Murderer or Model Citizen? How a Man who Murdered His Wife is Made a Model Citizen

Abstract

This thesis explores how a man who committed spousal homicide is portrayed in court as a model citizen and how this characterization is sustained to the extent that it influences the jury verdict and the subsequent sentence. Practices common to the language of violence such as obscuring the offence, masking agency, blurring the responsibility of the perpetrator, and blaming, objectifying and pathologizing the victim, are identified in the transcripts of the proceedings and discussed with a view to their implications for social accountability.