Fear and loathing in the news: a qualitative analysis of Canadian print news coverage of youthful offending in the twentieth century

This article reports research findings on the representations of youth crime and of young lawbreakers in Canadian print media. The examination of a subset of the sample of news items shows that several themes emerge in the historical discussion of youthful offending in the news. Firstly, the prevailing portrayal of youth crime is that it is to be feared. Newspapers describe youth crime as increasing in quantity and youth violence as increasing in severity. The involvement of younger offenders and female offenders is also highlighted in the coverage. Secondly, there is a shift in the image of the youthful lawbreaker between the earlier and later part of the study period. The prevailing image of young people who break the law morphs over the course of the twentieth century from naughty kids who need guidance to evil young men and women who are to be held accountable for their misbehaviour. In addition to the mounting responsibilization of youth in the coverage, young people are depicted as ‘others’ through racialization and the use of offence-related terminology as well as the term ‘recidivist’.