Crimes of Outrage

This is an original and provocative study of sexual violence against working-class women. The book examines Victorian notions of femininity and masculinity, and investigates how aggressive tendencies in male heterosexuality were expressed through sexual violence against women. The study examines the possible links between, for example, courting ritual and popular culture to sexual assault and domestic violence. Importantly, the book does not merely present women as victims but shows how women responded to violence and fought back both through the courts or through support networks.