Interpersonal Violence

Differences and Connections

Marita Husso, Tuija Virkki, Marianne Notko, Helena Hirvonen, Jari Eilola

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781317241225
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

From early modernity to today, society has encountered various forms of interpersonal violence. Through exploration of particular areas within Europe and Russia to Africa, America and Asia, this collection presents both differences and connections among various forms of interpersonal violence in different times, places, institutional orders and relationships.

Interpersonal Violence introduces research results from studies in various disciplines, such as history, sociology, social policy social work, cultural studies, and gender studies. In focusing on the diverse and often ignored social locations and cultural backgrounds of interpersonal violence, the book demonstrates 1) how the specificity of temporality and spatiality affect the manifestation of violence, 2) how the dynamics of intersectional and institutional differences are located in social space and time, and 3) how the different forms of violence in different times are affectively, conceptually and discursively connected.

With its comprehensive and integrative approach, this book is a key tool book for understanding the phenomenon and cultural conceptions of interpersonal violence. It would be most suitable for upper level undergraduates, graduates doctoral students interested in social sciences, history, criminology, psychology, cultural studies, education, gender studies and public health.

Part I
Histories

1 Intersections of rape crime and child protection in early modern courts

Satu Lidman

Child sexual exploitation is nothing new under the sun, but rather it is a phenomenon deeply rooted in the human past. Yet understanding the content and the terms used to describe it are shifting, since they are connected to the contemporary values and knowledge. This chapter discusses sexual violence of adult men towards under-aged girls in the context of early modern Europe, especially in Swedish, German and English legal cultures.¹ Aided by three exemplary cases from the seventeenth century, it strives to explore to what extent the age of the child was a decisive factor when defining the severity of the crime. Were girls perceived as victims and protected in the legal system differently from adult women? How consent was articulated – or was this issue merely silenced?

Sexual violence, rape and child abuse: terminology meets reality

The social and judicial treatment of minors reveals a great deal about contemporary values, as children are indisputably among the most vulnerable elements in any society. Despite this, child abuse has not been in the heart of the histories of sex crime, and historical studies on the topic are limited in their number. These deeds have occurred in secrecy, as they still do (Ingram, 2001: 63, 83; Toulalan, 2011b: 131).² The cases can be hard to trace as their prevalence varies from one area to another and often information on the details is blurred. One reason for the paucity of studies in this field may also be the agonizing nature of the topic, which requires a special kind of decisiveness from the researcher.

Even so, there is sufficient material to demonstrate that the phenomenon was not unknown in early modern Europe – neither in real life nor in courts. Rape or attempted rape concerning small girls or teenagers does represent a regular but not necessarily very frequent feature among early modern prosecutions (Ingram, 2001: 68–69; See also Walker, 2013: 125. Compare with America in the late nineteenth century; Freedman, 2013: 128–129). For this chapter, I have chosen to analyse three cases dating from the seventeenth century, each of which deals with a girl of eight to ten years. Being individual examples, the stories of Elisabeth, Barbara and Brita also reveal a number of key elements related to the issues at hand, and they are mutually comparable on certain crucial points.

The most valuable sources of this topic are those of legal nature – be it the then laws and court proceedings or contemporary scholarly literature. Despite sexual sins being one of the main interests of early modern church courts, only a few cases actually involved children, most of them concern incest relations which remain beyond the scope of this study. From the mid-sixteenth century onwards, the Bridewell workhouse prison in London, a secular institution, sometimes housed abused children among female moral offenders (Ingram, 2001: 64–65). There were no institutions quite like it in German territories or in Sweden. Mainly, information on child abuse can be found in the proceedings of criminal courts, though this often means reading between the lines and analysing the almost invisible.

Many deeds that the modern world would perceive as child abuse were categorized as regular rape. As the exact age of the victim was often not reported in the files, these cases cannot clearly be distinguished from the rapes of adult women (Lidman, 2009; Hassan Jansson, 2002: 257–258; Ingram, 2001: 65; Naphy, 2004: 136). Additionally, the vast majority of sexual violence against children never came to the attention of the authorities, and it is therefore difficult to estimate the extent of it. Pondering the prevalence is one thing, but it seems to be more useful to try to understand to what extent contemporaries recognized child sexual exploitation as a problem, and what their responses were (Ingram, 2001: 64). Still, when considering the factors that resulted in the silence of the victims, it is important to bear in mind the potentially high dark figure of sexual violence against children.

The limits of encouraged and accepted or disapproved expressions of sexuality are culturally constructed and therefore constantly changing. A significant challenge of this topic is the terms used – and maybe even more of the terms not used in early modern discourses. Today, a somewhat uniform understanding of the concepts sexual violence, child abuse or exploitation and rape as well as the severity of their psychological consequences is shared in most Western countries (Vigarello, 2001: 76−78; Hooper, 1992: 53–55; Lambert, 2004: 169–170). Earlier, the term abuse had in many cases similar meanings as today, although it also described consensual but illicit sexual activity between adults (Ingram, 2001: 63–64. See also Lidman, 2013; Walker, 2003: 49, 63). Sometimes the word abuse could appear alongside another, more specifying term when referring to the rape of a minor, and the convict could be “indicted, for that he […] did ravish and abuse […] an infant, of the age of eight years” (OBP, 1678).

