Violence Against Women in Germany and Immigrants: a Mediatized Political Communication?

Introduction Violence against women is experienced by all ages and social classes, all races, religions and nationalities. It is estimated that at least one in three women were subjected to some type of inter-personal violence over their life time (UN Security Council Resolution 1820). The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found that in EU one in 10 women experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 15 and, one in 20 has been raped. This article seeks to find out the role of media on portraying the reports of violence against women in Germany which are carried out by men with immigrant background. The tasks include analysing the different violence incidences against women which are reported by media in Germany and also observes the role of policy mechanisms and punishments for such crimes. Research methods employed in this study encompass document analysis of different aspects of violence incidences by observing news reported from July 2016 till February 2017 by two e-newspapers in English. Also secondary data analysis of different statistics such as crime statistics from Germany, migration reports from Eurostat, violence reports by European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)etc. were used in this paper. The primary interpretation can be made in such a way that there is an alarming increase in violence against women by certain group of men with immigrant background in Germany despite of the fact that German mass media tries to obscure such reports while the international newspaper do not try to hide. The lack of successful integration of refugees can be identified as a big barrier to prevent such incidences and minimal punishment for crimes against women should be evaluated and modified by respective governance bodies for preventing such incidences.


Introduction
Violence against women is experienced by all ages and social classes, all races, religions and nationalities.It is estimated that at least one in three women were subjected to some type of inter-personal violence over their life time (UN Security Council Resolution 1820).The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights found that in EU one in 10 women experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 15 and, one in 20 has been raped.This article seeks to find out the role of media on portraying the reports of violence against women in Germany which are carried out by men with immigrant background.The tasks include analysing the different violence incidences against women which are reported by media in Germany and also observes the role of policy mechanisms and punishments for such crimes.Research methods employed in this study encompass document analysis of different aspects of violence incidences by observing news reported from July 2016 till February 2017 by two e-newspapers in English.Also secondary data analysis of different statistics such as crime statistics from Germany, migration reports from Eurostat, violence reports by European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA)etc.were used in this paper.The primary interpretation can be made in such a way that there is an alarming increase in violence against women by certain group of men with immigrant background in Germany despite of the fact that German mass media tries to obscure such reports while the international newspaper do not try to hide.The lack of successful integration of refugees can be identified as a big barrier to prevent such incidences and minimal punishment for crimes against women should be evaluated and modified by respective governance bodies for preventing such incidences.KEYWORDS: violence against women; migration; refugees; media; public policy.
Violence against women include any physical or sexual act against a woman (or girl) which meet or surpasses a minimum level of force, including pushing, hair pulling, hitting, smacking, slapping and being held down by a man.Due to the increasing number of immigrants as refugees to Europe various countries faces challenges on governance, economic and social security of the immigrants, their settlements etc.One of the rising issue due to influx of immigration can be seen in the form of violence against women which are perpetrated by men with immigrant background, towards the European and non-European women in countries.Since Germany is one of the country which accept and receive high number of refugee various crimes has been increased here in the last years.Hence there occurs the necessity of attention towards such crime and media plays a major role in giving much focus on such incidences.So that it is necessary to identify the underlying truth behind the mediatized approach towards reporting violence crimes against women by men with immigrant background as the scientific problem and this article trying to figure this aim.Due to this features this article is very relevant and novel in the research arena.It analyses mainly two English news portal available online, one is from Germany and another is an international e-new portal.This article observes how the mediatization of such news has been carried out by these two new portal in the duration from from July 2016 till February 2017.The tasks covers analysing the different violence incidences against women from Germany which are reported by two e-news portals and also observes the role of policy mechanisms and punishments for such crimes.Research methods employed in this study encompass document analysis of different aspects of violence incidences by observing news reported from July 2016 till February 2017 by two e-newspapers in English.Also secondary data analysis of different statistics such as crime statistics from Germany, migration reports from Eurostat, violence reports by European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA, 2014) etc. were used in this paper.The primary findings can be seen in such a way that there is an alarming increase in various crimes committed by men with immigrant background especially with refugee status in Germany and the violence against women by these group of men is increasing across years, despite of the fact that German mass media tries to obscure such reports while the international newspaper do not try to hide.The lack of successful integration of refugees can be identified as a big barrier to prevent such incidences and minimal punishment for crimes against women should be evaluated and modified by respective governance bodies for preventing such incidences.
