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Gender Inequality and Criminal Seduction: Prosecuting Sexual Coercion in the Early-20th Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Brian Donovan
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Abstract

This article analyzes narratives of sexual consent and coercion in 15 criminal seduction cases tried in New York City from 1903 to 1918. I explore courtroom accounts of seduction to explain how dominant notions of masculinity and femininity constrain the effectiveness of sex crime laws. Unlike men, women in the Progressive era (1900–1920) who engaged in premarital sex faced potentially significant social costs in the form of unwanted pregnancy and ostracism. These women could sometimes seek redress by bringing felony charges against men who reneged on their promises of marriage. New York's “seduction law” not only criminalized betrayal but it also functioned as a tool in the prosecution of sexual assault. Yet a patriarchal ideology of romantic courtship embedded in the statute, and defense attorney strategies that drew on this ideology, limited the law's ability to address sexual coercion.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , Winter 2005 , pp. 61 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2005 

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