Iconographies of child sexual abuse: Symbolic images in press articles and prevention materials

Abstract

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is quite widespread in Germany and internationally and often has serious and long-term consequences for those affected. How the public and politicians perceive the social problem of CSA and which prevention and intervention approaches are pursued depend to a large extent on media reporting. In this regard, previous communication science research shows both strengths and weaknesses of CSA-related media representations: On the one hand, the media contribute to uncovering CSA, giving those affected a voice and raising public awareness. On the other, media reports are often biased, cliched and lurid, sometimes to the detriment of those affected. Research into the content and quality features of media reporting on CSA has so far completely ignored one important aspect, namely the use of images. The Iconography (i.e. the set of typical image motifs for a topic), however, is an important element of media coverage; it generates attention and emotions. This is where the present study comes in. It answers the following research questions: How often are symbolic images used in press coverage of CSA, and what image motifs are used? and examines two related ones: How often are symbolic images used in prevention materials created by specialized counselling centers and what image motifs are used in those materials? In order to work out the respective iconographies of CSA, a sample of N = 1,437 CSA-related German-language online press articles and a sample of N = 230 German-language CSA prevention materials were drawn. The symbol images contained therein were each subjected separately to a standardized image content analysis. The analysis showed that 29.2% of the online press articles and 62.0% of the prevention materials used symbolic images. The analyzed 419 CSA stock photos of the press revealed a CSA iconography related to criminal reporting that visualizes 1. crime contexts, 2. course of the crime and people involved, and 3. consequences of the crime for the people involved. For the prevention materials, based on 450 symbol images, a CSA iconography was identified that is oriented to the framing of prevention approaches and depicts 1. primary prevention, 2. secondary prevention, and 3. tertiary prevention. The article compares the two CSA iconographies, discusses the image types critically with regard to criteria of media quality and media ethics, and makes suggestions for improvement. Additional material can be retrieved from https://osf.io/g2cxa/.