In any society media plays an important role in the culture and social development.Krotz (2007) and Schulz (2004) views mediatization as a social and cultural process.Mediatization has influence on political communication and other aspects of politics.Mazzoleni and Schulz (1999, p.249) say that 'mediatized politics is politics that has lost its autonomy has become dependent in its central functions in mass media, and is autonomously shaped by interaction with mass media'.Thompson (1995) sees that the media development plays as an integral part of the development of modern society.Mass media significantly influences society and enabled communication and interaction over long distances and among larger numbers of people.In another words mediatization can be understood as a postmodern concept in which media has emerged as an independent institution on its own stand surpassing and overriding other social institutions.Media become an integrated part of the institutions such as politics, work, family, and religion as varied forms of mass communication is playing a greater role in forming and expressing opinions.Mediatization not only about the role of media on determination but that they at once have attained the status of independent institution and provide the means by which other social institutions and actors communicate.It is also clear that media intervene into the activities of other institutions such as family, politics, organized religion, etc. and they also provide 'common' for society as whole in virtual shared form which are used by other institutions widely to make their activities more reachable to public.So that mediatization and institutional activities are closely dependent each other (Hjarvard, 2014).In the sphere of violence against women mediatization plays a greater role in both the developed and developing world even though the magnitude and the role played are different.In the developing world, mediatization helps in women empowerment like beyond women's organization for women education, women right for job, propaganda against child marriage and against domestic violence and rape.Since 1970's women's approach towards inequality changed across world however it remains s unequal in the realm of media.The new reporting regarding violence against women influences political attention on such issues and the respective government required to adopt new prevention mechanisms to tackle the issue.
Migration can be seen as a one of the significant human phenomenon which the human community has practiced and continuing from ancient till modern times.The concept of migration assumes great significance in modern times mainly due to the current migration crisis and influx of refugees and migrants to Europe and America due to the war and crisis in Middle East and Africa.It can be seen that the 9/11 attack on the United States and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq to combat global terror leads to the displacement of the existing dictatorial regimes in these countries which led to the instability and anarchy in the Middle East and South East Asia.Also the recent democratic uprisings in the sub Saharan and African regions with the Arab spring led to the fall of dictatorial regimes in Syria, Morocco, Libya and other non-democratic countries which led to the political, economic and social instability.Apart from the normal EU procedure of annual refuge intake, these global issues lead to mass illegal immigration through loose borders in Europe.The current data shows that the trend is alarming as more than 1 million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe in 2015 whereas it was just only 280,000 in 2014.It can be seen than the crisis is getting worsen only as more than 135,000 has already arrived with the first two months of 2016.It can be seen than more than 80% of the refugees are form the worst affected states and the non-democratic regimes of the world which are well known for human rights violations i.e.Syria under Assad, Iraq under former dictator Saddam Hussain and Libya under Gadhafi and Afghanistan under the rule of Taliban.The rest is coming from countries like Pakistan, Iran, Somalia, Eritrea etc. in the search of a peaceful livelihood.In the recent time in order to reach to Europe in the hope for a better life people are taking risky ways by crossing through boats in the Mediterranean and through land borders of Greece.According to UN Refugee agency (UN4RefugeesMigrants) in the first eight months of 2016, about 281,740 people crossed sea to Europe and about 4176 people died or gone missing on the Mediterranean Sea.It can be seen that there is a current sharp rise in the illegal immigration with a sharp increase with regard to Syrian refugees due to the ongoing crisis in Syria.It is to be noted that the EU policies with regard to border (Schengen area) as less restriction on border crossing and mobility, the illegal immigrants who are entering the Europe through sea and through the Mediterranean route are able to freely across the borders and to reach to the most preferred destinations.This is leading to an outcry in many European states and even negative public opinion about immigration policies.This can even lead to lack of consensus in the EU with regard to migration policies and programs.

