In her latest publication, Mitchell Institute Sabbatical Fellow 2024-25 Dr Eithne Dowds explores the role of good character evidence in rape trials.  The article, published in The International Journal of Evidence & Proof, explores rape reform in the context of the 2019 Gillen Review in Northern Ireland.

While the challenges presented by rape myths featured heavily in the review, the relationship between rape myths and character evidence was not considered.  In addressing this gap, this paper argues that the admission of good character evidence on behalf of the accused contributes to a hierarchy of rape, with violent rape by ‘monsters’ at the top and ‘mistakes’ by ‘good guys’ at the bottom.  In doing so, the paper furthers important conversations on character evidence in scholarship on evidence and proof, as well as the critical feminist literature on rape.  Further to this, in considering reform options the paper makes a practical contribution by arguing that, while reform to the admission of good character evidence during trial should be treated with caution, such evidence should be formally removed as a mitigating factor during sentencing.

Read more here.

 

Dr Eithne Dowds

Dr Dowds is a Senior Lecturer in the Law School at Queen’s University Belfast.  Her research focuses on the legal construction of the crime of rape, with a particular focus on formulations of sexual consent, in international and domestic criminal law.  Her monograph, Feminist Engagement with International Criminal Law (Hart 2019) explored the relationship between consent and coercion as elements of the crime of rape.  More recently, her work has focused on the trend towards the adoption of affirmative notions of consent, as well as legal framings of the accused’s mindset in respect of consent.