Sex Crimes in the Fifties

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This book examines the policing, prosecution and punishment of sexual crimes in Australian in the 1950s The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has given national consciousness to the problematic treatment of sexual assault in Australia's past. Yet we still have little knowledge of the policing, prosecution and punishment of sexual crimes in the past. This book examines this history by investigating Australia in the 1950s. The 1950s has remained a decade with a nostalgic reputation for upholding the sanctity of the nuclear family. Fewer remember that it was this same decade that saw the sharpest rise in Australian history of arrests and prosecution of sexual assault and was the origin of many of our contemporary beliefs about sexual crimes. Using transcripts of 500 trials, Sex Crimes in the Fifties examine the full range of sexual assaults that came before the court, including rape, crimes against children, homosexuality and acts of indecency, to consider the ways sexual crimes was policed and treated, as well as the ways the wider public understood these offences.

Author Bio

Dr Lisa Featherstone is Senior Lecturer in Australian History at the University of Queensland. Lisa has published widely in the history of sexuality and the history of gender and medicine. Her first book, Let's Talk About Sex (2011) explores a range of sexualities in early twentieth century Australia. Her work has appeared in a range of journals, including The Journal of the History of Sexuality, Women's History Review, Australian Historical Studies and Australian Feminist Studies. Dr Amanda Kaladelfos is an historian and Research Fellow with the ARC Laureate Fellowship Project 'Prosecution and the Criminal Trial in Australian History' at Griffith University. Amanda's research spans the fields of history, law and criminology examining intersections between justice systems and conceptions of race, gender, and sexualities. Amanda's research appears in a number of journals including Women's History Review, Journal of Australian Studies and History Australia.