Abstract
New Directions in Sexual Violence Scholarship is an edited collection which is both thought-provoking and compelling. The book comprises 13 chapters which are grouped accordingly across four distinct themes. The constituent thematic parts, and the chapters within them, provide a diverse but detailed consideration of a number of issues. Some of these have been at the forefront of feminist scholarship for several years, for example, the inadequacies of existing rape laws across a number of jurisdictions. Whilst other issues are more contemporary – grounded in shifting extra-legal considerations around rape and sexual violence that have emerged since the #MeToo movement.
The first theme ‘Reconsidering power and consent’ consists of three chapters. All three chapters interrogate the limitations of consent as it is currently utilised both within existing legal frameworks and feminist scholarship, with each chapter relying upon a different focal point in order to illustrate some of the current deficiencies as to the ways in which sexual violence, and consent, is often conceptualised in current discourse. In her consideration of ‘Change the Story’ – an Australian national violence prevention model which focuses on changing cultures, norms and attitudes, Hush highlights the ways in which such models offer an ‘eclipsed analysis of the range of structural and material conditions that give rise to sexual violence’ (p. 20). Instead, she advocates for sexual violence to be located ‘within the social relations of white supremacist capitalism’ (p. 21), demonstrating how this is possible through the utilisation of Marxist and Black feminism. Through an exploration of ICL cases, Dowds engages with the question as to the importance of ‘coercive environments’ in rape trials and encourages us to think about the lessons that could be learnt in domestic law. Using the case of R v Livas as a launchpad, Stardust and Caldwell grapple with the tensions borne out in sex worker cases. In doing so, they explore how these cases are influenced simultaneously by ideas about ‘archetypal sluts’ and ‘ideal victims’ and highlight the contradictions between legal shifts that have sought to better protect sex workers in cases of rape with the broader landscape within which the legal status of sex work and the legal rights of sex workers remain a contested and fraught subject.
The second theme ‘Challenging the Colonial Order’ again comprised of three chapters and is concerned with how sexual violence can be theorised and understood through the lens of colonialism. In Chapter Four, du Toit explores how we can read from the south in order to explore the production of colonial difference as is evident within ICL cases and trials. She emphasises the ways in which ICL conceptualises sexual violence, and rape in particular, as exceptional and cautions against the repetition of colonial logic. Then, Ryan, through a focus on Black Australian Women, highlights the gaps in current understandings of sexual violence in Australia and the ways in which these gaps are reflective of broader power dynamics that exist between Australian society and Islander women. She argues that black women have had their voices, agency and experience denied, in part because of the one size fits all categories that have been taken when it comes to researching non-white experiences in Australia. Finally, in Chapter Six, Gleeson focuses on the defence of provocation in Australia. With a focus on the case of Linsday, she seeks to highlight the white-washing of social relationships that occurs when structural forces are politically marginalised in favour of personal and individualistic explanations of human behaviour (p. 110).
The third theme ‘Reforming the Rape Trial’ consists of four chapters, making it longer than the other parts of the book. The four chapters examine various aspects of the current laws that govern sexual violence across a number of different jurisdictions. In doing so, they draw attention to, perhaps inherent, restrictions to the solutions the law can offer in the context of sexual violence whilst simultaneously recognising the need to engage in legal questions, analysis and policymaking as part of feminist scholarship. In Chapter Seven, Conaghan and Russell offer reflections as to cross-cutting themes that can be seen in laws surrounding Sexual History Evidence (SHE), often termed ‘rape shield’ laws, in England and Wales, NI, ROI and Scotland. In particular, they emphasise the extent to which law reform in this context is heavily influenced by the ‘policy cycle’ (p. 142) and question the extent to which rape shield laws have ‘in any way contributed to improving the criminal justice response to sexual violence’. Nevertheless, they highlight the potential for rape shield laws to be seen as a way of ‘pushing back against the inevitability of secondary victimisation’ (p. 147). Similarly, Chapter Eight also considers ‘rape shield’ laws, with a specific focus on Scotland. In highlighting the lack of empirical data that exists in relation to these laws, Cowan emphasises the need for a more robust investigation to be undertaken in order for the use of these applications to be adequately understood. As well as reflecting upon two of the key issues that have been identified based on current data. Namely, contentions around complainers having representation at s275 hearings and the impact of dignity and privacy being explicitly written in Scots law with regards to SHE. Chapter Nine considers the impact of complainant intoxication on non-consent in Australian Rape Trials. It is empirically driven, grounded in a qualitative analysis of 102 appellate decisions whereby the intoxication of the complainant had formed part of the evidence. The authors grapple with the tensions that complainant intoxication can bring. For example, in relation to credibility and reliability, they highlight how in ‘in some cases, it appeared to be accepted that intoxication necessarily diminishes the reliability of a complainant's evidence’ (p. 180). However, in some cases, note how ‘the complainant's intoxication was regarded as making them more credible and their account more reliable’ [p. 181]. In doing so, they emphasise the need to achieve ‘quality and consistency’ within the courtroom. Chapter Ten is also empirically driven as it considers complainers’ experiences of the not proven verdict within Scottish Rape Trials. The ‘not proven’ verdict, as Vanessa Munro explains is unique to Scotland and although it is without a legal definition can be explained as another acquittal verdict available to juries. Through a discussion of interviews and focus groups carried out with complainers who received a non-proven verdict, Munro highlights the ‘confusion and frustration’ [p. 195] that can come with receiving this verdict. In particular, she notes how many complainers had not considered the possibility of receiving this verdict, nor were they fully supported to understand what it meant in the aftermath. Relying on these experiences, Munro argues that the ‘retention of this third verdict is apt to undermine trauma-informed responses’ (p. 203).
The fourth and final theme of the book, ‘Speaking Truth to Power’ consists of three chapters. In contrast to the previous themes, these chapters move away from questions of law and legal reform. Instead, they interrogate the ways in which sexual violence can be resisted through speech, art and [enter what the last chapter is around]. In Chapter Eleven, starting with #MeToo, Serisier undertakes a critical reflection as to the limits of ‘speaking out’ about rape and interrogates when and how speaking out can be both instrumental and limiting. In closing, she returns to the metaphor of speaking out being a rock that is thrown into a pond and suggests that the task at hand means ‘recognising that the rock shatters the presumption that everything was fine and normal as it was and creates the space to demand that things be different. But it is also to insist that we should not need to throw rocks forever’ [p. 222]. Chapter Twelve seeks to understand an educational intervention through the lenses of affect and new materialism. The intervention – Carline and Gunby explain – consisted of an exhibition named ‘A Safe Space’ which comprised of a bedroom designed to be the crime scene whereby an elderly woman had been raped by a younger man she was acquainted with. Through focus group discussions, the authors explore how the exhibition for some was ‘able to deconstruct stereotypes of home being safe, rape being about sex and attraction and rape victims not always being young women unacquainted to the perpetrator’ (p. 242). In the final chapter, the authors focus on Indonesia and the recently developed anti-sexual harassment in the workplace initiatives. They offer a critical analysis of such initiatives and explore their potential such initiatives to bring about behavioural change as well as open up space for conversations to occur between employees and employers. As such, the chapter reminds us of the possibilities of creative forms of resistance.
Overall, the collection makes a critical, perceptive contribution to feminist scholarship pertaining to rape and sexual violence more broadly. The way in which it encompasses a number of jurisdictions and varying theoretical perspectives means that each chapter critically interrogates, develops, or introduces a novel way of thinking about pertinent issues. Certainly, as the title of the collection suggests, it provides a vibrant commentary as to new and emerging directions within the field of sexual violence.
