Sexual Violence, Medicine, and Psychiatry (360G-Wellcome-205378_Z_16_Z)

Medical professionals play central roles in examining, treating, and counselling victims of sexual violence. Their scrutiny of the complainant’s body is decisive in determining whether or not the police take the assault seriously and whether legal proceedings are instigated. Women, men, and children who are sexually abused depend on the medical and psychiatric professionals for physical and emotional care. Physicians play significant roles in determining whether an accused person is subsequently convicted, punished, or treated. The research focuses on the constituent parts of the UK, US, Australia, and New Zealand between the first decade of the nineteenth century and the present. It sets out to promote human health through providing unprecedented insights into the role of medicine and psychiatry in understanding, interpreting, treating, prosecuting, and preventing sexual violence in the context of four Research Streams: 1) Medicine and Law; 2) GPs, Police Surgeons and Forensic Medical Examiners; 3) From Psychopathia Sexualis to the DSM/ICD; 4) Psychiatric Aftermaths. There will also be a research theme on child sexual abuse, attached to one or more of the Research Streams. The project will be a powerful example of how historical scholarship can inform contemporary crises and debates.