Sexual Violence In The Media

Sexual violence is a significant public health issue around the world. Studies suggest that 1 out of 6 adult women and 3 out of 100 men in the United States experience sexual assault at some time in their lives. Yet available data greatly underestimates the actual impact of sexual violence because it is one of the most underreported crimes. For instance, only 39% of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law enforcement officials. Among all personal and social factors lead to the issue, influence from broadcast media is one of the significant causes. Exposure to television may indirectly affect sexual violence through the creation and reinforcement of attitudes related to sexual violence and emotive responses to sexually violent content.

Compared to general violence in the media, the impact of sexual violence on broadcast media especially television has not been thoroughly explored. Scholars have substantially divided various forms of violence yet have not clearly conceptualised sexual violence. In their definitive text on human aggression, X and Y defined aggression as “any form of behaviour directed toward the goal of harming or injuring another living being who is motivated to avoid such treatment” (p. 12). In doing so, X and Y acknowledged the importance of the intent to commit aggression and in the receiving party’s intent to avoid the aggressive act. In contrast, in the National study, violence was definced more broadly as any act that results in or has potential to result in physical harm, intentionally committed by one being against another being. It includes credible threats, violent acts and consequences of unseen

Although this definition prioritizes the act of providing and asking for consent to engage in sexual activity, it may also define as “violent” some acts of consensual activity such as sado-masochism. In other words, this definition technically encompasses any “violent” acts that have the potential to result in harm even if the parties have consented to receiving physical harm even though very few violent portrayals in crime drama are in this category. Despite this limitation, I believe that basing the definition on the influential NTV study will be more likely to ensure that the results of this study can be compared to other research on televised violence in the