TY - BOOK ID - 80837581 TI - Respectability on trial : sex crimes in New York City, 1900-1918 PY - 2016 SN - 9781438461960 1438461968 9781438461953 143846195X 9781438461946 1438461941 PB - Albany, New York : SUNY Press, DB - UniCat KW - Sex crimes KW - Abuse, Sexual KW - Sex offenses KW - Sexual abuse KW - Sexual crimes KW - Sexual delinquency KW - Sexual offenses KW - Sexual violence KW - Crime KW - Prostitution KW - History UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:80837581 AB - Providing a front row seat at critical courtroom battles over seduction, pimping, rape, and sodomy in early twentieth-century New York City, Brian Donovan uses verbatim trial transcripts to understand the city's history during the so-called "first sexual revolution." By tracing the revolutionary and repressive dimensions of this time period, Donovan reveals how conflicting ideas about sex and gender shaped the city's criminal justice system. He unearths stories of sexual violence and legal injustice that contradict the image of early twentieth-century America as a time of sexual revolution and progress. Police and courts often served the interests of the upper classes, men, and racial and ethnic majorities, but the trial transcripts included here reveal the considerable extent to which members of working-class and immigrant communities used the machinery of law enforcement for their own ends. Many previous books have fully documented and analyzed the sensational trials of turn-of-the-century New York City, but none have paid such close attention to the courtroom experiences of common city dwellers. ER -