My late mother had five sisters, born in the first quarter of the twentieth century. I once asked if she or any of her working-class sisters had ever suffered domestic or sexual violence. She was incredulous at the suggestion. "Of course not," she answered. My mother-in-law is one of three sisters who were born into a far from well-off home in the Scottish Borders before the Second World War. Not one of those women has ever suffered sexual or domestic violence. Years ago, when they were sitting together in a public place, my own wife was bitten on the thigh by a nutter she was going out with. That, I believe, is the full extent of her experience of what might be called sexual violence but could equally be termed common assault.