Practising critical reflection to develop emancipatory change: Challenging the legal response to sexual assault. (original) (raw)
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Background and context: This article presents reflections on critical participatory action research into the development of critically reflective practice, conducted by the first author alongside practitioners who work preventively in the field of domestic violence and abuse. It is part of a doctorate in health science undertaken in response to the need to question assumptions, presuppositions and meaning perspectives in what is a complex and harmful area of interprofessional practice. Aims: The research aims are to develop knowledge and professional/interprofessional practice in this ill-defined area of practice in two phases – phase 1: creating opportunities for interprofessional critical reflection; and phase 2: examining the impact this has on individual and collective practice. This article offers an emerging framework for critically reflective interprofessional practice, and critical reflections on phase 1 of the study, from the perspective of insider/practitioner/researcher, ...
Co-production is gaining ground as a key dimension of public policy reform across the globe. This paper argues in favour of social welfare shaped by the principles of co-production and suggests that the promotion of democratic relationships is more likely to enable the agency and recovery of victim-survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The paper, based on an autoethnographical approach, is likely to be of relevance to social care practitioners who work with a range of marginalised people, particularly in liberal states that promote organisational cultures shaped disproportionately by risk. Cultures of risk, it is argued, promote power balances and othering—arguably an institutional perpetuation of the original abuse. Co-production, on the other hand, has the potential to legitimise expertise by experience, enabling victim-survivors to be reinstated as citizens with associated rights of participation. The paper subsequently draws out some of the benefits of co-production for practitioners whose professional engagement may be stifled. We suggest that co-production potentially points towards practice based on the valuing of expertise by experience and social solidarity.
Women's Studies International Forum, 2019
This article engages with concerns in feminist scholarship about a decline of feminist influence in contemporary efforts to prevent, challenge and mitigate the harms of sexual violence. A key focus of these concerns has centred on co-option into the conservative regulatory apparatus of the state and concomitant depoliticisation of an issue that was a key mobilising force of the second-wave women's movement. Drawing on empirical research from a study undertaken in a local Australian field of sexual assault service provision, I argue that the narrative of feminist decline in the sector is oversimplified; rather, I have found that there is an almost naturalised relationship between feminism and the field of sexual assault service provision. In this article, I explore the core feminist epistemologies that are embedded in the structure of sexual assault services and enacted through worker practices.
EFFECTIVE JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT: TAKING UP THE DEBATE ON ALTERNATIVE PATHWAYS
Over the past three decades there have been widespread reforms across the common law world to laws governing the prosecution and trial of sexual assault allegations in response to arguments of feminist and conservative commentators that the adversarial trial process was not producing convictions commensurate with the number of offences committed. The evidence, however, is that these significant social, political, and legal reforms have resulted in little practical improvement in the operation of the criminal justice system. Indeed the experience across common law countries shows that there is very little scope for further substantive reforms. In the absence of major cultural change, the fundamental structure of the criminal justice system and the gendered operation of the adversarial system make it a highly problematic forum for addressing sexual assault. The aim of this article is to take the debate forward and propose an alternative pathway for appropriate cases based on principles of restorative justice and therapeutic jurisprudence.
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The principal focus of this research is on rape and sexual assault victim-survivors’ end-to-end experiences of the criminal justice system. It comprises in-depth interviews with 17 participants, whose cases reached varying stages of the criminal justice process in Scotland, including through to trial and conviction. This work is linked to a Justice Journeys creative project, which uses collaborative, arts-based methods to support participants in writing and representing (through photos, audio and objects) a case study of their ‘journey’: https://justicejourneysonline.com/
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