Getting Lucky or Getting Abused: A Content Analysis of Public Comments on News Articles About Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse often elicits strong negative reactions from the public and sensationalized portrayal in media. Prior research has examined how gender influences perceptions of teenage sexual victimization committed by adults in authority roles. However, only a few studies have examined public reactions to actual cases covered in the media. To address this gap, we coded and analyzed 532 public comments on 36 online news stories reporting cases of teenage sexual abuse published between January 1^st, 2009 and December 31^st, 2019. We identified four major themes that encompassed the comments examined in this study: negative reactions to the adult responsible, comments about the punishment, positive reactions to the adult responsible, and comments focused on the child who was harmed. Many comments encompassed the expected emotions of anger and disgust toward the adult who engaged in abuse and sympathy toward the person who experienced it. Several comments were positive in nature, however, deviating from the "typical" response toward such cases, particularly in cases regarding abuse committed by a woman. Further, commenters had strong reactions to the criminal justice response to the abuse, but these reactions were also patterned by gender. We close with a discussion of findings and implications for future research.