About
Dr Anna Carline joined the Law School in August 2019, having previously worked at the University of Leicester and Liverpool John Moores University. Her main areas of expertise are criminal law and criminal justice (in particular violence against women and sexual offences), family law and feminist/gender theory. Dr Carline’s research is socio-legal, comparative and interdisciplinary in nature, examining legal developments by drawing upon a range of social science and legal methodologies and different theoretical approaches. She has published extensively on the issues of rape and sexual assault, prostitution and trafficking and domestic homicide. She was PI on a Ministry of Justice funded evaluation of the impact of the new sentencing guidelines for sexual offences and robbery (with Profs Mandy Burton and Sally Kyd and Dr Emma Palmer). Other projects include two funded by British Academy which focused upon the criminal justice response to rape. The first (Co-I with Dr Clare Gunby) examined barristers’ perspectives on the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the extent to which law reform and policy positively influenced practice. Building on a previous study, this was the first project to provide an evaluation, in four cities, of the effectiveness of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The second (Co-I with Dr Heather Flowe) involved collaborating with a range of stakeholders (police, CPS, National Crime Agency) to develop guidelines to assist in both the investigation and prosecution of alcohol related rape cases. Subsequently, she has delivered training sessions for CPS lawyers and prosecuting barristers.
Dr Carline has previously worked closely with a City Council in the North West of England in the production and evaluation of two primary prevention interventions which aimed to reduce alcohol related rape and sexual assault in the night-time economy. She was also the lead on a novel ‘artful intervention’: Let’s Talk About Sexual Violence, funded by the Office for Students and hosted by the University of Leicester. This exhibition aimed to tackle myths and misconceptions, raise awareness, improve reporting rates and reduce incidents (see www.talksv.uk for further information).
Dr Carline has recently completed a co-authored monograph (with Drs Clare Gunby and Jamie Murray), entitled: Affective Justice: Rape and the Courtroom Assemblage, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book brings new materialism and affect theory into a conversation with barristers’ insights into the rape trial process and impact of reforms to argue that the courtroom needs to be reconceptualized as an ‘affective assemblage’.