Immigration crisis in Europe
The

Scope of Violence Against Women in Germany
Violence against women has been used to describe a wide range of acts, includes murder, rape and sexual assault, physical assault, emotional abuse, battering, stalking, prostitution, genital mutilation, sexual harassment and pornography.Crowell et al (1996) views intimate partner violence or battering, the coercive control by physical violence, psychological abuse, sexual violence and denial of resources took place.When considers violence against women in the South Asian countries women and girls facing different forms of violence.In the opinion of Solotaroff et. al. (2014) violence in childhood and later stages affects negatively women and girls to participate in different actions such as getting education and employment.Due to the suffering they failed to get good career and prospects.Also it points that the violence against women and girls undermines countries achievements and deteriorate developments.Kelly (1998, cited by Dobash, 1998, p.53) defined violence as 'any physical, visual, verbal, or sexual act that is experienced by the women or girl at the time or later as a threat, invasion, or assault that has the effect of hurting her or degrading her and /or takes away her ability to contest an intimate contact'.It can be perceived from the statement that the issue of alcoholism and drug abuse are major cause of violence among relationships and will lead to sexual, verbal and physical violence, and leads to the situation of the lack of confidence and trauma for the women.Also in the conflicting areas, "increase in dowry related violence against women has been associated with the demand for higher dowries in order to replace processions that have been destroyed during civil upheavals" (Njovana, 1994, cited by Dobash, 1998).In Europe violence against women seems to be high according to EU wide survey report (FRA, 2014).The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights conducted an interview with 42000 women across 28 member states of EU, and found that one in 10 women experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 15 and, one in 20 has been raped.Over one in five women faced physical and or sexual violence from current partner or previous partner, and one in 10 women revealed that before the age of 15, they faced some form of sexual violence by an adult.When it comes to reporting only 14% of women reported their most serious threat to police and only 13% report their most serious injurious by non-partner to police.All these data show that in EU many women did not try to report incidence to authorities and due to this majority of incidences becomes hidden.The below given figure 3 shows the number of asylum and first asylum applicants in Germany by total male and female applicants from 2010-2016 (Eurostat, February 10, 2017).It is very visible that the number of male applicant who have applied for asylum in Germany and in Sweden outnumbered female applicants from 2010 to recent study in 2016.
According to the BBC news on December 9, 2016 in 2014 122 of the 2760 murders and manslaughters were carried by immigrants in Germany and in 2015 it was 233 out of 2721 killing.In 2014 about 949 immigrants are responsible for assaults including rape.The below given figure 2 shows the total number of crimes happened in Germany in 2014 and 2015 by German Police Records Bundeskriminalamnt (BKA, 2015).According to the BKA explanation on 'immigrant' here it refers to the 'people who are asylum applicants or on exceptional leave to stay or quota or civil war refugees or irregulars'.The figure 4 shows the total number of all forms of crimes happened in Germany in 2014 and in 2015.The total number of crimes has been increased about 4.10% in whole Germany and the suspected Germans rate has been fallen down to -4.90% in 2015 than it was in 2014.While there is a remarkable growth in the number of suspected people with non-German background to 47%.It is very visible that the suspected people on various crimes with immigrant background has been increased from 2014 to 2015 as 26%.
There were hundreds of reports on women being undergone for groping and sexual violence during New Year eve in Cologne in Germany on 2015 and some media tried to cover the perpetrators origin as immigrants.All these scenarios created tension and worries over European society on the safety of women in Europe and the dangerous increasing violence by immigrants to women.As an aftermath of this influx of refugees and immigrants, the mainstream media and European society has been started to re-think on taking refugees to their country.Since Germany and Sweden have the most welcoming nature on refugees, it's important to analyse the issue of violence in this society since the news media have been come up with different atrocities and frightening violence inci- The number of asylum and first asylum applicants in Germany (Eurostat, February 10, 2017)

