11 - Gender and Dutch Newspaper Reports of Intimate Violence, 1880–1910

Summary

This chapter considers newspaper coverage in the Netherlands of intimate violence in the final decades of the long nineteenth century. For England, an increasing condemnation and criminalisation of what was seen as the middle-class problem of domestic violence from the late eighteenth century onwards has been noted. The applicability of this trend to other countries can be questioned. Examining Dutch newspaper coverage of intimate violence between 1880 and 1910, this chapter gives evidence of an increasing prominence accorded to stories of intimate violence, but a more ambiguous attitude. In general, newspaper reports showed greater sympathy towards the victims, but sympathetic reportage was highly contingent on the conformity of the victim and perpetrator to class and gender norms. Men’s violence was often portrayed as a loss of control; while this was not condoned, it was regularly romanticised as a crime of passion rather than being condemned outright