Contemporaries were, of course, also aware of the acceptance of sexual relationships between adult men and young boys in the Antique world (Karras, 2005: 7, 24; Foucault, 1990b: 215−226). However, the meaning of rape differed from its modern definitions in some aspects. Criminal codes did not aim to protect individuals from assaults against sexual integrity or clarify these deeds under titles like sexual offences as such categories did not exist.

The term paedophilia does not arise in early modern laws, yet there was clearly a strong revulsion towards sexual deeds with children. This becomes evident among others in the prohibition of incest in the Bible, the Jewish Talmud and in all major secular laws at least from the late medieval period onwards. Incest was generally perceived as an unnatural, monstrous and highly dishonourable deed, often punishable by death only (Naphy, 2004: 133; Rublack, 1999: 233−235). It is important to note, that in these cases the resented element of sexual interaction was not the young age of the other party, but the close kinship: culpable incest could also be consensual and occur between adults.

In essence, sexual violence needs to be perceived as a timeless and complex phenomenon. Not only does it comprise rape but also other abusive acts, such as controlling, touching and calling names. Simultaneously, the use of the term child abuse can be seen to underrate the victim’s experience of violence, as it may include actual rape as well. Conscious of this dilemma, I have still chosen to operate with the concept child abuse, which in this study refers to various aspects of violence. In the historical view, the attention was on illegal intercourse, penile penetration and ejaculation. Trials focused on violent rape and other forms of sexual exploitation were mainly ignored or handled in the contexts of assaults, accusations of unchastity and insults among others (Walker, 2013; Baines, 2003; Hassan Jansson, 2002; Vigarello, 2001. See also Freedman, 2013: 12–32). However, did this also apply to child abuse? Can one talk about recognizing the issue, if no word existed for it?

To understand child abuse from a historical perspective, one needs an overview of how rape was perceived. The general understanding of rape crime included a young but adult woman, who had been “taken by force” or “against her will” by an adult man. A popular depiction of this scenario was the antique story of Lucretia, an honourable Roman wife of higher social standing, who committed suicide to avoid the shame of her rape. Variations of the legend highlighted the purity of the victim and the physical violence that had occurred; the rape victims were represented as innocent good women who were truly wronged (Donaldson, 1982; Shakespeare, 1594; Matthes, 2000). Yet laws, court proceedings and legal literature reveal a different picture, as it was not easy for a raped woman to play the flawless and immaculate part.

If a woman wished to be treated as a victim of rape crime, but no eyewitnesses existed, she ran the risk of having to show evidence of her innocence. This may have been extremely difficult, especially if she belonged to a lower social group or if she had a reputation for sexual activity out of wedlock (Rublack, 1999: 238−240; Vigarello, 2001: 2−3, 24, 27−30; Koch, 1991: 91–109; Hassan Jansson, 2002: 51–52, 162–166; Walker, 2003: 55–57; Andersson, 2004: 78–89). Rape, and especially the resulting loss of virginity, was more a crime against family honour than against the woman herself. The higher the social status of the victim, the more severe the felony was considered; women of lower social standing lacked legal protection against rape (Harrison, 1997: 189−195; Saunders, 1997: 243−256; Vigarello, 2001: 48; Baines, 2003: 59−62).

From the judicial point of view, the perpetrator had to be a man other than her husband. Additionally, it was to her advantage if she could demonstrate having resisted her attacker in every way, there were broken objects or torn clothes due to a fight as well as marks of violence on her body, her screams had been heard – and she had a stainless reputation, especially in matters of chastity. If the victim kept her experience to herself or waited too long with reporting, the case lost its credibility. These were the basic elements emphasized in rape trials in most early modern courts. They were not restricted to adults but were generally applicable to under-aged victims as well.

On the one hand, the rape of young girls was considered one of the most grievous criminal deeds that existed, and was even more likely to result in a guilty verdict than that of an adult woman (Vigarello, 2001: 13–14; Ingram, 2001: 83; Hassan Jansson, 2002: 257). On the other hand, due to the patriarchal power structures and hardships concerning successful prosecution, the status of children as rape victims may not have been fully acknowledged (Walker, 2013: 115–117). Furthermore, child abuse was not distinguished as a phenomenon of its own. There were contemporary notions of sex with a child as physically and morally abusive, but “explicit ideas about the sexual abuse of children and childhood had not yet been clearly formulated or articulated” (Toulalan, 2011b: 27). Yet, there was a specific form of deviancy that concerned young girls or women called abduction.

