the underlying motive: male violence against women. Despite its structural and cultural roots, as highlighted by the Istanbul Convention (Council of Europe, 2011), this violence is frequently represented as a matter of private deviance (Belluati, 2021; Saccà, 2021a) and victims are portrayed as partially co-responsible for the violence they endure (Gius & Lalli, 2014; Hewa, 2021; Lalli, 2021; Saccà, 2021b, 2024). This process of secondary victimization tends to shift at least part of the responsibility from the perpetrator to the victim (Busso et al., 2020; Niccolini, 2020; Saccà, 2021b). Based on this assumption, this study – conducted within the framework of the PNRR Research “STEPSISTER-STEreotypes and PrejudiceS In preSs represenTation of gEndeR-violence” –  analyzes news articles on intimate partner violence published in 2024 by 28 national newspapers (n=2091). Through quantitative-qualitative content analysis, the study aims to assess whether and to what extent the stereotypical frames and narratives that have historically shaped secondary victimization in the Italian press are still detectable or whether the representation has started to change. Overall, violence is still frequently framed in terms of jealousy and family disputes, resulting in a de-emphasis on the perpetrator in the former case and the normalization of violence in the latter. Nonetheless, some shifts are observed: the "raptus" frame, used to depict violence as a sudden loss of control, and references to “crime of passion” and romanticized narratives have significantly declined. While progress is evident, the representation of perpetrators remains inadequate, and victims are not yet fully acknowledged in their role. This framing can lead to tertiary victimization and increased levels of misjudgments in court (Saccà, 2021a, 2024; Massidda, 2021).

Keywords: gender-based violence, secondary victimization, social representations.