The Continuum of Sexual Violence

Exploring gender and fear retrospectively: stories of women’s fear during the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ murders

“…Key texts from the 1970s and 1980s reveal how rape and sexual violence, domestic violence and sexual harassment were sufficiently widespread to be considered structural in the context of patriarchy and central to women's control and subordination (Brownmiller 1975;Riger and Gordon 1981;Hanmer and Saunders 1984;Kelly 1987). This body of work links women's fearfulness to the threat of sexual violence, routine negotiation of sexual harassment in public space combined with the construction of feminine vulnerability and the construction of public space and the unknown male stranger as the locus of risk (Hanmer and Saunders 1984;Stanko 1990;Painter 1992, Valentine 1989.…”

The social nature of serial murder: The intersection of gender and modernity

“…This has led several feminist commentators to question the distinction that male dominated legal and medical professions made at the time between a delusional 'divine mission' to kill women and sexual sadism (Hollway, 1981;Cameron and Frazer, 1987); both can be viewed as constitutive of misogyny, representing femicide (Radford and Russell, 1992), the most extreme point on a continuum of male violence against women (Hollway, 1981;Cameron and Frazer, 1987;Bland, 1992;Smith, 1992;Kelly, 1987;Wykes and Welsh, 2009). …”

Women students’ perceptions of crime and safety: negotiating fear and risk in an English post-industrial landscape

“…Women's fear differs both qualitatively and quantitatively from men's (Pain, 1991) and includes a fear of sexual violence which men in general do not experience (Valentine, 1992). Furthermore, subtler male behaviours such as harassment and the appropriation of space, also negate women's relationship with public space (Kelly, 1987;Kelly and Radford, 1996;Stanko, 1996;Skeggs, 1999). However, there is a danger that work in this field essentialises gendered fear (Starkweather, 2007).…”

“…It is underpinned by a recognition of the salience of gender 1 in shaping women's experiences of space, fear and safety. These themes have been covered extensively in feminist literature and research which focuses on how gender structures, sexual violence, harassment, ideology and discourses of victimisation perpetuate fears and render public space differential and problematic for women (Gordon et al 1980;Riger and Gordon, 1981;McDowell, 1983;Davidoff and Hall, 1987;Kelly, 1987;Stanko, 1987;Painter, 1992;Ruddick, 1996;Kelly and Radford, 1996;Skeggs, 1999;Bondi, 1998;Pain, 2001). However, one cannot assume that all women experience gender in the same way and recognising 'difference' (Maynard, 1994(Maynard, , 2002 amongst women is central to understanding how gender interlocks with other identities to produce diverse gender experiences.…”