Abstract
This chapter builds on previous work on rape trials and rape culture by delineating the ways in which the classed notion of ‘respectability’ is operationalised within the courtroom context. I argue that middle-class ideals of ‘respectability’ re/produce, and are re/produced by, the notion of the ‘ideal victim’. Further, I delineate the ways in which the deeply embedded gendered concept of ‘hysteria’ is implicated within this. Ultimately, I argue that it is crucial that debates and research on sexual violence are situated within a broader cultural context that widens the lens with which rape myths in the courtroom, as well as in the wider criminal justice system, are viewed. Without this, fair justice will likely continue to be out of reach for many victim-survivors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adler, Z. (1987). Rape on trial. Routledge & Paul.
Ainsworth, J. (2015). Legal discourse and legal narratives: Adversarial versus inquisitorial models. Language and Law, 2(1), 1–11.
Alemdaroğlu, A. (2015). Escaping femininity, claiming respectability: Culture, class and young women in Turkey. Women’s Studies International Forum, 53, 53–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2015.09.006
Ansari, N. (2016). Respectable femininity: A significant panel of glass ceiling for career women. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 31, 528–541. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-03-2015-0012
Anthias, F. (2014). The intersections of class, gender, sexuality and “race”: The political economy of gendered violence. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 27(2), 153–171.
Anti-Racism Working Group. (n.d.). Anti-racism working group, anti-racism working group. https://www.endingracisminvawg.org/.
Barker, A. B., et al. (2020). A content analysis of tobacco and alcohol audio-visual content in a sample of UK reality TV programmes. Journal of Public Health, 42(3), 561–569. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdz043
Bergold, A. N., & Bull Kovera, M. (2021). Diversity’s impact on the quality of deliberations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 48, 1406–1420. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211040960
Bjornsdottir, R. T., & Rule, N. O. (2020). Negative emotion and perceived social class. Emotion, 20(6), 1031–1041. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000613
Blume, S. B. (1991). Sexuality and stigma: The alcoholic woman. Alcohol Health and Research World, 15(2), 139–146.
Bourke, J. (2007). Rape: A history from 1860 to the present day. Virago Press.
Brown, J. A. (2005). Class and feminine excess: The strange case of Anna Nicole Smith. Feminist Review, 81(1), 74–94. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fr.9400240
Brown, J., et al. (2010). Connections and disconnections: Assessing evidence, knowledge and practice in responses to rape. Available at: http://data.theeuropeanlibrary.org/BibliographicResource/3000079258051.
Buchwald, E., Fletcher, P. R., & Roth, M. (1993). Transforming a rape culture. Milkweed Editions.
Burd, K. A., & Hans, V. P. (2018). Reasoned verdicts: Oversold? Cornell International Law Journal, 51(2), 320–360.
Burns, C. (2005). Sexual violence and the law in Japan. Routledge.
Burt, M. R. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38(2), 217–230.
Busfield, J. (1996). Men, women and madness. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24678-6
Christie, N. (1986). The ideal victim. In E. A. Fattah (Ed.), From crime policy to victim policy (pp. 17–30). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08305-3_2
Clark, A. (1987). Women’s silence, men’s violence: Sexual assault in England, 1770–1845. Pandora.
Cocker, H. L., Banister, E. N., & Piacentini, M. G. (2015). Producing and consuming celebrity identity myths: Unpacking the classed identities of Cheryl Cole and Katie Price. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(5–6), 502–524. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2015.1011196
Cossey, O., & Martin, J. (2021). Women, anger and emotion management in Love Island. Feminist Media Studies, 23, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2021.1980081
Cozzarelli, C., Tagler, M., & Wilkinson, A. (2002). Do middle-class students perceive poor women and poor men differently? Sex Roles, 47(11), 519–529. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022038200071
Daly, E. (2022). Rape, gender and class: Intersections in courtroom narratives. Palgrave Macmillan.
Dinos, S., et al. (2015). A systematic review of juries’ assessment of rape victims: Do rape myths impact on juror decision-making? International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 43(1), 36–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2014.07.001
Du Mont, J., Miller, K.-L., & Myhr, T. L. (2003). The role of “real rape” and “real victim” stereotypes in the police reporting practices of sexually assaulted women. Violence Against Women, 9(4), 466–486. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801202250960
Edwards, K., et al. (2011). Rape myths: History, individual and institutional-level presence, and implications for change. Sex Roles, 65(11), 761–773. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-9943-2
Ellison, L. (2009). The use and abuse of psychiatric evidence in rape trials. The International Journal of Evidence & Proof, 13(1), 28–49. https://doi.org/10.1350/ijep.2009.13.1.309
Ellison, L., & Munro, V. (2009). Reacting to rape. The British Journal of Criminology, 49(2), 202–219. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azn077
Epting, L. K., & Burchett, J. (2019). Buzzwords: Identifying the language of gender and mental health status. North American Journal of Psychology, 21(3), 661–674.