Abduction of virgins was a widely known concept, and often related to the antique legend called the rape – or the abduction – of the Sabines. The early Romans were said to have forced these young women to be their wives, but the existence of sexual violence has been interpreted differently (Matthes, 2000: 42–44). Essentially, the whole term rape and its dated synonym ravishment originate in the Latin word raptus deriving from this scene of sexually coloured abduction, not necessarily including the act of violent penetration. The term of the Roman law, stuprum, was also used, and it applied not only to rape, but other unchastity as well (Koch, 1991: 105).

Abduction basically comprised the idea of an adult man making an unmarried young girl or woman leave her parents’ house to live with him. This happened unlawfully, meaning without the permission of her parents or guardian. Abduction might also have concerned actual rapes, yet the consent of the female party was not central. However, it was not associated with small girls, but rather young women of marriageable age (Hassan Jansson, 2002: 51–52; Koch, 1991: 105–109; Perneder, 1592, II: xiii). Often forbidden sexual contact only became common knowledge through its consequences if the woman became pregnant, but cases concerning immature girls could remain as a secret (Rublack, 1999: 235, 238). Unwanted pregnancy leading to the loss of virginity and honour were seen as the primary disadvantages of sexual violence, and the psychological trauma was mainly neglected in these considerations.

Legally, it was essential to establish whether penetration had occurred or not. Uncertain cases were unlikely to lead to conviction, but sometimes they resulted in pillorying or other shaming instead of harsher corporal punishment or execution. In the case of young girls, it was often difficult to ascertain the actual deed, as they did not fully understand the meaning, terms and circumstances they had been subjected to, and they were therefore unable to describe them to the judges. It may have been evident that some sort of severe abuse had taken place, but rape could not be proved (Ingram, 2001: 82–83; Walker, 2013: 124–135). The judges found it hard to believe if no marks of gross violence existed – or they even questioned the physical possibility of penetration when dealing with very young children (Toulalan, 2011b: 140–141, 144; Ingram, 2001: 65–66). This could be seen as “bodily impossible” (Hassan Jansson, 2002: 279–280), and it could be stated, for example, that “one of the jury being an apothecary, said it was his opinion, that a child of those years could not be ravished” (OBP, 1678).

In their stage of development, children were seen as unripe and sexual pleasure was thought to be unknown to them. They were thought to be physically not ready for sexual interaction before the pubertal changes in their bodies occurred. Yet, children were sometimes sexualized: “they could develop the capability of engaging in sexual intercourse and of taking pleasure in it”. This was regarded as a deviation from nature’s order, and as a result, it could be used against children in prosecutions concerning fornication or rape (Toulalan, 2011b: 132, 136, 140). Also, as young girls could not conceive, this argument may have been used to diminish the perpetrator’s responsibility.

Although the Protestant authorities associated matrimonial sexuality with righteous joy while Catholics rather saw it as a necessity leading to reproduction, sex before and outside marriage was equally horrifying among all Christian confessions. When it came to sexuality, puritan attitudes were widely shared, and various forms of unchastity were criminalized and increasingly handed off to secular authorities (Brundage, 1990: 555–558, 569, 571–572; Wiesner-Hanks, 2010: 131–132, 172–172; Lidman, 2008: 315–326). Nonetheless, the contemporary understanding of child sexuality is an important theme not yet discussed adequately (Toulalan, 2011b). At the time, the authorities were so obsessed in prosecuting illicit sex in terms of matrimonial ideals that many forms of sexual violence were not as thoroughly defined (Foucault, 1990a: 37–39). Accordingly, the sexual exploitation of children was not recognized as a specific type of crime, there were no special instances to handle child abuse, nor authorities responsible for the welfare of children. If an incident of this nature came to court, the judges had to contend with the very elements used in the rape trials of adults.

Wasted flowers of the past

In the early modern culture, the social and legal position of children can be described as subsidiary, although they were undoubtedly loved. All crimes against children were not actively prosecuted, and their need for a special form of legal protection was only answered partially, even though infanticide and child murder were usually strictly criminalized (Heywood, 2005: 27−37, 42−47; Hassan Jansson, 2002: 257). However, there were incidents that periodically came to the attention of the local communities that were then discussed in court. I will now highlight some major characteristics in common to the Swedish, Bavarian and English cases studied here. The next observation demonstrates the challenges of the investigations in a concrete way, as it relates to the physical nature of the actual cases, and also to the process of child abuse coming to the knowledge of the authorities.

Many of the historical abuse cases documented are grave because they came to court as rape or attempted rape and the children were suffering from serious physical damage. Even a single episode of abuse may have caused them venereal diseases or the disability to bear children in adulthood. Incidents usually came to light when a child complained or showed signs of pain, changes in mood, an inability to urinate, difficulty in walking or sitting, infections or dirty undergarments. This raised the suspicions of parents, who asked tr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• A spatial-temporal, intersectional and institutional approach to interpersonal violence
• Part I Histories
• Part II Cultures
• Part III Relationships
• Part IV Discourses
• Index