Steubenville vs. Delhi: A tale of two coverages

From:  Salon

 

Why does the U.S. media offer sympathy for Trent Mays and Ma'lik Richmond, but demonize Indian men?

By Jean MacKenzie

Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, sit in court before the start of the third day of their trial on rape charges in juvenile court on March 15, 2013 in Steubenville, Ohio. (Credit: AP/Keith Srakocic)

This article originally appeared on GlobalPost.

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — The bad news just keeps coming: the gang rape of a medical student in India resulting in her death; the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in Pakistan; a Swiss tourist gang-raped, again in India.
The latest headline-grabbing case in the United States involves the prolonged and public assault on a 16-year-old girl by two high-school football stars in Steubenville, Ohio. The pair was found guilty. One was sentenced to a minimum of one year in a juvenile detention center; the other to two years.
The Ohio case has caused outrage on many levels; but it also raises important questions of media reporting on rape.
Does the publicity surrounding such an incident make it less likely that similar crimes will occur in the future? Or, conversely, does it re-victimize someone who has already undergone significant trauma, and further discourage the reporting of sex crimes?
And, last but not least, what does the Steubenville case say about sexual violence in the United States as opposed to the rest of the world?
Rape clearly continues to be a major global problem. But the uncomfortable truth is that the United States is one of the worst offenders in this regard, at least according to available statistics.
According to the United Nations when it comes to rape, the United States tops the charts by a significant margin.
The numbers, of course, do not tell the whole story. Rape is one of the most underreported and under-prosecuted of all crimes. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, 97 percent of rapists never spend a day in jail.
According to a US government study, 1 in 5 women in the United States will be raped in her lifetime.
Within the US military, the figures are even more dire: 1 in 3 women can expect some form of sexual assault in the course of her military career. The crimes are rarely reported, and those who do file a case can face reprisals.

But even in the face of such uncompromising and damning statistics, the US media is often guilty of a double standard in reporting such crimes, say experts. What is seen as a serious problem in other countries is treated as more of an exception in our own.
The Steubenville, Ohio, case has brought this into sharp focus. Most of the attention, and much of the sympathy, has focused on the perpetrators of the assault, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond.
“It’s been all about the boys,” said Gail Dines, professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston, Mass. “There has been very little empathy for the girl.”  MORE