Recorded Lectures

Committing Sexual Violence in 1920s Scotland

Presented by Dr Louise Heren FRHistS FSAScot

Trigger/content warning: sexual violence. This video is not suitable for children

Sexual violence – the majority of which is committed by men – can be a barometer for society’s public and private pressures and structural inequalities. This includes the pressure to be identified as ‘real men’, a signifier earned through hard physical labour, fighting and ‘pay-packet masculinity’ in Scotland. Taking a whole-nation qualitative and quantitative approach, this lecture by Dr Louise Heren FSAScot explores incest and rape cases prosecuted between 1918-1930 to explore inequality, and attempts to answer the principal questions: who assaulted whom, where, how and why? This talk was recorded in collaboration with the Scottish History Society.

Dr Louise Heren is an alumna of the University of St Andrews and an independent researcher of Scottish History. She is the author of Sex and Violence in 1920s Scotland as well as co-author of the recently published Tanks on the Streets? The Battle of George Square, Glasgow 1919. Her key research interests are Scottish criminal violence and working-class lived experiences. Her research is grounded in the archives held at the National Records of Scotland at Edinburgh.