University of Huddersfield Repository Tabbert, Ulrike Crime through a corpus: The linguistic construction of offenders, victims and crimes in the German and UK press Original Citation Tabbert, Ulrike (2013) Crime through a corpus: The linguistic construction of offenders, victims and crimes in the German and UK press. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/18078/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ Crime through a corpus: The linguistic construction of offenders, victims and crimes in the German and UK press Ulrike Tabbert A thesis submitted to the University of Huddersfield in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2013 The University of Huddersfield 1 To my mother and grandmother and to my father with love 2 Abstract In this thesis I analyse and compare the linguistic construction of offenders, victims and crimes in the British and German press. I have collected a corpus of British and German newspaper articles reporting on crime and criminal trials and carried out a corpus linguistic analysis of this data using the software package Wordsmith Tools (Scott, 2004). Reports on crime do not construct a neutral representation of offenders. By employing the tools offered by Critical Stylistics (Jeffries, 2010a) and combining them with Corpus Linguistics I identify the linguistic features used to pre-convict offenders and to invoke a feeling of insecurity and fear in the public. The negative associations assigned to crime are transferred to the offenders and thus construct them as being evil and label them as deviant (Becker, 1966: 31). The linguistic construction of the victim ultimately impacts on the construction of offenders because the two are placed at opposite ends of a morality scale. It is through language that such ideologically motivated representations of offenders are constructed and reinforced. The image of the evil-perpetrating monster constructed in the media as part of societal discourse on crime is based on ideologies which my research aims to reveal. I argue that the underlying ideologies for the construction of offenders, victims and crimes in the British and German press are comparable and that the linguistic triggers for these in the texts are similar. I found no distinction between the persona of the offender and his or her crime because offenders only gain a celebrity-like status following the crime they have committed. This fascination with crime in the media has roots in the ‘backstage nature of crime’ (Surette, 2009: 240) which satisfies the voyeuristic desire of the audience. 3 Acknowledgements __________________________________________________________________________ This thesis has been my most ambitious and challenging project so far. I went to extremes to make my dream come true. In the course of this journey I met outstanding people, found new friends and discovered the fascinating world of linguistics. Rather unexpectedly, I learnt a lot about myself, too. In retrospect, I state that it was not so much about the PhD but about the journey and this journey was worth every minute. Many people have accompanied me on the journey and I want to acknowledge their help, advice and contribution. First of all, I want to thank my supervisors Prof Lesley Jeffries and Prof Dan McIntyre; their unique help, constant encouragement and their trust in my abilities right from the start is very much appreciated. They gave me the intellectual freedom to write this thesis and taught me to think for which I am very grateful. I benefited from their outstanding and in-depth knowledge of linguistics which I admire and which they willingly shared with me. I was not only their student, they opened their homes, introduced me to their respective partners, and with pleasure I remember the nice evenings we spent together. This thesis would not have been possible if it was not for their exceptional academic and personal support. A most appreciated contribution came from the field of criminal law and I owe a debt of gratitude to Christopher Foren, a retired Crown Prosecutor, who undertook to read all the newspaper articles from my English Newspaper Corpus and comment on the application of the law. He took me with him to court and allowed me a glimpse of the English criminal trial. He and his partner, Fiona, invited me to their home where I enjoyed their hospitality. I am very grateful to Tom Considine, senior lecturer in criminology and social work at the University of Huddersfield, for his comprehensive private lessons on criminology. He introduced me to his subject and I appreciated his comments on my work. I was most impressed by his outstanding knowledge of his field and how he spontaneously provided a substantial answer to each of my questions. Whenever I came to Huddersfield I was very much looking forward to it and enjoyed every minute there. This I owe to a large extent to my fellow PhD students in the research office WG/26. It was a lively international community with an ongoing exchange both on scientific issues as well as private topics. I witnessed how hard they all worked in order to accomplish their PhDs despite the problems they faced along their journeys and how they dedicated themselves to their projects. I think of Dawn Matthews and her hospitality, Dr Lisa Nahajec and our many discussions on linguistics, Laura Coffey, Beth Anderson, Razia Parveen, Dr Brian Walker and his comments on my work, Duncan Stone and Tosh Warwick from the UK, my friends Somaiyeh Hanaee and Parviz Partovi from Iran, Amir Hesari from Iran, Ahmed Al-Badr from Iraq, Ainas Bagigni from Libyia, Regina Kessy from Tanzania, Chunyao Zhao and Mao Ye from China, Dr Fariha Chaudhary and Irfan Raja from Pakistan and finally, Piyanoot Rattananukool "Mook" from Thailand. I enjoyed our gatherings and discussions and their contribution to as well as their concern about both my project and my personal life. From day one at the University of Huddersfield the members of staff were extraordinarily helpful and provided quick solutions for every problem that occurred. In particular I want to thank Alex Heywood for patiently solving all my IT problems and Jean York for her caring attitude and for bringing me into contact with Tom. I want to express my gratitude to Dr Martin Wright for inviting me to give a talk on victim-offender-mediation in Germany at the annual conference of the Conflict Research Society at the University of Canterbury in 2008. Martin is the former Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform and a pioneer of and dedicated fighter for Restorative Justice in the 4 UK and worldwide. We initially met at a seminar at the Deutsche Richterakademie (German Judicial Academy) in Wustrau in 2003 and he and his wife Lisa have become dear friends of mine. It was at that conference in Canterbury where I first met Lesley. I want to acknowledge a former colleague of mine at the Prosecution Office in Schwerin, Mr Wulf Kollorz, Staatsanwalt (GL) a.D. His outstanding knowledge and his courage in pursuing his cases commanded my admiration. I am also grateful to Karsten Mentzel who patiently supported me with his admirable knowledge about computers. And I want to thank my German friends and in particular Christian Meier and Monika Grans for their continuous interest in my project and their patience and understanding when I struggled to find time for them. My cat Flynni was good company when I worked through the nights. Finally, I want to thank my parents for their constant support and encouragement. They always taught me to fulfill my potential in education and accompanied me along the journey. I am grateful to my father for his superior knowledge of mathematics, especially his insight into the statistical methods I used for my project which I benefited from. And I very much appreciate my mother's love and help in every respect. She patiently listened to my endless talks about my project and without her support I would not have had the time and freedom to accomplish this thesis. 5 Crime through a corpus: The linguistic construction of offenders, victims and crimes in the German and UK press Ulrike Tabbert Copyright notice i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. 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