Child grooming and sexual exploitation: are South Asian men the UK media’s new folk devils?

Gill, Aisha K; Harrison, Karen

Abstract

In May 2012, nine men from the Rochdale area of Manchester were found guilty of sexually exploiting a number of underage girls. Media reporting on the trial focused on the fact that eight of the men were of Pakistani descent, while all the girls were white. Framing similar cases in Preston, Rotherham, Derby, Shropshire, Oxford, Telford and Middlesbrough as ethnically motivated, the media incited moral panic over South Asian grooming gangs preying on white girls. While these cases shed light on the broader problem of sexual exploitation in Britain, they also reveal continuing misconceptions that stereotype South Asian men as ‘natural’ perpetrators of these crimes due to culturally‐specific notions of hegemonic masculinity. Examining newspaper coverage from 2012 to 2013, this article discusses the discourse of the British media’s portrayal of South Asian men as perpetrators of sexual violence against white victims, inadvertently construing ‘South Asian men’ as ‘folk devils’.

Citation

Gill, A. K., & Harrison, K. (in press). Child grooming and sexual exploitation: are South Asian men the UK media’s new folk devils?. International journal for crime, justice and social democracy, 4(2), 34-49. https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcjsd.v4i2.214

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 9, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Jun 24, 2015
• Deposit Date: May 13, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 24, 2015
• Journal: International journal for crime, justice and social democracy
• Print ISSN: 2202-7998
• Electronic ISSN: 2202-8005
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 34-49
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcjsd.v4i2.214
• Keywords: Folk devils, Masculinity, Media representations, Moral panic, Sexual exploitation, South Asian men
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/373777
• Publisher URL: https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/214
• Additional Information: Copy of article first published in: International journal for crime, justice and social democracy, 2015, v.4, issue 2.