The New Year’s 2015/2016 Public Sexual Violence Debate in Germany: Media Discourse, Gendered Anti-Muslim Racism and Criminal Law

  • Ulrike M. Vieten
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Palgrave Studies in Crime, Media and Culture book series (PSCMC)

Abstract

The New Year’s Eve 2015/2016 sexual attacks on non-migrant women in German public spaces near the main train stations in Cologne and Hamburg, but also in Stuttgart, have triggered far-right populist debates on the ‘integration and gender equality skills’ of new immigrants and North African male refugees, in Germany and elsewhere. This chapter discusses some of the national and international media coverage of the New Year's Eve 2015/2016 sexual attacks, and the political, legal and societal responses to it in the period January to July 2016. By this, it highlights institutional gendered anti-Muslim racism framing the perception of public sexual violence and moral panic.

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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  • Ulrike M. Vieten
    • 1
  1. 1.Queen’s University BelfastBelfastUK

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