A new front in the history wars? Responding to Rubenhold’s feminist revision of the Ripper

Article

Bleakley, P. 2022. A new front in the history wars? Responding to Rubenhold’s feminist revision of the Ripper. Criminology & Criminal Justice. 22 (5), pp. 659-675. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895821992460
TypeArticle
TitleA new front in the history wars? Responding to Rubenhold’s feminist revision of the Ripper
AuthorsBleakley, P.
Abstract

Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed By Jack the Ripper has drawn the criticism of the community of amateur sleuths dubbed ‘Ripperologists’ for its revisionist perspective, which claims that the canonical five victims of Jack the Ripper were not all sex workers. Rubenhold’s victim-centred approach has opened a new front in the history wars, as Ripperologists accuse her of historical denialism in pursuit of a feminist agenda. This article assesses Rubenhold’s methods, and her contribution to historical criminology, as well as considering why dominant historical narratives of crime prove so resistant to reinterpretation.

KeywordsHistorical criminology; history wars; Jack the Ripper; methodology; revisionism
Sustainable Development Goals16 Peace, justice and strong institutions
Middlesex University ThemeCreativity, Culture & Enterprise
Research GroupEnglish Language and Literature
PublisherSAGE Publications
JournalCriminology & Criminal Justice
ISSN1748-8958
Electronic1748-8966
Publication dates
Online05 Feb 2021
PrintNov 2022
Publication process dates
Deposited15 Feb 2021
Accepted12 Jan 2021
Output statusPublished
Publisher's version
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File Access Level
Open
Copyright Statement

© The Author(s) 2021
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895821992460
LanguageEnglish
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