Figure 4
Number  violence in the form of rape or aggravated rape has been published by mass media.Among this news it is clear that almost all news has been focusing refugee/immigrant background men as the suspect of the crime.
So based on the below given figure 7 we can identify that the major crimes are committed by people with refugee background including minors who are asylum or asylum seekers.Among 48 reported news 45 were related with violence against women and in 38 cases immigrants are the suspects, 4 were German citizens and other 3 were perpetrated by non-Germans.38 immigrants are categories as refugees or asylum seekers in Germany, hence the issue of refugee integration and active policies to solve this issue is an increasingly important domain which needs efforts by authority.Since in both news report cases majority of the suspects are immigrants with refugee background it is important to analyse the integration policies of Germany.After understanding the issue of violence against women especially committed by the refugees shows the lack of proper orientation and integration of these immigrants in these respective countries.It is to be noted that before the arrival and after reaching the respective countries they should be educated and oriented about the cultural differences between their home countries and their destination countries.They should be made understand about the various legal measures that are in place if crimes are committed and the punishment which will be imposed if such acts are committed as most of the immigrants are coming from different social and religious background and having the notion that only women belonging to their religion should be taken care and others can be seen and utilized as a means of disposable sexual pleasure.This needs to be corrected through proper orientation and exemplary legal acts which will be seen as a bench mark for future offenders.Also with regard to media, they should act more responsible and highlight such incidences and should create awareness regarding the need to contain these acts.With regard to the above analysis it can be seen that the German local news media are hiding most of the incidents in the fear that there will be clashes between the locals and the immigrants.Such acts will lead only to the worsening of the situation as if not properly contained it will grow to such an extent that it won't be controllable in the future and will affect the notion of migration in itself.Thus the media and politicians should show more enthusiasm in preventing these issue and the policy makers should evaluate the current legal measures and if not sufficient enough should reframe for the current circumstances.Different punishments for violence against women in Germany (The German Federal Law Gazette).Below given table 3. Shows the different sexual crimes against women in Germany and the subsequent punishment (Federal Law Gazette, p.3799).

Punishments for sexual violence in Germany
Section 177 Sexual assault by use of force or threats; rapes 1. Whoever coerce another person 1.1.By force 1.2.By threat of imminent danger to life or limb 1.3.By exploiting the situation which the victim is unprotected and the mercy of the offender Imprisonment of not less than 1 year • Serious case (rape) -if the victim forced to engage in physical abuse with other offenders Imprisonment of not less than 2 years 2. Offender uses dangerous weapons during the violence / carrying instruments which prevents victim to resist / offence places the victim in serious injury Imprisonment of not less than 3 years 3. Offender keeps and uses dangerous weapons during the violence and the victim gets very serious injuries or dies.Imprisonment of not less than 5 years 4. Less serious cases (under 1) Imprisonment of 6 months to 5 years

