Dr Olivia Smith: Court Responses to Rape

Dr. Olivia Smith is a Lecturer in Criminology and Social Policy at the University of Loughborough. Olivia’s research has been used as an evidence-base on rape justice by the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, and by third sector organisations such as Rape Crisis. In this conversation, we spoke about Olivia's research on the gaps in the criminal justice system in responding to rape victims in England and Wales. We discussed themes such as rape myths, gendered bias in Ancient Greek philosophy based concepts of reason and ration- and how they affect court responses to rape victims, moving towards a survivor-centric criminal justice system and more.
Research discussed:

Smith, O. (2017). The practicalities of English and Welsh rape trials: Observations and avenues for improvement. Criminology & Criminal Justice. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895817702508
Smith, O. & Skinner, T. (2017). How rape myths are used and challenged at court. Social & Legal Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663916680130
Smith, O. & Skinner, T. (2012). Observing Court Responses to Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault. Feminist Criminology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085112437875

What is Talking Research?

Talking Research features in-depth interviews with prominent academics and researchers who study sexual violence across disciplines. The aim is to make academic knowledge and research on sexual violence accessible. Every other Wednesday, guests talk about their research, their findings, the process, the challenges and everything else in between.

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Organisations that provide support:

India: https://yourstory.com/2016/04/women-helpline-india
Scotland: https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/
England & Wales: https://rapecrisis.org.uk/
USA: https://www.rainn.org/
Australia: https://www.rape-dvservices.org.au/

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Logo- Raghvi Bhatia
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