Cicely Marston, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
We often talk about educating young people about consent but what does this mean? Does it simply boil down to teaching young men not to rape? And, if this is the case, it’s a depressingly low bar. Instead…
“Bangladesh is not a conflict.” This is what I was recently told by the special representative of the UN secretary-general at the summit on End Sexual Violence in Conflict ESVC. She said the history of…
The reality about Scotland’s rape stats might be counter-intuitive.
Morag Eyrie
As was confirmed recently by figures from Police Scotland, there has been a 23% increase in recorded cases of rape north of the border over the past year. In 2013-14, the first year of Police Scotland’s…
Rolf Harris’s conviction on 12 charges of indecent assault came at the end of a long trial. The case put sexual assault victims in the spotlight once again – only the latest high-profile example of a growing…
It’s almost 80 years since Abel Meeropol’s powerfully evocative civil rights poem Strange Fruit was popularised in song by Billie Holiday. But I recalled the lyrics recently, when reading about the high-profile…
The principle that someone accused of an offence is “innocent until proven guilty” is a cornerstone of the criminal justice system in England and Wales. But a new idea of what constitutes “victimhood…
Shadow cast over Chetham’s School of Music.
Dell's
The recent publication of a serious case review into the suicide of Frances Andrade reveals how difficult it is for a sexual assault victim to stand and testify against an accuser in court. Keir Starmer…
We should beware removing the ancient corroboration rule
Penn State
The recent decision by the Scottish Parliament to scrap the need for corroboration in criminal trials is designed to solve a longstanding problem: there is a low rate of convictions in rape cases and…
The UK’s justice system has failed to protect rape complainants from harm.
Valerie Everett
In the space of just over a year, two women in Greater Manchester have killed themselves because of their experiences as complainants in sexual offences cases. The challenge this poses to the criminal…
Egyptian women waiting to vote in January’s constitutional referendum.
Khalil Hamra/AP
Many colleagues and friends have asked me about the surge and intensity of sexual harassment in Egypt, which has already received plenty of attention within academia and the international media. They ask…
When it comes to extreme porn, there’s more the law could do to help.
CMCarterSS
Hidden amongst the more high-profile reforms in the newly published Criminal Justice and Courts Bill 2014 is a proposal to extend the law on extreme pornography. This law, first enacted in 2008, criminalises…
Protesters gather in Delhi, near the site where a Danish woman was gang-raped, to demand action on rampant violence against women.
EPA/Money Sharma
Coinciding with yet another brutal gang rape in Delhi is news that Delhi’s women and child welfare minister, Rakhi Birla, is recruiting an all-female commando unit to help respond to Delhi’s rape problem…
Protest: Indian women demonstrate against sexual violence.
Rawesh Lalwani
Stuart Brown, London School of Economics and Political Science
Hard Evidence is a series of articles that looks at some of the trickiest public policy questions we face. Academic experts delve into available research evidence to provide informed analysis you won’t…
Brits need to clean up their act when travelling overseas.
Flickr: wanderinghome
Deaths, arrests, missing passports, hospitalisations, rapes and sexual assaults - it’s holiday season and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has published its annual report on British behaviour…
Enough is enough: protesters after a gang rape in Delhi shocked the world.
Flickr/ramesh_lalwani
Jo Adetunji, The Conversation e Emily Lindsay Brown, The Conversation
A third of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of a partner, according to the first comprehensive research of its kind. The report, published today by the London School…
The law and your laptop: extreme porn legislation goes both too far and not far enough.
Nelson Biago Jnr
Five years after the government enacted a controversial law criminalising the possession of extreme pornography, it is clear that the legislation is deeply flawed, not least because it fails to cover pornographic…
With global attention and the Indian public so invested in the Dehli rape case, the rights of the accused to a fair trial are in jeopardy.
AAP/Anindito Mukherjee
Sometimes, a matter of domestic law - a murder, a kidnapping, a rape - can be so horrifying that it is keenly felt, and keenly watched, around the world. This was the case with the gang rape of a 23-year-old…
A Syrian woman in Turkey prays for those left behind.
EPA/Tolga Bozoglu
In Syria, rape is being used by armed groups as a means to an end. In this context, reports have emerged detailing the use of sexual violence by Syrian armed forces and paramilitaries loyal to Assad. Last…
Women who are raped, sexually assaulted, bashed by a partner or stalked are much more likely to develop mental health problems than women who do not experience gender-based violence, a study has found…