Less serious cases (under 3 &4) Imprisonment of 1 to 5 years
Section 178 Sexual assault by use of force or threat of force and rape causing death 1.If the victim dies due to the negligence of offender due to rape Imprisonment for life or not less than 10 years Section 179 Abuse of person who are incapable of resistance 1. Incapable 1.1.due to mental illness or addiction or consciousness disorder 1.2.physically incapable 1.3.allowing a third person to abuse the incapable victim Imprisonment of 6 months to 10 years 2. sexual violence to incapable victim /offence is jointly by more than one people / victim is in dangerous injury to physical or emotional development Imprisonment of not less than 2 years Section 180 Causing minors to engage in sexual activity 1. whosoever encourage a minor, below 16 years old to engage in sexual activity alone or with a third person 1.1.by acting as an intermediary 1.2.by creating opportunity Imprisonment of not more than 3 years or fine 2. whosoever encourage a person under 18 years old to engage in sexual activity alone or with a third person for financial reward by acting as an intermediary Imprisonment of not more than 5 years or fine 3. whosoever encourage a person under 18 years believed to be an entrusted person for the victim as carer or employer or responsible for upbringing and education to engage in sexual activity alone or with a third person Imprisonment of not more than 5 years or fine As from the above mentioned legal frameworks it can be seen that the punishments for committing crimes like rape and its consequent acts are very low and even negligible when compared to the punishment applied in various countries including the United States where having strict legal measures to combats these kinds of incidences.Also the police should maintain an updated list of the incoming immigrants and both police and border force should contain illegal immigration to its roots as it will be difficult to keep a record of the illegal immigrants and will be difficult to identify in cases of crimes committed by them.
In order to successfully integrate refugees/immigrants in the country there are several integration programmes implemented.Anthias et al (2013, p.3) defines integration as 'the process by which individuals become members of society and their multilevel and multiform participation within it, integration is a process related to different forms of participation, in the neighborhood, at work, school, family'.International Organization for Migration (IOM, 2014) defines migrant integration as 'the process of mutual adaptation between host society and migrant'.The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has given numerous integration and cultural adaptation instructions for immigrants and refugees.It covers various aspects regarding everyday concerns, language learning, joint civic commitment opportunity for integrating with local and foreigners, leisure and sports programmes, enhancing skill programmes for increasing self-esteem, equal opportunities in work and school, and support for prevent crime and violence.Then the 'identity and Integration PLUS' programme which is for the integration of people among societies under Federal Expellees Act (Bundesvertriebenengesetz) which is in the form of 200 lessons which covers all the basic information such as issues dealing with their identity till information regarding the healthcare, educational facilities for immigrant children.It also gives special focus on women and their improvement so that they provide such courses for women also.All the above mentioned facilities are available by Migration Advisory Service for Adult Immigrants and the Youth Advisory Service, migrant organizations and voluntary welfare organizations.The language course is a free course with 600 hours and 60 hours of orientation course.Both will be delivering for over 2 years.Language course enables the communication skill in German while orientation course explains about German culture, norms, regulations, rights etc.As a refugee people get free meals at the reception centers and 143 Euro per month for basic needs in the first 3 months and then later 216 Euro per month.Also 92 Euro per child depending on their age are allocated by Germany.After the approval of the asylum application or after 15 months of stay in Germany they will be able to get 400 Euro/month for expenses and additional cost for rent and heating.
Since there are mainly three main form of refugee categories such as, _ Asylum seeker-individual who intend to file an asylum application but have not been yet been registered by the Federal office as asylum applicant _ Asylum applicant -asylum applicant whose asylum proceedings are pending and whose case has not yet been decided on _ Persons entitled to protection and persons entitled to remain-individuals who receive an entitlement to asylum, refugee protection or subsidiary protection, or who may remain in Germany on the basis of a ban on deportation (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees).
Based on the assumptions German government has been issued certain guides and manuals according to the EU instructions for refugees and immigrants along with NGO's.One of the important such publication has been carried out by Refugee guide online in 17 different languages and it contains all basic information that should be followed by immigrants.It elaborates on the public life, personal freedom, community life, equality, environment and ecology, food, drinks and smoking, formalities, and the necessary guidelines for in case of emergency are given.The

