Female Sexuality and the Law

A Study of Constructs of Female Sexuality as they Inform Statute and Legal Procedure
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-041-11334-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 218 Seiten, Format (B × H): 138 mm x 216 mm

Reihe: Routledge Revivals

The treatment of women by the law, whether as victims or offenders, is based on certain attitudes towards female sexuality that have influenced legal thinking since 1800. The aim of this book, originally published in 1981, reissued here with a new preface, was to expose and investigate these attitudes and to show how the law has subtly but inexorably been used as an instrument of social control over women and their sexual behaviour.

The study focuses on the treatment of victims of rape and sexual assault. Within the legal process, it is the area of discretion which is as important as the actual formal content of the law. Why is it that one man may be imprisoned for the daring of a kiss, whereas countless others have escaped with fines and admonitions for the most brutal assaults? What influence can a woman’s personal background, material circumstances or mental condition be allowed to have on the case? How brutally assaulted does a woman have to be to prove beyond all doubt that she did not secretly desire the assault.

The scope of the book encompasses law, sociology, psychoanalysis and medicine, and paints a startling picture of the degree of prejudice and masculine interest still woven into the fabric of the law. Today it can be read in its historical context.

Zielgruppe

Adult education, General, and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Edwards, Susan S. M.

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Kriminologie, Strafverfolgung
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kriminalsoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Psychologische Theorie, Psychoanalyse Psychoanalyse (S. Freud)
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Feminismus, Feministische Theorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements. Introduction: The Social Control of Female Sexuality  Part I: The Female Paradox 1. Female Sexual Passivity in Sexual Offences Statutes 2. Female Sexual Participation in the Legal Process  Part II: Scientia Gynaecologia et Sexualis 3. The Gynaecology of Offenders and Victims 4. Masochism or Fantasy: Psychoanalysis and Rape  Part III: The Routine Management of Discretion 5. The Routine Management of Rape Allegation 6. The Death of a Precedent – Not of an Ideology. Conclusion. Notes and References. Select Bibliography. Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Susan S. M. Edwards is Professor of Law at the University of Northumbria. Associate tenant Red Lion Chambers London. She is Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Buckingham where she served as Dean of Law for many years. She is a Barrister and expert witness and has written in the area of gender for over 45 years. She is the author of several books and over 150 peer reviewed articles, including Opinion pieces for The Guardian, The Times and The Age (Australia).