Malignant passions and carnal desires: rape in long eighteenth-century Scotland

Abstract

Histories of lust have often been separated from that of rape, due to a concern with naturalizing male violence against women. However, ideas about lust have been significant at various historical moments in framing understandings of sexual violence and masculinity. This article explores how ideas of disorderly emotion, including lust, shaped the prosecution of rape in eighteenth-century Scotland. It highlights that placing legal accounts of rape within a framework of the ‘emotional ethics’ that guided early modern society helps to explain the low prosecution rates for rape in contexts where sexual violence was nonetheless considered sinful.