Gender, crime, and culture: Media coverage of the Mary Kay LeTourneau child rape case

A case study of the Mary Kay LeTourneau child rape case was used to investigate the relationships between gender, crime, and the media. Newspapers, television news, syndicated infotainment television programs, and national magazines were critically analyzed. A frame analysis of the newspaper coverage was completed and it was found that the Seattle Times and New York Times initially characterized LeTourneau as a typical criminal by focusing on official accounts of her crime. This was true for television news as well. After her incarceration, all media tended to represent her in terms of conventional gender stereotypes. LeTourneau's criminal behavior was justified with several perspectives. Her bipolar diagnosis was used to excuse her actions. Also LeTourneau's failing marriage and personal tragedies assisted in representing her as a social victim who was forced into the involvement with her student. Her crime was often described in terms of the love between the two. LeTourneau's social identity as a mother and teacher was emphasized over her criminal behaviors. Local television news often reiterated information that was broadcast on less objective tabloid-style infotainment programs. In doing so, the discourse presented LeTourneau as a media icon who received media attention on issues that were independent of her crime. "Totality" coverage that presented in-depth and lengthy representations continued this tendency to depict LeTourneau as a woman rather than a criminal.;It was concluded that LeTourneau's gender and her identity as an attractive, white, and middle class teacher was the primary force that caused her representation to be positioned within sex-based stereotypes. By locating LeTourneau into an "appropriate" and constructed gender role, the media assisted in the manufacturing and upholding of our culture. Sex-based stereotypes of female criminals acted as organizational mechanisms that positioned the coverage into dominate ideological constructs of what it is to be a woman. Essentially, her social identity was defined by portraying what a woman is not---they do not rape. To accomplish this maintenance function, the media repositioned LeTourneau into traditionally accepted female roles of mother, teacher, and wife, opposites of a criminal. The impact of this on gender construction and society are discussed.