From medical facts to legal evidence is part of Evidently Rape, a convergence environment funded by UiO:Lifescience. Through three interrelated work packages building on a combination of intakes (literature, document analysis, interviews and observation), From medical facts to legal evidence addresses how medical facts and forensic evidence are written and spoken for in pre-trial stages of the criminal justice process in rape and sexual assault cases in Norway.
The project is designed to study empirically the establishment of forensic facts and the translation work that medical and forensic experts invest in to transfer the scientific meaning and quality of facts to a legal context and audience. Whereas scholars have raised concern that we are witnessing a “natural science-ification” of the court system through forensic and medical experts’ role in the court, this project also reverses this assertion and ask if the legal expectations likewise juridify medical ways of thinking in the criminal justice process. By addressing the sociology of knowledge pertaining to forensic evidence in the criminal justice system From medical facts to legal evidence aims to help the translation of evidence/knowledge from the medical to the legal knowledge tradition.
Publications
Research articles:
- Houge, Anette B. (2023). Rettsliggj?ringens problem: Argumenter for en annen samtale om voldtekt. Tidsskrift for kj?nnsforskning 47(2-3): 67-81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/tfk.47.2.3
- Houge, Anette B., & Laugerud, Solveig (2023). “Unconscious or for Other Reasons Incapable of Resisting”: (Un)Protected Sexual Assault Under Norwegian Criminal Law. Violence Against Women. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012231181048. [Online first]
Chronicles:
- Houge, Anette B, & Kruse, Anja E. (2023). En gang overgriper – alltid overgriper? Aftenposten.
- Houge, Anette B. & Laugerud, Solveig (2023). ?En tilsynelatende liten endring i straffeloven kan f? stor betydning i voldtektssaker? Aftenposten.