| This paper examines the construction of girls' violence and gang involvement as a social problem by print journalists and social problems experts (namely social scientists) as claimsmaking groups in their respective media and professional fora. The issue of girls' violence and gang involvement has recently received great attention in Canada due to increased exposure in the Canadian news media surrounding recent 'shocking' and violent events involving young girls. However, social scientists and other experts have been exploring and researching the etiology of girls' violence and gang involvement and have also been at the fore of claims-making about this issue in recent years. Content analysis, guided by the contextual social constructionist perspective, was the research method used to isolate the rhetoric and imagery concerning girls' violence and gang involvement found in a literature sample of newspaper articles and social scientific research publications from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. This paper examines the relationship between print journalists and social problems experts, as the media and social problems experts are not mutually exclusive groups. This research also explores the frequency with which claims appear in media and academic outlets about the nature and volume of girls' violence and gang involvement, and reveals distinct patterns as to each group's interests/agendas in the reporting of this phenomenon (and social problems in general), and the subsequent public perceptions and policies shaped by exposure to these claims and images. |
Updated 05/20/2006