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Sexual History Evidence And The Rape Trial

Online ISBN:
9781529207835
Print ISBN:
9781529207811
Publisher:
Policy Press
Book

Sexual History Evidence And The Rape Trial

Joanne Conaghan,
Joanne Conaghan
University of Bristol
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Yvette Russell
Yvette Russell
University of Bristol
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Published online:
23 May 2024
Published in print:
27 October 2023
Online ISBN:
9781529207835
Print ISBN:
9781529207811
Publisher:
Policy Press

Abstract

The use of a rape victim’s sexual history as evidence attracted intense public attention after the acquittal of footballer Ched Evans in 2016. Set within the context of a criminal justice system widely perceived to be failing rape victims, the use of sexual history evidence remains a flashpoint of contention around rape law reform. This book mounts an important interrogation into the use of a victim’s sexual history as evidence in rape trials. Adopting a critical multidisciplinary perspective underpinned by feminist theory, the authors explore the role and significance of sexual history evidence in criminal justice responses to rape. The book is divided broadly into three parts, the first of which attends to history, the second to law, and the third to philosophy and critical theory. The authors demonstrate that concrete legal and policy problems around the use and/or restriction of sexual history evidence in the courtroom cannot be resolved without a much wider problematisation not only of social and cultural attitudes towards sexual behaviour, but also of the knowledge foundations which render these attitudes real and intelligible. This book is the first full-length historical and theoretical treatment of sexual history evidence and the rape trial and will be of interest to scholars and students of criminal and evidence law, as well as those interested in sexual violence and in social and criminal justice more broadly.

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