THE PUBLIC PORTRAYAL OF RAPE SENTENCING - WHAT THE PUBLIC LEARNS OF RAPE SENTENCING FROM NEWSPAPERS

Hough's(1) recent investigations into public attitudes to sentencing i n Britain have shown respondents as being highly critical of sentencer s as well as being misinformed about sentencing practice. This study e xplores one possible source of the misunderstanding The media may be c rucial. Considering the press coverage of the sentencing of rape cases , the results show how media coverage is dynamic and patterns change. Up to the 1970s the media coverage of rape sentences broadly matched t he reality of the courtroom. Since the 1980s, however, a distortion be comes evident in terms of a disproportionate emphasis by national news papers on severe sentences. The dangers of relying on the media to edu cate the public are manifest.