Since most violence towards women goes unpunished, is there not an understandable pleasure in seeing the guilty come to a bad end – as happens in most crime fiction (Are women drawn to sexual violence on TV?, G2, 2 May)? Thomas Aquinas said that the virtuous enjoyed the pleasures of heaven all the more because “they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell”.
Michael McManus
Leeds
• I decided years ago to switch channels if a woman is a victim of violent crime in the first five minutes of a TV drama. Consequently my viewing has plummeted. Please can writers stop assuming that a young woman walking through a park prior to being violently assaulted is a well-thought-out plot set-up; it is lazy, misogynistic and a huge turn-off for most of the potential audience.
Kathy Hammond
London
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