A History of Rape Sexual Violence in France from the 16th to the 20th Century

by Vigarello, Georges

• ISBN13: 9780745621708
• ISBN10: 0745621708
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-02
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

This important new book, by one of the leading social historians in France today, analyses the changing meaning of rape through numerous case studies across the centuries. The book begins with a history of the relative tolerance of sexual violence in early modern France, and the tendency to condemn the victims by enveloping them in the shame of the act. It then traces the changing legal attitudes to sexual violence at the end of the eighteenth century, and the slow recognition of the role of moral violence in rape in the nineteenth century. Vigarello also stresses the importance of the new medical jurisprudence and the introduction of forensic psychiatry into the courtroom. But despite the increased number of convictions in the nineteenth century, it was only after the campaigns conducted by feminists in the twentieth century that the true gravity of rape as a crime against women's integrity was fully recognized. As a result, acts of sexual violence are no longer assessed in terms of the risk of debauchery, but in terms of the risk of 'psychic murder' and inner damage. A History of Rape is a valuable resource for students and scholars of social history, and anyone interested in changing attitudes to sexuality and sexual violence

Author Biography

Georges Vigarello is Professor in the University of Paris-V and Director of Studies in the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(9)
Part I The Ancien Regime: Violence and Blasphemy
A Violence Like Any Other?	9	(15)
A Degradation Concealing Violence	24	(14)
The Absence of the Subject Concealing Violence	38	(24)
Part II The Revision and Relative Impotence of the New Code
Public Opinion, the `Libertine' and the Victim at the End of the Eighteenth Century	62	(13)
The Emergence of Child Rape	75	(12)
Revolution through the Law Codes	87	(19)
Part III Modern Law and the Hierarchy of Criminal Acts
A New Curiosity at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century	106	(9)
Defining Affront and Assault	115	(13)
Recognizing `Moral Violence'	128	(18)
An `Increase' in Rape and a `Decrease' in Violence?	146	(20)
Part IV Inventing the Rapist
Rape-Murder at the End of the Nineteenth Century	166	(8)
Investigating the Rapist	174	(8)
Deviants and Marginals	182	(12)
The Beginnings of a Psychology	194	(12)
Part V The Moral Debate: Rape and Society Today
From Trying Rapists to Trying Rape	206	(9)
The Collapse of the Old Order	215	(10)
At Risk from the Law:Sentencing and Treatment	225	(16)
Conclusion	241	(4)
Notes	245	(55)
Index	300