This article aims to consider all cases of non‐consensual sex crime involving a court appearance that were reported in a local newspaper, the Lancaster Guardian, over a period of 120 years (1860–1979). Searching over 6,000 editions of a local newspaper, there are huge shifts in the outcome of non‐consensual cases over the 120 years. There is evidence of a lively direct interest from the local populace in some of the early cases, but it is only since the Second World War that more sustained coverage of cases are featured in the newspaper. There is a clear shift over time in the type of cases that receive more media attention.
LA - SN - 0265-5527 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2311.2009.00587.x ID - ref1 ER -