Feminist Research in Crimino-legal Studies: Reflections on 'Absolute Rubbish'

Abstract

The article commences with a brief sketch of some of the defining characteristics of research in feminist crimino-legal studies. ... Then, reflecting on my own experiences as a witness subpoenaed before the Police Integrity Commission (PIC), the paper illustrates how the alignment between legal method with scientific positivism discredits feminist research in crimino-legal studies in much the same way as the legal process systematically disqualifies rape victims. ... So what were my 'crimes'? Upon reflection there are probably many not the least of which: having the 'audacity' to contest the reversal of the discourses of blame in the Leigh Leigh case; to challenge the legal representations dispersed in public culture which had brought this case to an unsatisfactory 'closure' for Leigh's relatives, friends and supporters -- to cross law's jealously guarded boundaries as the only valid source of 'truth' on such matters -- and to publicly challenge the phallocentrism of the way the legal process routinely disqualifies the victims of sexual assault by subjecting them to masculinist reconstructions of their conduct as somehow having deserved what they got.