Rape

Rape: Challenging Contemporary Thinking – 10 Years On takes stock of current thinking and research about rape and the way it is handled in practice within the criminal justice system, as well as challenging some of the widely held but inaccurate beliefs about rape.

The second edition of Rape: Challenging Contemporary Thinking – 10 Years On is not a traditional new edition, although it does provide updated versions of substantive issues covered in the first edition. Bringing the book to the cutting edge, it incorporates both old and new contexts where sexual exploitation takes place, identifying some knowledge gaps especially when considering the voices of complainants/victims/survivors who are invisible or muted, numerous new areas of research including the implications arising from #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, the limitations of our present criminal justice systems, and radical alternatives to closing the justice gap. The new book reflects the global reach of research and thinking about rape, including more international coverage, with material from India, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as well as the UK. In order to learn from our shared history in this field, two authors reflect on their careers and other authors were encouraged to move away from conventional academic formats to convey their stories. Bringing together leading researchers in the field of psychology, sociology, and law, considering new research, and presenting new data from a strong theoretical and contextual base, the chapters are provocative and engage in innovative thinking, whilst remaining grounded in the available evidence.

This book is essential reading for students of criminology, forensic psychology, sociology, criminal justice, law, media studies, and women’s/gender studies. It also aims to inform professionals engaged in the investigation, prosecution of rape, support, and preventative services.

Miranda A. H. Horvath is Professor and Director of the Institute for Social Justice & Crime at the University of Suffolk. She has extensive research experience, having conducted national and local multi-site/team/strand evaluation and research projects in a range of applied forensic and community settings. Her research has focused on violence against women and girls. She is co-editor of the second edition of The Cambridge Handbook of Forensic Psychology (2021) and Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Response to an International Problem (2013, Routledge). In 2020, Professor Horvath founded the Violence Against Women and Girls Research Network which brings together researchers, providing opportunities to meet regularly and share ongoing, completed, and planned research in a supportive environment. Jennifer M. Brown is a visiting professor to the Mannheim Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research on policing has expanded from an interest in occupational culture to include evidence-based practice. She is the co-author of a prize-winning textbook (Forensic Psychology: Theory, Research, Policy, and Practice) awarded by the British Psychological Society in 2018. She has also collaborated on books about therapeutic communities in prisons in 2014 (What Works in Therapeutic Prisons) and translation research in criminal justice in 2016 (Improving Criminal Justice Workplaces).