NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. ® UMI M u Ottawa l.'Univcrsilc! cnnndiennc Canada's univcrsily FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES l=il FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES U Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES I.'Universit6 eanadionne Canada's university Peter Parsons AUTEUR DE LATFISE / AUTHOR OF THESIS M.A. (Criminology) GRADE/DEGREE Department of Criminology "FACUTfOcOLE^MRTE^^ Constructing Karla: Exploring the Media's Representation of Karla Homolka When She Was Released from Prison TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Syjvie Frigon DIRECTEUR (DIRECTRICE) DE LA THESE / THESIS SUPERVISOR EXAMINATEURS (EXAMINATRICES) DE LA THESE / THESIS EXAMINERS Michael Petrunik Christine Bruckert Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Constructing Karla: Exploring the Media's Representation of Karla Homolka When She was Released from Prison This thesis is submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Department of Criminology Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ottawa Ottawa, ON Ausust. 2007 © Peter Parsons, Ottawa, Canada, 2007 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-49260-4 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-49260-4 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada Table of Contents A ckno wledgements i Abstract ii Preface iii Introduction 1 The Sexual Scripting of Violent Behaviour I The Layout of This Thesis 3 Chapter 1 - Women, Violence, and News Media Representation 7 1. Violent Women 8 1.1.1. What is "Violence"? 8 1.1.2. A Recent Trend in Crime Research 10 1.1.3. Violent Women as 'Doubly Deviant' 11 1.1.4. From 'Bad' to 'Mad' 12 1.1.5. Violent Crime Statistics 20 1.1.5.1. Homicide in Canada 21 1.1.5.2. Violent Women and Violence against Women 22 1.1.6. Conclusion 23 1.2. NewsmakJug 24 1.2.1. What is'News'? 25 1.2.1.1. Why Report Crime? 25 1.2.2. How are Crime News Reports Produced? 26 1.2.2.1. Relationship between News and Source Organizations 30 1.2.2.2. Four Levels of News Space 31 1.2.3. Implications of Crime News Reporting 33 1.2.4. Conclusion 38 1.3. Violent Women in the News Media 39 1.3.1. The Murderess in the Nineteenth Century English Press 41 1.3.2. 'Femininity on Trial' 41 1.3.3. The Voices of Violent Women in the Press 45 1.3.4. Three Case Studies 48 1.3.4.1. Lorena Bobbitt 48 1.3.4.2. MyraHindley 49 1.3.4.3. KarlaHomolka 51 1.3.5. Deconstructing "Violent Women" 53 Chapter 2 - Theoretical Framework 57 2.1. Deviance and Labeling Theories 58 2.2. Social Constructionism 61 2.2.1. Essentialism vs. Constructionism 63 2.2.2. Strict and Contextual Constructionism 64 2.3. Claimsmaking and Social Problems 65 2.4. A Theoretical Framework for Analysis 71 Chapter 3 - Methodology 3.1. A Case Study Method 3.1.1. Violent Women as Case Studies 3.1.2. Data Sources 3.2. A Qualitative Methodology 3.2.1. Quantitative vs. Qualitative Coding 3.2.2. Three Levels of Qualitative Coding 3.3. Epistemological Approach to the Qualitative Analysis Chapter 4 - Findings 4.1. Hostile Commentaries of Homolka's Crimes and Plea Bargain 4.2. Karla's Character 4.2.1. Labeling Karl a 4.2.2. Karla is '"Dangerous" 4.2.2.1. A Condition Exists and is Problematic 4.2.2.2. The Condition has Perceived Consequences 4.2.2.3. Actions Should be Taken 4.2.3. Karla is "Manipulative" 4.2.3.1. Karla Speaks French Now 4.2.3.2. Karla's Media Ban Attempt 4.2.3.3. A Pardon for Karla's Convictions 4.2.3.4. Karla Gives a TV Interview 4.2.3.5. Karla Successfully Appeals her Conditions 4.2.4. Karla is Not "Dangerous" 4.2.5. Karla is in Danger 4.2.6. Karla is a "Celebrity" 4.2.7. Karla the Movie 4.3. Emphasis on Karla's Appearance 4.3.1. Karla's June 2005 Court Hearing 4.3.2. Karla's Televised July 4, 2005 Radio-Canada Interview 4.3.3. Karla "Sighting" in August 2005 in Longueuil, QC 4.3.4. Karla's Restrictions Appeal Hearing 4.3.5. Karla Confronted by a Global Reporter in July 2006 4.4. Gender and the Media Coverage 4.5. Deconstructing the Coverage of Homolka's Interview 4.5.1. Montreal Gazette 4.5.2. National Post 4.5.3. Toronto Star 4.6. The News Media's Critique of the News Coverage on Karla's Release 4.7. Discussion 4.7.1. Who is Karla Homolka? 4.7.2. "Karla'' vs. Karla Chapter 5 - Conclusion 5.1. Implications for Future Studies 5.2. Limitations of this Study Appendix 1 - Conditions Placed on Karla Homolka's Release 147 Appendix 2 - Karla Homolka*s Radio-Canada Interview Transcript 148 References - Newspaper Articles 156 - Academic 165 ] Acknowledgements There are a few key individuals that guided me through the writing, editing, and finalization of this thesis. I wish to thank them here. Special thanks to Dr. Sylvie Frigon for her immediate interest and continuous enthusiasm in my thesis topic from day 1. Your knowledge and expertise in the area of women, violence, and representation was essential in guiding my research. Similarly, I would like to thank Jen Kilty for sharing an academic interest in the case of Karla Homolka and for inspiring my methodology through her own Masters Thesis. Thanks to fellow grad student Kristen Gilchrist for letting me vent throughout the editing process, and assuring me that I was on the right track. Good luck with your Phd! To Dr. Sandra Bell at St. Mary's University in Halifax, NS: remember that CBC documentary "Nasty Girls' that you showed in our Politics of Youth Crime class during my Honours year? The reenactments of those girls' crimes spliced with images of diamonds and a hip hop soundtrack lead to another thesis, not to mention, a critical eye for media representation. Thanks for that. Lastly, I would like to thank my defense committee: Dr. Chris Bruckert and Dr. Michael Petrunik. Your insightful comments and assistance are the mold that finalizes the product which I have spent the greater part of the last two years striving towards. ii Abstract Borrowing from standpoint and postmodern feminist epistemologies, this thesis proposes to deconstruct the concept "violent women" and challenge the traditional "badV'madV'other' framework of understanding women who engage in violent behaviour. The concept decontextualizes differences between women who commit violence and the stereotypical framework hinders any alternative understanding of their individual cases. Using contextual constructionism and Best's (2001) criteria for identifying claims as a theoretical framework, a qualitative content analysis of Canadian newspaper articles between July 2004 and July 2006 explored the news media's representation of Karla Homolka when she was released from prison in July 2005. While the stereotypical concepts that this study sought to transcend (i.e. discussing Karla through the 'badVmad7'other' framework) emerged throughout the coverage, insights into how the media constructs "identities"' that people come to "know'' also emerged. The media's representation of Homolka at the time of her release was concluded to be hyppereal; a simulated character named "Karla" that most Canadians are familiar with. Yet this character may or may not resemble the actual Karla who currently resides somewhere in Montreal. iii Preface To contextualize the subject of this thesis and situate her story as an introduction to the discussion of women, violence, and media representation and to the media analysis of her release that will be conducted in this study, using the facts of her case, a timeline of Karla Homolka's case will be illustrated. In 1987, 17 year old Karla Homolka met 23 year old Paul Bernardo at a hotel restaurant in Scarborough, ON while Homolka and a coworker were attending a veterinary conference.