Book Review: The Technoscientific Witness of Rape: Contentious Histories of Law, Feminism, and Forensic Science
| Published date | 01 April 2020 |
| Date | 01 April 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663919896949 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Be that as it may, the final move to recognise and conceptualise victims as concerned
in the sphere of their human rights only reinforces the valid claim asserted, and convin-
cingly argued, by Holder that victims as citizens are entitled to participate in criminal
proceedings, to have a voice and to experience that justice is done. Criminal justice
systems should not content themselves with enforcing the law but seek to meet the
legitimate expectations of victims and offenders as citizens and stakeholders. Thus, the
book challenges and encourages its readers to rethink the basic concepts on which
criminal justice systems are founded.
ALBIN DEARING
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Austria
Author’s Note
The views expressed in this text are solely those of its author and do not necessarily represent the
position of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
References
Dearing A (2017) Justice for Victims of Crime: Human Dignity as the Foundation of Criminal
Justice in Europe. Cham: Springer.
Fletcher G (1995) With Justice for Some: Protecting Victims’ Rights in Criminal Trials. Reading:
Basic Books.
Goodey J (2005) Victims and Victimology: Research, Policy and Practice. Harlow: Longman.
Hampton J (1992) Correcting harms versus righting wrongs: The goal of retribution. UCLA Law
Review 39(6): 1659–1702.
Holder R (2017) Seeing the state: Human rights violations of victims of crime and abuse of power.
In: Weber L, Fishwick E and Marmo M (eds) The Routledge Internation al Handbook of
Criminology and Human Rights. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 419–428.
Kilchling M (1995) Opferinteressen und Strafverfolgung. Freiburg i.Br: Edition Iuscrim.
McGonigle Leyh B (2011) Procedural Justice? Victim Participation in International Criminal
Proceedings. Cambridge, Antwerp and Portland: Intersentia.
Shapland J, Willmore J and Duff P (1985) Victims in the Criminal Justice System. Cambridge
Studies in Criminology, Vol. 53. Aldershot: Gower.
ANDREA QUINLAN, The Technoscientific Witness of Rape: Contentious Histories of Law, Feminism,
and Forensic Science, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017, pp. 272, ISBN 9781487520601,
$18.71 (pbk).
Andrea Quinlan has written a book which is an incredibly rich and detailed history of the
development of the Ontario Sexual Assault Evidence Kit (‘SAEK’) and a critical exam-
ination of the uneasy relationship between feminism, criminal law and technoscience.
She questions why, in spite of all the changes which have taken place in the medical and
legal responses to sexual assault, is there little improvement in terms of victim experi-
ences of these institutions and criminal justice outcomes. To understand this, working
298 Social & Legal Studies 29(2)
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