Violence Against Women in Fifteenth-Century France and the Burgundian State (From Medieval Crime and Social Control, P 186-203, 1999, Barbara A. Hanawalt and David Wallace, eds. -- See NCJ-182405)

• NCJ Number: 182406
• Author(s): Walter Prevenier
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This essay discusses the existence of systems behind violence against women in 15th century France, especially the ways in which systems of ideology, belief, and prejudice inform patterns of violent behavior and how systems of social control enable repression or prevention of violent crimes.

Abstract

The author first looks at the legal tools for prosecuting judging crimes against women and then examines the interpretation of individual cases. He notes that the analysis of cases from legal records conveys a struggle to control the dialogue and the narrative so that judicial opinions or negotiated outcomes of cases conform to prevailing ideologies. The author also considers the variety of crimes against women, and resulting moral and physical harm. These crimes include deviant sexual behavior by consenting partners, prostitution, the seduction of women, and abduction and rape. Discourse in the 15th century on crimes against women is reviewed, with emphasis on different levels within the juridical system. The author points out that the regular juridical system for the repression of crime appears to have worked for most complainants, at least for the initiation of prosecution, and analyzes the social control of violence against women by crime type. 55 notes