Sexual History Evidence and the Rape Trial: A Multidisciplinary Critique

Description

Prof Joanne Conaghan (Bristol) delivered a seminar on her forthcoming book co-authored with Dr Yvette Russell. The use of evidence of a complainant's prior sexual behaviour in trials for sexual assault has long been a source of controversy in criminal justice discourse. Disagreement has arisen about how widely such evidence is used, how best to regulate against its misuse, and in what, if any, circumstances reliance upon sexual history evidence furthers the interests of justice. Together with Dr Yvette Russell, Prof Conaghan is just completing the first book-length treatment of this contentious issue. In this presentation, she talked about how the book is conceived, what the analysis has revealed, and how we might approach the regulation of sexual history evidence in the future.
The event was chaired by Prof Gráinne McKeever and organised by Prof Rory O'Connell.

Period	2 Nov 2022
Event type	Seminar