| Description |
xii, 290 pages ; 20 cm |
|
regular print |
| Contents |
Contents: Pt. One : 1880 to 1899 - I. Women discontents -- 1. 'Sexual economics' and women offenders -- 2. 'Disorderly women' -- 3. Fertility and felonies -- 4. Striking back -- II. 'The animal in man' --1. The 'common man's' common assaults -- 2. Murderous marriages -- 3. Outrage -- Pt. two : 1990 to 1919 -- III. Laws of the fraternity -- 1. The declining birth rate -- 2. Regulating prostitutes -- 3. The age of consent -- 4. Two campaigns -- Iv. Illicit extensions -- 1. A proletarian profession -- 2. 'Botched' -- V. The 'new' woman and the old man -- 1. Tragic antagonisms -- 2. Declining odds -- Pt. three : 1920 to 1939 -- VI. Heroes at home -- 1. Forceful negotiations -- 2. Stranger danger -- Vii. Other wars -- 1. The defeat of the midwives -- 2. Madams and razors -- Pt. four : since 1940 -- VIII. Disclosures -- 1. A necessary evil? -- 2. the making of abortion politics -- IX. Challenges -- 1. Sexual violence -- 2. The dangerous trade -- 3. Sexuality, power and violence |
| Summary |
"Judith A. Allen's study of crimes involving Australian women since 1880 is based primarily on previously unpublished archival documents from criminal and divorce courts, coroner's offices, prisons and child welfare institutions. These records show that there has been a steady streaming of offenders and complainants out of criminal justice and into alternative agencies. Infanticide, prostitution, and sexual and other assaults involving women have been, it appears, much more prevalent than court records show. Allen argues that it is because these practices are connected with sexual relationships between men and women that they have attracted little official attention from police and other criminal justice agencies. These crimes involving women and their sexual relationships with men have been shrouded in a secrecy which has not only created a false perception of their incidence but has disguised their significance in the processes of social change which have occurred over the last century. Allen redresses the balance by providing both a detailed study of criminal acts involving women since 1880 and a feminist analysis of their social and political significance. This study is a valuable addition to the history of the sexes, in which a number of developments are of recurring importance: the rapid drop in the birthrate; increasing rates of divorce and separation; the widening of paid work options for women; and the 'sexualization' of culture during the twentieth century." -- BOOK JACKET./usr/bin/ksh @ |
| Analysis |
Crimes against persons |
|
Criminals |
|
History |
|
Sex offences |
|
Women |
| Notes |
Includes index |
| Bibliography |
Bibliography: pages 273-285 and index |
| Credits |
Based on the author's thesis 1983/84 - Acknowledgements |
| Subject |
Female offenders -- Australia -- History.
|
|
Sex discrimination in criminal justice administration -- Australia -- History.
|
|
Women -- Crimes against -- Australia -- History.
|
| LC no. |
90208481 |
| ISBN |
0195548396 (paperback) |
|
