Book Chapter
Sexual and family violence in Europe
D Hall, E Malcolm
Cambridge World History of Violence | CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS | Published : 2020
Abstract
In early modern Europe the killing of spouses, children or servants was a serious crime, as was the physical or sexual abuse of them. Yet convictions for what today we would call 'domestic violence' were rare. This chapter will analyse the understandings of gender that underpinned attitudes towards intimate violence. Male heads of households, for instance, were entitled, indeed expected, to employ physical force in order to maintain discipline amongst those under their control. The use of violence was not at issue; instead questions concerned the levels and types of violence employed. But if the head had licence to use violence, the reverse was certainly not the case: violence by dependants ..
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