What is Due to Others: Speaking and Signifying Subject(s) of Rape Law

Griffith Law Review, Vol. 18, p. 237, 2009

Villanova Law/Public Policy Research Paper No. 2010-10

23 Pages Posted: 23 Apr 2010

See all articles by Penelope J. Pether

Penelope J. Pether

Villanova University School of Law (Deceased)

Date Written: 2009

Abstract

Australian journalist Paul Sheehan's representation of the alleged and convicted immigrant Muslim/Arab rapists he demonises in Girls Like You, like his representation of the rape survivors in that text, has much to tell us about the law's production of rape law's speaking and signifying subjects, real rape victims and survivors, false accusers and perpetrators. This article uses a variety of texts, including Girls Like You, recent Australian rape law jurisprudence and legislative reform, texts involving two controversial recent US rape cases - one from Maryland and one from Nebraska - and a recent UK study on attrition in rape prosecutions, to explore some persistent legal problems in responding to the social harm of rape. It concludes that recent work on biopolitical models of rape law, applied to the New South Wales rape reform prompted in significant part by the Skaf and K rape cases, suggests that there is little hope of this law reform initiative reducing rape attrition. More disturbingly, via a somatechnological critique of the reform's production of infralegal, it also proposes that its ends can be differently understood.

Keywords: Rape, Rape Law Reform, Governmentality, Islamophobia, Infralegal Subjects, Somatechnics

Suggested Citation

Pether, Penelope, What is Due to Others: Speaking and Signifying Subject(s) of Rape Law (2009). Griffith Law Review, Vol. 18, p. 237, 2009, Villanova Law/Public Policy Research Paper No. 2010-10, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1594946

Penelope Pether (Contact Author)

Villanova University School of Law (Deceased)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
91
Abstract Views
961
Rank
507,356
PlumX Metrics