Framing the Juvenile Delinquent: an analysis of the types of frames appearing in Dutch crime news.

Abstract

This thesis contains an analysis of the different types of frames one might encounter in news articles, specifically on the topic of crime. The frames discussed in the theoretical part are applied in analysing a certain set of news articles in order to determine if there was a difference in the way juvenile and adult criminals were portrayed. The main conclusion is that in almost half the articles on underage criminals no frame could be identified, the articles being more "matter of fact" like, and in the articles on adult criminals the focus was more on the victims of the crime with a "human interest" frame.