Book Review: When the State Meets the Street: Public Service and Moral Agency
| Published date | 01 April 2020 |
| Author | Simon Halliday |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663919896947 |
| Date | 01 April 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
points to the public attention given to the poor institutional responses to sexual violence
and the feminist critiques, suggesting a counter-network may be developing which could
challenge the contemporary medico-legal network and instructional practices, influen-
cing the role and practice of the SAEK (pp. 178–179 ). In her conclusio n, Quinlan adds
to the growing literature troubling the centrality of law and criminal justice system by
adding the point that too much faith has also been placed in the role of science and
technology in institutional responses to sexual assault victims (p. 186). Overall, she
offers a book which is a detailed and meticulous account of the SAEK’s history and
politics as well as a critical engagement with wider issues – such as the relationship
with the state, criminal justice and science – which recur in feminist anti-rape activism
and scholarship. There is much to take from Quinlan’s book and I would highly
recommend it.
NIKKI GODDEN-RASUL
University of Newcastle, UK
References
Bumiller K (2008) In an Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement
Against Sexual Violence. London, UK: Duke University Press.
Corrigan R (2013) Up Against a Wall: Rape Reform and the Failur e of Success. New York:
New York University Press.
Dodge A, Spencer D, Ricciardelli R, et al. (2019) “This isn’t your father’s police force”: digital
evidence in sexual assault investigations. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology
52(4): 499–515.
Du Mont J, White D, and McGregor MJ (2009) Investigating the medical forensic examination
from the perspectives of sexually assaulted women. Social Science & Medicine 68(4):
774–780.
Fitzpatrick M, Ta A, Lenchus J, et al. (2012) Sexua l assault forensic examiners training and
assessment using simulation technology. Journal of Emergency Nursing 38(1): 85–90.
Haraway D (1997) Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan©_Meets_ OncoMouse.
New York: Routledge.
Haraway D (2000) How Like a Leaf: An Inter view with Thyrza Nicols Goodeve.NewYork:
Routledge.
Hlavka HR and Mulla S (2018) “That’s how she talks”: animating text message evidence in the
sexual assault trial. Law & Society Review 52(2): 401–435.
Mulla S (2011) Facing victims: forensics, visual technologies, and sexual assault examination.
Medical Anthropology 30(3): 271–294.
BERNARDO ZACKA, When the State Meets the Street: Public Service and Moral Agency. Cambridge,
MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2017, pp. 337, ISBN 9780674545540, £28.95 (hbk).
Bernardo Zacka’s excellent book describes itself as an exercise in political theory. It is
somewhat surprising, then, to discover that his analysis emerges from an 8-month period
Book Reviews 301
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