Att upprätthålla eller utmana genuskontraktet? : En tematisk analys om hur kvinnors delaktighet i gängkriminalitet skildras i svensk media

Sammanfattning: Gang crime is a growing social problem that involves both women and men. The purpose of the study is to contribute knowledge about how female involvement in gang crime is portrayed in the Swedish media and what similarities and differences exist in the media's portrayal of women's and men's involvement in gang crime. The study is a qualitative document study of mass media documents. Newspaper articles from Aftonbladet and Expressen have been collected based on a targeted selection. In the study, a total of 79 articles have been included in the thematic analysis, where Nikolajeva's (2017) contradiction scheme formed the basis for finding codes, categories, and themes. Hirdman's (1988) gender system theory was then implemented in the discussion of results. The results show that media depictions of women's and men's involvement in gang crime mainly reproduce gender norms and the gender dichotomy. The reason for this is that the stereotypically female characteristics of obedience and self-sacrifice are most used to describe women's involvement in gang crime in the Swedish media. Thus, the results also show that the stereotypically male characteristic active occurs when women's participation in the media is portrayed and thus the gender contract is also challenged. Furthermore, there are both similarities and differences in the comparison of women's and men's participation in media portrayals. Similarities are seen, for example, based on the female characteristic of obedience, while differences are seen in male characteristics such as violence and independence. In conclusion, mass media depictions of women's involvement in gang crime can both uphold and challenge the gender contract, but depictions that uphold the gender contract are the most common.