Boundary-making in the medico-legal context

A key dimension of the institutional response to sexual assault is the forensic medical examination of a victim's body conducted for purpose of documenting, collecting and testifying to corroborative evidence. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with forensic examiners and forensic nurse practitioners in one region of England, this study addresses a gap in the existing research on medico-legal processes, and critically examines the nature and dynamics of the relationship between doctors and nurses involved in this intervention. Using an analytic framework based on Thomas Gieryn's notion of 'boundary-work', we explore how this historically gendered dyadic relationship is experienced and understood in a context influenced by both medicine and law. We demonstrate very clear boundaries demarcating (i) physicians as experts and nurses as non-experts in the collection and representation of medical evidence, and, (ii) physicians as equated with technical competence and nurses with 'caring' duties. We conclude by positing implications that may stem from these professional relations with respect to sexual assault evidence, professionals and victims

Competence (human resources · Context (archaeology · Criminology · Forensic nursing · Forensic science · Intervention (counseling · Medical emergency · Poison control · Psychiatry · Sexual assault · Suicide prevention · Gender, Security, and Conflict · History · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies · Social Psychology

• [De]-Centering the Victim

  Open Access•D White, Lesley Mcmillan•Feminist Criminology•2021

  Incluir item

• We Don't Want You to Diet

  Open Access•H Nehushtan•Sociology of Health & Illness•2021

  Incluir item

• The System of Professions

  Andrew Abbott•System of Professions•1988

  Incluir item

• Medicine as Culture

  D Lupton•Medicine as Culture•2012

  Incluir item

• Patriarchy and Professions

  Anne Witz•Professions and Patriarchy•2010

  Incluir item

• ‘Feminist theory is proper knowledge, but …’

  Open Access•M D M Pereira•Feminist Theory•2012

  Incluir item

• Doctors, Rape and Criminal Justice

  Open Access•Jennifer Temkin•The Howard Journal of Criminal…•1996

  Incluir item

• Constructing the Boundaries of Retirement for Baby-Boomer Women

  Open Access•Deborah K Van Den Hoonaard•Qualitative Sociology Review•2015

  Incluir item

• Nursing a Grievance? The Role of Healthcare Assistants in a Modernized National Health Service

  Open Access•Stephen Bach, Ian Kessler et al.•Gender Work and Organization•2009

  Incluir item

• Between Fact and Fiction

  Open Access•Felicity Mellor•Social Studies of Science•2003

  Incluir item

• Policing Sexual Assault

  Martin D Schwartz, Jeanne Gregory et al.•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•2000

  Incluir item

• Cultural Boundaries of Science

  Peter Whalley, Thomas F Gieryn•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•2001

  Incluir item

• Narrating Nursing Jurisdiction

  Open Access•Davina Allen•Symbolic Interaction•2001

  Incluir item

• Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science

  Thomas F Gieryn•American Sociological Review•1983

  Incluir item

• Investigating the medical forensic examination from the perspectives of sexually assaulted women

  Open Access•Janice Du Mont, D White et al.•Social Science & Medicine•2009

  Incluir item

• The New Genetics

  Open Access•Anne Kerr, Sarah Cunningham-Burley et al.•The Sociological Review•1997

  Incluir item

• The Civic Origins of Progressive Policy Change

  Open Access•M Htun, Laurel Weldon et al.•American Political Science Review•2012

  Incluir item

• Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies

  Open Access•Joan Acker•Gender & Society•1990

  Incluir item

• Doing Occupational Demarcation

  Open Access•Davina Allen•Journal of Contemporary Ethnography•2000

  Incluir item

• Patriarchy and Professions

  Open Access•Anne Witz•Sociology•1990

  Incluir item

• The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences

  M Lamont, Molnar et al.•Annual Review of Sociology•2002

  Incluir item

• Boundary at work

  Open Access•N Mizrachi, Judith T Shuval et al.•Sociology of Health & Illness•2005

  Incluir item

• A disputed occupational boundary

  Open Access•Stephen Timmon, Judith Tanner•Sociology of Health & Illness•2004

  Incluir item

• Women in a women's job

  Open Access•Sam Porter•Sociology of Health & Illness•1992

  Incluir item

• Facing Victims

  Sameena Mulla•Medical Anthropology•2011

  Incluir item

• The body and doing gender

  Open Access•Karen Davies•Sociology of Health & Illness•2003

  Incluir item