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Remembering and Representing Victims in Research

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Revisiting the Yorkshire Ripper Murders

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology ((PSVV))

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Abstract

Historically, women linked to prostitution have been represented pejoratively in media and crimino-legal discourses which persist in reinforcing marginality and stigma, and legitimating violence against sex workers. The early part of this chapter explores these concerns before drawing upon research findings from oral history interviews focusing on participants’ memories of victims. Here I present an alternative set of representations to remedy the invisibility and hyper visibility which often defines the framing of sex workers as victims. While research findings reveal the Othering of women with participants engaging in both conscious and unconscious victim blaming, accounts also highlight more in-depth and humanizing recollections often shaped by social and spatial proximity which connect women to locality and community.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences, Business, Law, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK

    Louise Wattis

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  1. Louise Wattis
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Correspondence to Louise Wattis .

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Wattis, L. (2018). Remembering and Representing Victims in Research. In: Revisiting the Yorkshire Ripper Murders. Palgrave Studies in Victims and Victimology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01385-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01385-1_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01384-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01385-1

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