Eyssel, F., & Bohner, G. (2008). Modern rape myths: The Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression (AMMSA) Scale. The psychology of modern prejudice. Nova Science Publishers.
Finch, E., & Munro, V. E. (2005). Juror stereotypes and blame attribution in rape cases involving intoxicants: The findings of a pilot study. British Journal of Criminology, 45(1), 25–38.
Finch, E., & Munro, V. E. (2007). The demon drink and the demonized woman: Socio-sexual stereotypes and responsibility attribution in rape trials involving intoxicants. Social & Legal Studies, 16(4), 591–614. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663907082737
Fiske, S. T., et al. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 878–902. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.878
Fleetwood, J. (2015). In search of respectability: Narrative practice in a Women’s prison in Quito, Ecuador. In L. Presser & S. Sandberg (Eds.), Narrative criminology (pp. 42–68). New York University Press.
Garcia, C., & Vemuri, A. (2017). Theorizing “rape culture”: How law, policy, and education can support and end sexual violence. Education & Law Journal, 27(1), 1–17.
Gerger, H., et al. (2007). The acceptance of modern myths about sexual aggression scale: Development and validation in German and English. Aggressive Behavior, 33(5), 422–440. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20195
Gilbertson, A. (2014). A fine balance: Negotiating fashion and respectable femininity in middle-class Hyderabad, India. Modern Asian Studies, 48(1), 120–158. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X1300019X
Gilchrist, K. (2010). “Newsworthy” victims?: Exploring differences in Canadian local press coverage of missing/murdered aboriginal and white women. Feminist Media Studies, 10(4), 373–390. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2010.514110
Gilmore, L. (2017). Tainted witness: Why we doubt what women say about their lives. Columbia University Press.
Griffin, C., et al. (2013). Inhabiting the contradictions: Hypersexual femininity and the culture of intoxication among young women in the UK. Feminism & Psychology, 23(2), 184–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353512468860
Grubb, A., & Turner, E. (2012). Attribution of blame in rape cases: A review of the impact of rape myth acceptance, gender role conformity and substance use on victim blaming. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(5), 443–452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2012.06.002
Gunby, C., Carline, A., & Beynon, C. (2012). Regretting it after? Focus group perspectives on alcohol consumption, nonconsensual sex and false allegations of rape. Social & Legal Studies, 22(1), 87–106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663912459293
Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Inspectorate. (2007). Without consent: A report on the joint review of the investigation and prosecution of rape offences. HMIC.
Herman, D. (1979). The rape culture. In J. Freeman (Ed.), Women: A feminist perspective (2nd ed., pp. 41–63). Mountain View, CA.
Hester, M. (2013). From report to court: Rape cases and the criminal justice system in the north east. University of Bristol in association with the Northern Rock Foundation.
Hester, M., & Lilley, S.-J. (2017). Rape investigation and attrition in acquaintance, domestic violence and historical rape cases. Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling, 14(2), 175–189.
ICM. (2005). Sexual Assault Research Report. Prepared for Amnesty International. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20060207094708/https://www.amnesty.org.uk/images/ul/s/sexual_assault_summary_report_2.doc.
Jackson, J. (2016). Unbecoming jurors and unreasoned verdicts: Realising integrity in the jury room. In J. Hunter et al. (Eds.), The integrity of criminal process: From theory into practice (pp. 281–308). Hart.
Jones, O. (2011). Chavs: The demonization of the working class. Verso.
Jordan, J. (2001). True ‘lies’ and false ‘truths’: Women, rape and the police. Victoria University of Wellington.
Jordan, J. (2004). The word of a woman? Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511057
Kelly, L., Lovett, J., & Regan, L. (2005). A gap or a chasm? Attrition in reported rape cases. Home Office.
Kelly, L., Temkin, J., & Griffiths, S. (2006). Section 41: An evaluation of new legislation limiting sexual history evidence in rape trials. Available at: http://data.theeuropeanlibrary.org/BibliographicResource/3000083452964.
Kessel, A. (2022). Rethinking rape culture: Revelations of intersectional analysis. American Political Science Review, 116(1), 131–143. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000733
Klippenstine, M. A., & Schuller, R. (2012). Perceptions of sexual assault: Expectancies regarding the emotional response of a rape victim over time. Psychology, Crime & Law, 18(1), 79–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2011.589389
Larcombe, W. (2002). The `ideal’ victim v successful rape complainants: Not what you might expect. Feminist Legal Studies, 10, 131–148.
