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This study aims to investigate how the evening press, Aftonbladet and Expressen, portray female and male murderers. To answer the study’s purpose, the following research questions were formed: - What are the similarities and differences in the portrayal of male and female killers? - In what ways are traditional stereotypes reproduced or challenged in the reporting of male and female killers?

The method applied in the study is a critical discourse analysis that enables an in-depth analysis of the empirical material, which consisted of 30 news articles from Aftonbladet and Expressen. The selection was limited to six murder cases within three categories. All murders occurred in close relationships, three cases involved a male perpetrator and three a female perpetrator. This study applied a social constructivist perspective, which means that reality shapes and is shaped by language. The theory section consists of gender studies, news journalism and how the news media affects the perception of gender. The previous research has examined how the news media portrays female and male murderers and whether murderers fall within the ideal of chivalry. With support from previous research and media theories, we have examined how male and female murderers are portrayed in the evening press from a gender perspective. The analysis studied the portrayal of murderers based on the themes “personality” and “the convicted person's background”. The results showed that the portrayal differed between male and female murderers, with all articles stemming from the ways of traditional gender stereotypes. The overall pattern we found was that the women are portrayed in a milder and more neutral way as opposed to the men who are portrayed in a harsher way, however, there were exceptions. The final discussion further argues how the evening press's way of maintaining traditional stereotypes may affect the public's perception of what is considered male and female.