La description des violences féminines dans les archives criminelles au xvie siècle

Abstract

How did judicial institutions record female violence in 16th century ? This study analyzes recording conditions and narrative processes, and focuses on the pervasiveness of the stereotype of women’s inferiority in the description of female violence. In the subordinate court of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, small crime cases revealed the place of women in ordinary violence. Even if numerical asymmetry between male and female violence remained a long-lasting trend over the period, female violence was described as specific and as a threat to the patriarchal order. Nevertheless, it may have partaken in the processes of disarmament and pacification of behaviours in Paris which began in the early modern period.

Keywords

• justice
• female violence
• gender
• patriarchal order
• Paris