This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0261927X08325883v1 28/1/62    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Frazer, A. K. Articles by Miller, M. D. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Double Standards in Sentence Structure

Passive Voice in Narratives Describing Domestic Violence

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Michelle D. Miller

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff

Previous research has shown that passive voice predominates in mass media reports describing male violence against women. However, there has been little systematic study of narratives describing female violence against men. The authors analyzed the impact of perpetrator gender on verb voice, first in a content analysis of published news stories and second in a new procedure for eliciting written narratives with male or female perpetrators. Results reveal an increased frequency of passive voice when perpetrators are male. These findings suggest that writers specifically prefer the passive voice to describe male-on-female violence rather than for violent or negative acts in general.

Key Words: interpersonal violence • domestic violence • gender differences • verb voice • language production • mass media

This version was published on March 1, 2009

Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Vol. 28, No. 1, 62-71 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0261927X08325883


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?