Women’s Fear of Violent Crime: Examining Media Consumption and Misconceptions of Violent Crime

Within the United States, women are disproportionately victimized by crimes of domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV). However, media narratives do not accurately represent the threats that women face within society, and women are often unaware of and lack protection from the forms of violence that they are most commonly subjected to. Therefore, this paper examines how the media frames violent crime and the victimization of women, as well as how underrepresentation and misconceptions contribute to the levels of fear that women feel toward violent crime. Through using data from the Chapman University Survey on American Fears from 2023, this paper examines women’s fear of violent crimes committed by strangers versus a person they know and how accurately it reflects reality. This paper also examines the misconceptions caused by media consumption and its inaccurate framing of violent crime in relation to the level of fear that respondents possess. Media consumption plays a vital role in creating this disconnect, and the forms of media that women consume can increase or decrease the accuracy of their understanding of violent crime. The widespread misunderstanding of violent crime, and particularly DV and IPV, creates larger vulnerabilities by leaving women with inadequate knowledge about the threats they face and creating public misconceptions that can lead to decreased security and resources for victims. Therefore, the intention behind this research is to highlight the danger of falsely representing these crimes within the media, as well as to improve awareness of how DV and IPV manifest within society.