Frictions in Sex Crimes : The Peculiarities of Guilt-attribution Practices, The Hague (1911-1960)

A. Tijsseling

This paper investigates the ways in which notions of femininity and masculinity informed the interpretation of sex as sexual transgressions in the perception of professional agents involved in the prosecutions of sex crimes. The analysis is based on a collection of data on sex crimes retrieved from the district court of The Hague in the Netherlands between 1911 and 1957. Before turning to the practice of investigating and prosecuting sex crimes in the Dutch court district mentioned, we need to explore two themes. First, the dramatic paradigmatic shift changing the practice of prosecuting (sex) crime in the first half of the twentieth century needs to be addressed. Secondly, we need to understand the strictly legal sexual prohibitions. After all, since the Enlightenment, the legal history of sexuality has revolved around three basic themes throughout the Western world. Age, consent and compensation have moulded the borders between appropriate and inappropriate sexual behaviour. Still, these basics have been worked out quite differently in varying Penal Codes (hereafter PC) across time and place.