Lawler, S. (2005). Disgusted subjects: The making of middle-class identities. The Sociological Review, 53(3), 429–446. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2005.00560.x
Lawler, S. (2012). White like them: Whiteness and anachronistic space in representations of the English white working class. Ethnicities, 12(4), 409–426. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796812448019
Lees, S. (2002). Carnal knowledge: Rape on trial. Women’s Press.
Lonsway, K. A., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (1994). Rape myths. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18(2), 133–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1994.tb00448.x
Loughnan, S., et al. (2014). Dehumanization and social class: Animality in the stereotypes of “white trash,” “Chavs,” and “Bogans”. Social Psychology, 45(1), 54–61. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000159
Lovett, J., & Horvath, M. A. H. (2009). Alcohol and drugs in rape and sexual assault. In Horvath, M., & Brown, J. (Eds), Willan Publishing (pp. 125–160). Available at: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/6991.
Lovett, J., et al. (2007). Rape in the 21st Century: Old behaviours, new contexts and emerging patterns. Economic and Social Research Council.
Lowe, E., Britton, J., & Cranwell, J. (2018). Alcohol content in the “hyper-reality” MTV show “Geordie shore”. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 53(3), 337–343. https://doi.org/10.1093/alcalc/agx116
Mackiewicz, A. (2016). Alcohol, young women’s culture and gender hierarchies. In P. Staddon (Ed.), Women and alcohol: Social perspectives (Bristol, 2015; online edn, Policy Press Scholarship Online, 21 Jan. 2016), https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447318880.003.0004. Accessed 8 Nov. 2023
Martín, A. M., & Kaplan, M. F. (2013). Psychological perspectives on Spanish and Russian juries. In M. F. Kaplan & A. M. Martín (Eds.), Understanding world jury systems through social psychological research (pp. 71–88). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203759813
Mayor of London Office for Policing and Crime. (2019). The London rape review. Mayor of London Office for Policing and Crime.
McCormick, K. T., et al. (2016). New perspectives on gender and emotion. In T.-A. Roberts et al. (Eds.), Feminist perspectives on building a better psychological science of gender (pp. 213–230). Springer Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32141-7
McDonald, C. (2021). Influential academic warns Scotland’s juries are failing rape victims and judge-only trials must be considered, The Sunday Post. Available at: https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/judge-only-trials/. Accessed 30 May 2022.
McLaughlin, K. (2021). Stigma, and its discontents. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Moor, A. (2010). She dresses to attract, he perceives seduction: A gender gap in attribution of intent to women’s revealing style of dress and its relation to blaming the victims of sexual violence. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 11(4), 115–127.
Munro, V., & Kelly, L. (2009). A vicious cycle?: Attrition and conviction patterns in contemporary rape cases in England and Wales. In M. Horvath & J. Brown (Eds.), Uffculme: Willan (pp. 281–300). Challenging Contemporary Thinking. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781843927129
Nafstad, I. (2019). The ideal minority victim—Roma in Swedish criminal courts. International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 58, 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlcj.2019.07.004
Nayak, A. (2019). Re-scripting place: Managing social class stigma in a former steel-making region. Antipode, 51(3), 927–948. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12525
Odenbring, Y., & Johansson, T. (2019). Tough-girl femininity, sisterhood and respectability: Minority girls’ perceptions of sexual harassment in an urban secondary school. NORA—Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 27(4), 258–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2019.1653967
Ortner, S. B. (2006). Anthropology and social theory. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822388456-003
Page, A. (2010). True colors: Police officers and rape myth acceptance. Feminist Criminology, 5(4), 315. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085110384108
Payne, H. M. (2016). ‘“Really damn sexist”: A discourse analysis of the language used to portray gender inequality within reality television’. Available at: http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/617867/.
Phipps, A. (2009). Rape and respectability: Ideas about sexual violence and social class. Sociology, 43(4), 667–683. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038509105414
Radhakrishnan, S. (2009). Professional women, good families: Respectable femininity and the cultural politics of a “new” India. Qualitative Sociology, 32(2), 195–212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-009-9125-5
Riemer, A. R., et al. (2018). She looks like She’d be an animal in bed: Dehumanization of drinking women in social contexts. Sex Roles, 80(9–10), 617–629. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0958-9
Roberts, K. (2011). Class in contemporary Britain (2nd ed.). Palgrave.
Robinson, P. M. (1984). The historical repression of women’s sexuality. In C. S. Vance (Ed.), Pleasure and danger: Exploring female sexuality (pp. 251–266). Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Roelofsen, M., & Peters, K. (2015). Doing femininity and respectability: Social networks and social capital among female members of Dutch student organisations. Leisure Studies, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02614367.2015.1105860
Rozee, P. D., & Koss, M. P. (2001). Rape: A century of resistance. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25, 295–311.
