Publication: ‘Sexual History Evidence and the Rape Trial’ by Professor Joanne Conaghan and Dr Yvette Russell

The book cover for Sexual History Evidence and the Rape Trial (Bristol University Press, 2023) by Professor Joanne Conaghan and Dr Yvette Russell. The text with the title and authors’ names sits over the painting of ‘Susanna and the Elders’ by Vincent Sellaer.

Press release issued: 30 October 2023

Bristol University Press has published a new book by the Law School’s Professor of Law Joanne Conaghan and Associate Professor in Law and Feminist Theory Yvette Russell.

Sexual History Evidence and the Rape Trial (Bristol University Press, 2023) by Professor Joanne Conaghan and Dr Yvette Russell mounts an important interrogation into the use of a victim’s sexual history as evidence in rape trials.

In the aftermath of Ched Evans’ acquittal for rape in 2016, after the Court of Appeal allowed in evidence of the complainant’s sexual history with two other men, sexual history evidence has remained a flashpoint of contention in sexual violence scholarship and policy.

In Sexual History Evidence and the Rape Trial, Conaghan and Russell try to understand the historical and theoretical forces that led to Evans’ eventual acquittal for rape, and interrogate the meaning and import of sexual history evidence to that case and more broadly.

Informed by a multidisciplinary approach that combines doctrinal, socio-legal and critical and philosophical feminist methods, Conaghan and Russell situate sexual history evidence as one tool in a much wider network of material, discursive and symbolic forces that come to bear in and around the rape trial often with devastating consequences for criminal and other justice concerns.

“Sexual history evidence is a highly contentious area of law, because practitioners, scholars and law and policy makers are often at odds about whether it poses a serious problem or not. It very much depends on how one interprets the available evidence and through what lens.

"Our research reinforces the crucial feminist insight that we can’t ever regard the law as a neutral or valueless entity, and that legal reasoning and decision-making are overdue their reckoning for the role they play in maintaining the conditions under which ‘rape myths’ flourish.” - Professor Conaghan and Dr Russell

This book will be of interest to scholars of criminal and evidence law, and feminist and socio-legal scholars more broadly, as well as containing important insights for law and policy makers.

Find out more about the publication on the Bristol University Press website.

Book Launch

Join us for the launch of Sexual History Evidence and the Rape Trial on 30 November 2023, 16.30 – 18.00 GMT. Register for the book launch via TicketPass.

The book is available to purchase online from Bristol University Press. Use code ‘BUP23’ at checkout for a 50% discount on the purchase price (valid until 1 December 2023).

PolicyBristol Briefing

The Law Commission of England and Wales, tasked with examining law and policy on evidence in sexual offence prosecutions, published a lengthy consultation paper in May 2023. In a new PolicyBristol briefing, Professor Conaghan and Dr Russell draw on their research on sexual history and behaviour evidence in rape trials to consider the extent of the challenge the Law Commission faces in resolving the many difficulties in this area, highlighting priorities for change.

Further information

Professor Joanne Conaghan is Professor of Law at the University of Bristol Law School. A graduate and postgraduate of St Hugh’s College Oxford, and previous Head of the Law School at the University of Bristol and at the University of Kent, she has been a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences since 2011 and of the British Academy since 2021. She acted as Chair of the REF2021 Law Subpanel and as Deputy Chair in 2014. Joanne has written extensively about issues relating to gender and law and is widely recognized as a leading scholar in that field, both nationally and internationally.

Dr Yvette Russell is Associate Professor in Law and Feminist Theory at the University of Bristol. A specialist in continental feminist philosophy, her researchis interdisciplinary and combines study in the law and humanities, with a focus on sexual violence and the criminal law in England and Wales.