It is a text that is useful for academics (and students) researching rape, but also practitioners working in the field (and some of the contributions are from practitioners themselves).
The book pulls together some of the key academic names thinking about/writing on rape, giving it real clout and credibility.
By dividing the book into three key areas; process and representation, victim vulnerabilities and the criminal justice system, it is wide reaching, comprehensive and evidence-based in its execution (more so than some of its competitors).
It leaves the reader with a detailed appreciation of what the challenges facing rape victims, the CJS and wider society are, and offers some sensible ways of tackling these issues/the justice gap at large.
Its focus on rape (as opposed to other/all forms of sexual violence) allows the book to drill down into the detail and build a comprehensive picture.
It has been brought fully up to date, in light of the vast amount of research that has been published in the last ten years around rape myths, the CJS, law, juries, legal practitioner responses and victim experiences.
It has been brought fully up to date, in light of the range of legal and policy changes/reforms over the last decade, and also now includes a focus on the digital.
It has been brought fully up to date, in light of national inquiries into sexual offences, exposure of institutional forms of abuse, global movements in response to sex crime (#MeToo), the re-emergence of activism (Black Lives Matter) and the speaking back to gendered power.
The new book reflects the global reach of research and thinking about rape, including more international coverage, with material for the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as the UK.
