Sex Without Consent: Rape and Sexual Coercion in America

A group of men rape an intoxicated fifteen year old girl to "make a woman of her." An immigrant woman is raped after accepting a ride from a stranger. A young mother is accosted after a neighbor escorts her home. In another case, a college frat party is the scene of the crime. Although these incidents appear similar to accounts one can read in the newspapers almost any day in the United States, only the last one occurred in this century. Each, however, involved a woman or girl compelled to have sex against her will.

Sex without Consent explores the experience, prosecution, and meaning of rape in American history from the time of the early contact between Europeans and Native Americans to the present. By exploring what rape meant in particular times and places in American history, from interracial encounters due to colonization and slavery to rape on contemporary college campuses, the contributors add to our understanding of crime and punishment, as well as to gender relations, gender roles, and sexual politics.

Author: Merril D. Smith
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 02/01/2002
Pages: 380
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.04lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.72d
ISBN: 9780814797891

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 03/15/2002 pg. 99
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2002 pg. 131
Choice 09/01/2002 pg. 193

About the Author
Smith, Merril D.: - Merril D. Smith is the editor of Sex and Sexuality in Early America and Breaking the Bonds: Marital Discord in Pennsylvania, 1730-1830. She lives in National Park, New Jersey.