Book Review: Violent Sensations: Sex, Crime, and Utopia in Vienna and Berlin, 1860-1914

• Author: Corey Call
• Date: 01 June 2018
• Published date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567717718913
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Spector, S. (2016).

Violent Sensations: Sex, Crime, and Utopia in Vienna and Berlin, 1860-1914.

Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. 285 pp. $25.00, ISBN 978-0-226-19678-7.

Reviewed by: Corey Call, West Liberty University, West Liberty, WV, USA

DOI: 10.1177/1057567717718913

In the early 20th century, Vienna and Berlin were centers of industrial and scientific advancement

while also home to violent fantasies and urban decay. Spector uses this dichotomy to frame his

exploration of the evolution of European modernity. Central to this exploration are the characters

living on the fringe of society during this time period including homosexuals, sensual women, and

Jews. These marginal figures collided with the “respectable” side of the metropolises through the

discourses of emerging sciences, court cases, and sensational media accounts of these groups. As

these “border figures” came to be known by society, violent fantasies surrounding the activities of

these groups grew. Through a litany of historical writings and documents, Spector charts not only

how these outsiders came to be identified by the mainstream but also how these marginalized groups

came to identify themselves.

Vienna and Berlin provide the backdrop for the intermingling of sex and crime thoroughly

describedinSpector’sViolent Sensations and the metro politan setting is just as cruci al to the

narrative in Violent Sensations as the inhabitants populating the two cities. Thus, before concentrat-

ing on the groups within these cities, Spector focuses on developments occurring within Vienna and

Berlin in Chapter 1. The first chapter is premised on the belief that, at the turn of the 20th century,

life in these two modern cities was fundamentally different than anything than what had come before

it. Spector examines how this line of thinking emerged and ties it to the dual contexts of enlight-

enment and the anxiety of urbanization inherent in modernity. Crime is entwined in this discussion

as both an aspect of that societal anxiety and a developing field of study with an emphasis on the

debates surrounding the origin of criminality.

The next two chapters are devoted to issues surrounding homosexuality with Chapter 2 focusing

specifically on the origins of the homosexual identity. The chapter presents early writings on

homosexuality from several scholars who trace the idea of homosexuality from simply the deviant

acts of heterosexual individuals to the medicalization of homosexuality to a burgeoning homosexual

community. As Spector points out, with the recognition of homosexuality, the conception of sexu-

ality itself is also originated. With the emerging recognition of homosexuality as an identity came a

simultaneous cultural fantasy connecting homosexuals to brutality. The connection between this

newly recognized sexual identity and violence is highlighted in a court case involving the murder of

a child with a homosexual suspect and the sensationalized approach of the media in presenting

homosexuality as a perversity.

The role of the media in proliferating ideas about homosexuality is focused upon more in Chapter

3. While researchers and medical experts were gaining knowledge of homosexuality through case

studies of homosexual patients, this information did not reach the general public. The public’s

International CriminalJustice Review

2018, Vol. 28(2) 177-183

ª2017 Georgia State University

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