dc.contributor.author	Grady, Victoria
dc.coverage.spatial	Europe--United Kingdom--Scotland	en_US
dc.coverage.temporal	19th Century	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2017-03-31T12:49:24Z
dc.date.available	2017-03-31T12:49:24Z
dc.date.issued	2017-03-31
dc.identifier.citation	Grady, Victoria. "Forcibly and Against Her Will": Mid Nineteenth-Century Scottish Rape Law and Proceedings (Thesis). Valdosta State University, Summer 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10428/2594
dc.identifier.other	A2E5D886-AD80-A8B8-4E17-CFF08248763A
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10428/2594
dc.description.abstract	Scottish historians have remained largely silent on rape, particularly in the nineteenth century. This study uses criminal precognitions, indictments, and court records found in the AD6, AD14, JC4, and JC26 series of documents in the National Archives of Scotland to analyze rape in nineteenth-century Scotland for the first time. Throughout this period, Scottish rape law remained unchanged. The law defined rape as carnal knowledge of a woman by force and against her will and prescribed death as the punishment for this crime. Even though the law remained the same, only two men hanged for rape in years ranging from 1830-1860. Prosecution rates for rape remained high in the middle of the century, but conviction rates remained low as juries were reluctant to convict men of rape and instead convicted men of lesser charges to avoid the harsh penalty of death. The sources examined also reveal that most victims were under the age of 12 and their attackers were between the ages of 20-29. The law defined the rape of young girls as particularly heinous, yet no man hanged for raping them. The law also offered protection to prostitutes, yet these women are absent from legal records. Institutional writers also extensively commented on the use of stupefying agents to purposefully drug a woman to overcome her will. Only two rape cases involved purposeful intoxication and they were never prosecuted because the perpetrators fled from justice. The lack of hangings and presence of elements extensively commented on in legal sources demonstrates contradictions within the Scottish legal system. This study examines these disparities to demonstrate how the “law in books” differed from the “law in action” during rape proceedings in nineteenth-century Scotland. This study is the first study to examine rape law and proceedings as well as the victims, perpetrators, and spaces of rape itself.	en_US
dc.description.tableofcontents	Chapter I: INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter II: THE LAW IN BOOKS: NINETEENTH-CENTURY SCOTTISH RAPE LAW 18 Chapter III: THE LAW IN ACTION: REPORTING, PROSECUTING, AND SENTENCING RAPE 41 Chapter IV: PRECOGNITIONS AND RAPE 68 Chapter V: CONCLUSION 93 BIBLIOGRAPHY 98	en_US
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.subject	Rape	en_US
dc.subject	Rape--Law and legislation	en_US
dc.subject	Law--Scotland--History	en_US
dc.subject	Scotland--History--19th century	en_US
dc.subject	Crime	en_US
dc.title	"Forcibly and Against Her Will": Mid Nineteenth-Century Scottish Rape Law and Proceedings	en_US
dc.type	Thesis	en_US
dc.contributor.department	Department of History of the College of Arts and Sciences	en_US
dc.description.advisor	Block, Mary
dc.description.committee	Riggs, Paul T.
dc.description.committee	Byrd, Melanie
dc.description.committee	Oglesby, Catherine
dc.description.committee	Thompson, Theresa Mae
dc.description.degree	M.A.	en_US
dc.description.major	History	en_US