Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters (SHaME) was a Wellcome Trust-funded research project running from 2018-2024 that explored the role of medicine and psychiatry in sexual violence. We aimed to move beyond shame to address this global health crisis.
About
Recovery Histories is a Wellcome-funded research project which explores the histories of ideas of trauma and psychological wounds and why over the last 75 years these have come to dominate conversations about recovery, or living with, the impact of child sexual abuse (CSA). Why are other forms of social support that individuals need to achieve emotional and physical equilibrium ignored?
Our research is co-produced with survivor and practitioner partners including Survivors’ Voices, Survivors’ in Transition, The Flying Child CIC and the Association of Child Protection Professionals.
Research
Our research began with the experiences of victims/survivors of sexual harms both in terms of the medical examination and emotional aftermaths of harm, followed by the role of medical experts in legal settings and in developing knowledge about the perpetrators of sexual harms.
GPs, Police Surgeons, Forensic Medical Examiners
How do medical professionals respond when a person reports being a victim of sexual violence? The medical examination is crucial for future outcomes, including the healing of physical and psychological injuries and the outcome in any subsequent court case.
Medicine and Law
What role does the law play in the way medical and psychiatric aspects of sexual violence are defined, assessed, and judged? Legal texts instruct medical students and practitioners how to present evidence in formal legal settings, as well as how to examine victims.
A Recent History of Children, Medics and Sexual Abuse in the Family
Through archival research and oral histories, Dr Ruth Beecher seeks to gain insight into the ways community-based nurses, doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists in Britain have responded to the possibility that a child has been sexually abused by a family member. 1970s-2000s
Archived: Sexual Violence on the California Frontier, 1848-1900
In late nineteenth-century California sexual violence revealed dynamics of American expansion on the western frontier. Caitlin Cunningham’s PhD explores how it was understood and responded to at various social and institutional levels.
Events
Our research team organised regular seminars, conferences, film-evenings, and other public events.
Collaborating with care: Creating inclusive public engagement programmes with survivors of sexual violence
On Wednesday 06 March 2024, The SHaME Project and Birkbeck’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Mental Health are hosting an online seminar on public engagement with lived experience research with Zara Asif and Dr Rhea Sookdeosingh, chaired by Dr Sarah Marks.
Book Launch: Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation
On 05 March 2024 SHaME is holding its final online event, a book launch for Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation in collaboration with Tufts University.
Resources
We were committed to making our research open and accessible, including sharing resources that helped inform our project.
Blog
Members of SHaME and invited guests reflected on current events, their research, recent conferences, ethical dilemmas, and other items of interest.
Sexual Harms + Medical Encounters
Professor Joanna Bourke is the Principal Investigator for Sexual Harms + Medical Encounters, a five-year Wellcome Trust-funded interdisciplinary research group based at Birkbeck, University of London. In this inaugural post, Joanna discusses what motivated her return to studying sexual violence.
Affected by sexual violence or sexual abuse?
If you have been affected by issues relating to sexual violence, we can recommend some support services.
