Together with her colleague Mrinal Satish, Professor of Criminal Law at National Law School Delhi, Fordham History department faculty member Durba Mitra recently published “Testing Chastity, Evidencing Rape: Impact of Medical Jurisprudence on Rape Adjudication in India” in Economic and Political Weekly, a key peer-reviewed publication on India that brings together academics, researchers, and policy makers. The article charts the development of forensic medicine for rape in colonial India and the role of forensic medicine in the adjudication of rape cases in postcolonial India.
Durba writes:
We undertook a comprehensive study of the role of forensic medicine in the legal adjudication of rape cases in postcolonial India. We studied all publications on medical jurisprudence for India from the late nineteenth century until today in South Asia and analyzed the use of medical jurisprudence in rape cases reported in the high courts in India from 1952 until 2011. Rape has received significant attention in the last two years in international media, leading to the substantial reform of rape laws in India. We argue that for legal reforms to be effective, changes must be made to textbooks, medical protocol, and the use of medical evidence in rape cases. Our research resulted in the publication of our article, “Testing Chastity, Evidencing Rape:” in Economic and Political Weekly, a key peer-reviewed publication on India that brings together academics, researchers, and policy makers.
Read on for the article abstract.