Customer Reviews

Age of Sex Crime

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Caputi argues for the placement of mass murder and serial homicide within a context of late capitalist patriarchy. She offers a detailed history of British and American "sex crimes" since the 19th century, and gleans trends of male violence against women from popular culture. Working from a neo-marxian feminist position gives weight to her disturbing thesis; while her sometimes militant tone may edge on polemic the book provides a useful analytical perspective.

Caputi has done an excellent job exploring the relation between patriarchal culture and the current epidemic of sex crime. With conservative estimates claiming that at least 1 out of 3 women in the U.S. have been raped, and thousands of women being murdered each year by sexual serial killers (with the number of such killings increasing by 400% from 1966 to 1982 ... alongside the boom in "slasher" films and violent pornography), Caputi does not see this as an "aberration" or the crazed actions of a few "psychopaths". She sees instead something deeply ingrained in a culture that supports, mystifies, promotes, and is entertained by sexual violence against women.

Her historical analysis is in-depth and fascinating. Her psychological and sociological analysis exposed me to many concepts I had yet to see elsewhere ... I very much disagree with the earlier review which claimed that the word "gynocide" was too extreme/radical/polemical/etc ... Caputi makes a very compelling case here that this is exactly what is happening.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in sexual politics, industrial culture, and violence ... actually I'd recommend it to just about anyone.

Caputi does a fine job of making the (arguably obvious) connection between socially accepted elements of masculinity, modernity, and sexual killing. However, her research is selective and sometimes inaccurate, and one can't help but feel that she must, on occasion, simply have gotten things wrong because she has been trying too doggedly to make her point.

Her radical feminist position (and the language used in support of it, i.e. terms such as 'gynocide') will put some readers off. However, I recommend checking this book out if you have any interest whatsoever in the cultural context of sexual murder and its roots in masculintiy.

For better researched and better written analysis of this subject, I would suggest "The Lust to Kill" by Deborah Cameron and Elizabeth Frazer (unfortunately it's out of print, but as I type this, a couple of copies are available secondhand through Amazon).