Epistemic Injustice in Jewish Rape and Seduction Court Cases in Tsarist Russia

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Abstract

This paper explores the epistemic injustices that Jewish women suffered in Russian state courts in rape and seduction cases owing to a “credibility deficit” that resulted from legal definitions of sexual violation and social perceptions of “wayward” women. Russian laws defined seduction (obol’shchnie) as the “luring of a single, honorable woman into a mutual [sexual] relationship with a solemn promise to marry her.” In these cases, the plaintiff not only had to prove that her lover expressed a serious intention of marriage but that she was honorable. By definition, Jewish women who engaged in premarital sex in traditional Jewish society were not viewed as models of modesty and virtue. In Russian law, rape (iznasilovanie) was defined as a serious crime, but women rarely received justice in these cases; even the slightest hint of impropriety made a woman an accomplice in the act. This paper will examine why women were not believed (testimonial injustice) as the court scrutinized their reputations, behaviors, and sexual status (based on invasive gynecological examinations), while it rarely subjected men to such treatment, especially the intense surveillance over their bodies.

Author

• ChaeRan Y. Freeze, Brandeis University