Rape, Acquittal and Culpability in Popular Crime Reports in England, c.1670-c.1750

Walker, Garthine

doi:10.1093/pastj/gts063

Cited by 26 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Now infamous, Sir Matthew Hale's 1736 edict that rape 'is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved' (cited in Russell 2017: 278) remains a frequent part of defence closing speeches (Smith 2018). This is despite the rape conviction rate being half that of other crimes in Hale's time (Walker 2013), and still less than one percent of rapes reported to the police ended with a rape conviction in Northern Ireland in 2017/18 (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency 2018). Lloyd (1993) argued that women have been treated with suspicion since Ancient Greece, when (male) Greek philosophers sought to overcome the unpredictability of the 'feminine' natural world using rationality.…”

Section: Historic Attitudes To Rape and Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is because men's sexual desire was assumed to be irrepressible, and so men could not help imposing themselves on women when unable to gain consent (Edwards et al 2011). For example, archives show that a 1627 case of a woman being repeatedly sexually assaulted by a religious leader was trivialised because the perpetrator was 'but a man' and acting on impulses as men did (Walker 2013). The perception of men as ruled by their sexual desires put the onus on women to act as gatekeepers of sex, policing male behaviour by resisting or avoiding their apparently inevitable advances.…”

Section: Historic Attitudes To Rape and Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The perception of men as ruled by their sexual desires put the onus on women to act as gatekeepers of sex, policing male behaviour by resisting or avoiding their apparently inevitable advances. This is demonstrated by an 1875 case, in which a man was acquitted of raping two teenage girls at knife point because he 'only' had a scratched face and the victims were therefore deemed responsible for not helping each other enough (Walker 2013). Moore (2013) identified a similar trend in modern news reports of rape, as women who are not perceived as acting sufficiently to prevent men raping them are presented as 'cautionary tales' for others.…”

Section: Historic Attitudes To Rape and Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Cultural scaffolding and the long view of rape trials

Smith¹

2021

Sexual Violence on Trial

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Equality before the law is a fundamental principle of criminal justice, set out in Article 7 of the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights. It has long been assumed that neutrality is the optimal way to achieve this, and the juror's affirmation promises to give true verdict according to the evidence and nothing else. However, the commitment to neutrality and equality is belied by well-established biases at every stage of the justice process. This is particularly true in rape trials, where societal beliefs about gender, age, social class, ethnicity, and sexuality influence barristers' argumentation (Smith 2018). This chapter uses English court observations to argue that reform of rape trials must acknowledge and address the differential positioning of various actors. It takes the long view, outlining historical reasoning about rape allegations and those who make them, to demonstrate how these beliefs remain embedded within trial. Indeed, it argues that these past beliefs, although now ridiculed, are part of the cultural scaffolding that justify and reinforce controversial aspects of modern-day defence tactics. The chapter concludes by highlighting the need to acknowledge the additional barriers faced by minoritized witnesses, in line with Sir John Gillen's recommendations for greater awareness of intersectional considerations.

show abstract

Section: Historic Attitudes To Rape and Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Historic Attitudes To Rape and Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Historic Attitudes To Rape and Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Cultural scaffolding and the long view of rape trials

Smith¹

2021

Sexual Violence on Trial

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…When had she first complained and how soon after the attack had she contacted officials? (Simpson 1995;Edelstein 1998: 364-365, 371-375;Block 2006: 131-134;Durston 2007: 171;Walker 2013).…”

Section: British Army Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

Jus in bello, Rape and the British Army in the American Revolutionary War

Hoock

2015

Journal of Military Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This essay offers a case study in jus in bello in the American Revolutionary War by focusing on responses to sexual violence committed against American women by soldiers in the occupying British army and their Loyalist auxiliaries. Two main bodies of sources are juxtaposed in order to explore the contexts and manner in which jus in bello was adjudicated: British courts-martial and American Congressional investigations documenting British and Loyalist breaches of the codes of war. By putting the fragmentary evidence of instances of rape in the context of contemporary legal and sociocultural practices of sexual violence in peacetime, as well as of the British army's disciplinary regime, we can elucidate the horizon of experiences and expectations against which survivors, assailants and prosecutors acted. The British army disciplined some soldiers for sexual offenses that violated military law and the codes of war, and it executed a few of them at a time when even their home society featured very low prosecution and conviction rates for the capital crime of rape. Prosecutorial discretion on the part of individual British officers helps explain the discrepancy between the formal law of rape and its application in the theater of war. The inconsistency in British responses to rape in turn supported American allegations that the British violated jus in bello. The new American state invested in unprecedented legalistic, empiricist efforts to expose enemy violations of the codes of war. In their quest to assert national difference and to claim the moral high ground vis-à-vis Britain, and to establish America's place among the 'civilized' nations of the world, the Revolutionaries both reflected existing notions of jus in bello and sought to define them further. The ethical dimension of jus in bello thus resided in formal law, in the choices made by British officers concerned with force discipline, military-civilian relations, and the codes of war, as well as in the American state's forensic exposure of the enemy's illegitimate violence.

show abstract

Critical Context and History

Barker¹

2021

Rape in Early Modern England

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rape, Acquittal and Culpability in Popular Crime Reports in England, c.1670-c.1750

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Cultural scaffolding and the long view of rape trials

Cultural scaffolding and the long view of rape trials

Jus in bello, Rape and the British Army in the American Revolutionary War

Critical Context and History

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About