Medical, legal and lay understandings of physical evidence in rape cases (Evidently Rape)

The convergence environment explores how physical evidence matters and can matter in how the crime of rape is met by medical and criminal justice institutions.

The word "evidence" in the dictionary

Bridging forensic medicine, law and social science EVIDENTLY RAPE will show how the production of medical and legal facts is co constitutive. Photo: Shutterstock.

About Evidently Rape

Medical, legal and lay understandings of physical evidence in rape cases (EVIDENTLY RAPE) studies how physical evidence matters and can be a factor in how medical and criminal justice institutions approach the crime of rape.

EVIDENTLY RAPE is a multidisciplinary research project that explores how physical evidence is harvested, selected, tested, communicated and applied throughout the criminal justice process in cases of rape. The communication of medical knowledge and its margin of error to the police, lawyers and legal and lay judges creates numerous challenges.

The project is designed to generate more knowledge about this process as a form of knowledge production that necessitates the translation of various forms of knowledge. It will do so by empirically investigating what happens along every step of the way, from the scene of the crime to court, to understand how physical evidence travels, is translated and transformed through the process.

Bridging forensic medicine, law and social science EVIDENTLY RAPE will show how the production of medical and legal facts is co constitutive.

EVIDENTLY RAPE builds on the starting assumption that the production of medical and legal facts is co-constitutive. Law and policing practices influence what physical evidence is harvested for testing and how it is harvested; medical expertise and methodologies then transform evidence into medical and forensic facts to be applied in the investigation and prosecution of crime. The different sub-projects offer a specialised analysis of what happens along every step of the way in this process, and, taken together, investigate the process as a whole with the travel, translation and transformation of physical evidence the process entails.

Subprojects

Outcomes

EVIDENTLY RAPE’s main aim is to produce knowledge that improves our understanding, but also the working, of the criminal justice process. The example is the investigation and prosecution of cases of rape, and the project will achieve this aim by

  • exploring the interaction between law and medicine in investigations,
  • improving tools for interpreting and communicating forensic evidence,
  • investigating how medical knowledge is transposed into the criminal justice process, and
  • analyzing how legal and lay representatives in the criminal justice process interpret and utilize medical knowledge.

Consortium

The project includes four UiO research milieus:

  • Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law
    • Prof. May-Len Skilbrei
    • Prof. Heidi Mork Lomell
    • Post.doc. Solveig Laugerud
  • Department of Public and International Law
    • Prof. Ragnhild Hennum
    • PhD scholar Hanne Lillemork
  • Institute of Health and Society
    • Prof. Kari Nyheim Solbrække
    • Post.doc. Anette Bringedal Houge
  • Institute for Forensic Medicine
    • Professor II Peter Gill
    • Researcher Ane Elida Fonneløp
    • PhD scholar Helen Maria Johannesen

The consortium also includes external institutions and experts: 

  • The Norwegian Police University College
    • Prof. Johanne Yttri Dahl
  • Linköping University
    • Senior lecturer Corinna Kruse
  • Oslo Metropolitan University
    • Research professor Kari Stefansen
  • Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich
    • Dr. Sharron FitzGerald
  • Law School, University of Warwick
    • Prof. Vanessa Munro
  • The Institut für Rechtsmedizin, Universität Zürich
Published Oct. 12, 2023 12:53 AM - Last modified Mar. 7, 2024 2:30 PM

Contact

Project leader:

Participants

Detailed list of participants