{"product_id":"bodies-in-evidence-race-gender-and-science-in-sexual-assault-adjudication-9781479809639","title":"Bodies in Evidence: Race, Gender, and Science in Sexual Assault Adjudication","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWinner, 2021-2022 AES Senior Book Prize, awarded by the American Ethnological Society\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHonorable Mention, Senior Book Prize of the Association for Feminist Anthropology\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eUncovers how the process of sexual assault adjudication reinforces inequality and becomes a public spectacle of violence\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor victims in sexual assault cases, trials rarely result in justice. Instead, the courts drag defendants, victims, and their friends and family through a confusing and protracted public spectacle. Along the way, forensic scientists, sexual assault nurse examiners, and police officers provide their insight and expertise, shaping the story that emerges for the judge and jury. These expert narratives intersect with the stories of victims, witnesses, and their communities to reproduce our cultural understandings of sexual violence, but too often this process results in reinscribing racial, gendered, and class inequalities. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBodies in Evidence\u003c\/i\u003e draws on observations of over 680 court appearances in Milwaukee County's felony sexual assault courts, as well as interviews with judges, attorneys, forensic scientists, jurors, sexual assault nurse examiners, and victim advocates. It shows how forensic science helps to propagate public misunderstandings of sexual violence by bestowing an aura of authority to race and gender stereotypes and inequalities. Expert testimony reinforces the idea that sexual assault is physically and emotionally recognizable and always leaves material evidence. The court's reliance on the presence of forensic evidence infuses these very familiar stereotypes and myths about sexual assault with new scientific authority. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePowerful, unflinching, and at times heartbreaking, \u003ci\u003eBodies in Evidence\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the human cost of sexual assault adjudication, and the social cost we all bear when investing in forms of justice that reproduce inequality and racial injustice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHeather R. Hlavka (Author) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eHeather R. Hlavka \u003c\/b\u003eis Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Sciences at the Klinger College of Arts and Sciences at Marquette University. She has published many articles in \u003ci\u003eGender \u0026amp; Society\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e Law \u0026amp; Society Review, Violence Against Women, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eJournal of Child Sexual Abuse. \u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eSameena Mulla (Author) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Before she joined the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Emory University in 2021, \u003cb\u003eSameena Mulla \u003c\/b\u003ewas Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Violence of Care: Rape Victims, Forensic Nurses and Sexual Assault Intervention\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the Society for Applied Anthropology and the American Anthropological Association's Margaret Mead Award. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50382005600530,"sku":"9781479809639","price":103.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_91e024dd-a647-4d10-8381-ab65316e60c3.jpg?v=1728700794","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/bodies-in-evidence-race-gender-and-science-in-sexual-assault-adjudication-9781479809639","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}