Social Integration
Policies by Germany for Immigrants main points which are noticeable for immigrants are, same sex relationship is legal, staring at men or women is prohibited and even if they are in T-shirt or in short skirts, FKK denotes the swimming areas textile free and in sauna and swimming pools, men and women have equal rights, cannot urinate in public, men and women drink and smoke in Germany.Apart from this br.deone of the leading online news has been published Kulturguide, 14 cartoon guidelines for immigrants on Germany which again contains images showing on how to behave to women, do not touch women's body, do not fight each other, if you fight you won get asylum or residence in Germany etc. Another website zanzu (My body in words and in images) has published many instructions to immigrants with the support of Federal Centre for Health Education Ministry in Germany, on how to behave to women, how to keep hygiene, sex education etc.Also if entered illegally if not able to accommodate should be sent back to their respective countries and if not should be properly integrated into the local system through language and skill training so that they won't engage to crime and criminal activities thus preventing a lot of these kind of incidences.Also the recent regulation imposed by the United States, European Union should also review whether to take immigrants from the worst affected and terrorized countries as these will have a long standing implication for the respective countries.Thus it can be concluded that a proper coordination between the policy makers, impartial media, judiciary in framing strict legal measures and a vigil public needs to tackle the issue of immigrant violence.If effectively coordinated this can reduce these incidences to a great extent and can lead to long standing peace.It is evident that media influences the agenda setting in politics and the concentrated policy responsibility and creates sensational issues like crime and environment are more prone to media effects.Political communication is largely mediated communication, transmitted through the print and electronic media.Political communication affects elections process.Each party attempts to shape the agenda so that the media reflects its views on favorite topics.Public opinion is monitored through opinion polls.Societies have changed dramatically since the time of course.Mediatization influences the agenda setting process in public policy.
_ The increasing number of violence against the women an important area whch needs proper policies by respective givernmen to prevent.Mass immigration causes various social and economical changes in the hosting countries and in tthe case of Germany, it accepts high number of asylum applicants and hence there is variation in the living conditions.In Germany there is noticable increase of violence against women.Medi and its startegies plays major role in order to decide what the readers sould know or not on any incidences.One of the significant finding of this article shows that such offences were committed by asylum men along with native Germans.
_ It can be seen that even though in most of the cases the perpetuators are immigrants or people seeking asylum in Germany, the media tends to be submissive with regard to the incidences as the fear of making unrest in the country.In order to avoid the tension between immigrant people and natives, German media is trying to hide certain violence incidences against women which are perpetrated by immigrants.
_ The low level of security or background check on asylum seekers and immigrants led to increase criminal activities by individuals and groups and has been widely highlighted and criticized by the international media.Also the lack of proper punishment for heinous crimes like rape and sexual violence leads to increased acts of violence against women as it can be seen that the punishment ranges from six months to maximum of 10 years and no punishment like life imprisonment or hang until death.Also it can be evident by the careful observation for the past 8 months that there is a clear notion of mediatized political communication within the local German news paper with regard to the publishing of news and events which can cause tensions and clashes between locals and immigrants.

Conclusions
Figure 3

Figure 7
Figure 7News reports on violence against women with the suspect's background in express.co.uk For the purpose of analysing the incidences of violence against women especially rape crimes in Germany, two different news portal reports have been used.One is www.thelocal.denamedTheLocal German, which is an online news portal publishes all main news from whole Germany and another is an international online news edition www.express.co.uk from UK.This article observes news from these two news portals in a duration of July 2016-February 2017.It identifies the news published in these portals such as violence against women in the form of sexual abuse, rape and other molestation in Germany.According to the findings there have been almost 11 sexual offences has been published in www.thelocal.deand40incidences of sexual offences has been published by www.express.co.uk from Germany in the given period.The below given Table1.Identifies the sexual offences news published in www.thelocal.defrom July 2016-February 2017.
pects are German citizens and one is another from EU.All other 8 crimes against women have been conducted by immigrant men with refugee background.Which means about 73% crimes are carried out by immigrants, 18% by German and 9% non-German.The below given Table2.Identifies the sexual offences news published in www.express.co.uk from July 2016-February 2017.From the table it's is understood that in between July 2016-February 2017, over 45 sexual Source: www.thelocal.de.

Table 2
16. January 6, 2017Integration of migrants continues to fails and sexual violence against women increases 17.January 5, 2017 24 year old Refugee raped pensioner in Germany 18. January 4, 2017 Asylum seeker overdue for deportation rapes teenage girl in migrant centre toilet.