Schuller, R. A., & Wall, A.-M. (1998). The effects of defendant and complainant intoxication on mock jurors’ judgments of sexual assault. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 22(4), 555–573. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1998.tb00177.x
Selseng, L. B. (2017). Formula stories of the “substance-using client”: Addicted, unreliable, deteriorating, and stigmatized. Contemporary Drug Problems, 44(2), 87–104. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091450917698963
Shields, S. A. (2013). Gender and emotion: What we think we know, what we need to know, and why it matters. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37(4), 423–435. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684313502312
Skeggs, B. (1997). Formations of class & gender. SAGE Publications.
Skeggs, B. (2004) Class, self, culture. Routledge.
Skeggs, B. (2005). The making of class and gender through visualizing moral subject formation. Sociology (Oxford), 39(5), 965–982. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038505058381
Slakoff, D. C., & Brennan, P. K. (2019). The differential representation of Latina and black female victims in front-Page news stories: A qualitative document analysis. Feminist Criminology, 14(4), 488–516. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085117747031
Slakoff, D. C., & Fradella, H. F. (2019). Media messages surrounding missing women and girls: The “missing white woman syndrome” and other factors that influence newsworthiness. Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 20(3), 80–102.
Smith, O. (2018). Rape trials in England and Wales: Observing justice and rethinking rape myths. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75674-5
Smith, O., & Daly, E. (2020). Evaluation of the sexual violence complainants’ advocate scheme. Loughborough University.
Smith, O., & Skinner, T. (2017). How rape myths are used and challenged in rape and sexual assault trials. Social & Legal Studies, 26(4), 441–466. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663916680130
Spencer, B. (2016). The impact of class and sexuality-based stereotyping on rape blame. Sexualization, Media, & Society, 2(2), 237462381664328. https://doi.org/10.1177/2374623816643282
Stepney, M. (2015). The challenge of hyper-sexual femininity and binge drinking: A feminist psychoanalytic response. Subjectivity, 8(1), 57–73. https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2014.21
Stevenson, K. (2000). Unequivocal victims: The historical roots of the mystification of the female complainant in rape cases. Feminist Legal Studies, 8(3), 343–366. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009270302602
Temkin, J. (2002). Digging the dirt: Disclosure of records in sexual assault cases. Cambridge Law Journal, 61(1), 126–145.
Temkin, J. (2010). “And always keep A-hold of nurse, for fear of finding something worse”: Challenging rape myths in the courtroom. New Criminal Law Review: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal, 13(4), 710–734. https://doi.org/10.1525/nclr.2010.13.4.710
Temkin, J., & Krahé, B. (2008). Sexual assault and the justice gap. Hart.
Temkin, J., Gray, J. M., & Barrett, J. (2018). Different functions of rape myth use in court: Findings from a trial observation study. Feminist Criminology, 13(2), 205–226. https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085116661627
Ussher, J. M. (2011). The madness of women. Routledge.
Ussher, J. M. (2013). Diagnosing difficult women and pathologising femininity: Gender bias in psychiatric nosology. Feminism & Psychology, 23(1), 63–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353512467968
Watt, P. (2006). Respectability, roughness and “race”: Neighbourhood place images and the making of working-class social distinctions in London. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 30(4), 776–797. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2006.00688.x
Willmott, D., Boduszek, D., & Booth, N. (2017). The English jury on trial. Custodial Review, 82, 12–14.
Willmott, D., Boduszek, D., & Hudspith, L. (2021). Jury decision making in rape trials: An attitude problem? In G. Towl & D. Crighton (Eds.), Forensic psychology (pp. 94–119). Wiley.
Wingfield, A. H. (2010). Are some emotions marked “whites only”? Racialized feeling rules in professional workplaces. Social Problems, 57(2), 251–268. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2010.57.2.251
Wood, J. (2005). In whose name? Crime victim policy and the punishing power of protection. NWSA Journal, 17(3), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1353/nwsa.2005.0076
Wood, H. (2017). The politics of hyperbole on Geordie shore: Class, gender, youth and excess. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(1), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549416640552
Wooten, S. C. (2017). Revealing a hidden curriculum of black women’s erasure in sexual violence prevention policy. Gender and Education, 29(3), 405–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1225012
Workman, J. E., & Orr, R. L. (1996). Clothing, sex of subject, and rape myth acceptance as factors affecting attributions about an incident of acquaintance rape. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 14(4), 276–284. https://doi.org/10.1177/0887302X9601400407
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Daly, E. (2023). Beyond Rape Myths: The Role of Cultural Narratives in English Sexual Offences Trials. In: Pandey, M. (eds) International Perspectives on Gender-Based Violence. Advances in Preventing and Treating Violence and Aggression . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42867-8_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42867-8_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-42866-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-42867-8
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)