1. Being ‘a Racist’ or Being a Rapist: Race and Gender in the Trial of an Elite Australian Footballer, Deb Watson.- 2. Stereotypes, credibility and adversarial justice in English rape trials, Olivia Smith.- 3. Evoking culture and place in news narratives about the gang rapes in Rissne and Stureplan, Gabriella Nilsson.- 4. Story Worlds in the Making: Intersectional Narratives of Rape in the Case of Hagaman in the Swedish Press, Mona Livholts.- 5. Platform Vernaculars and Narratives of Rape: Intersectional Analysis of Sexual Assault on Twitter and Tumblr, Kaitlynn Mendes.- 6. Blurred situations – young people’s reasoning on sexual consent and boundaries in sexual situations, Charlotta Holmström and Lars Plantin.- 7. Revisiting Feminist Debates on Discourse and Experience: The case of men’s unwanted sexual encounters, Lena Gunnarsson.- 8. Sex and power: How power relations are hidden in the Finnish law on rape and sexual harassment, Johanna Niemi.- 9. Intersectionality and agency in Swedish court narratives of rape: a historical perspective 1990-2013, Monika Edgren.- 10. Consent, Agency, and the Victim-Perpetrator Dyad in Vulnerability Theory, Stu Marvel.- 11. Rape that is rampant but not recognized in Law: Women's Narratives on Marital Rape in India, Nishi Mitra vom Berg.- 12. The legal and the sexual – Framing sexuality in a setting of rape law and practice. Ulrika Andersson.- 13. Rape Narratives and ‘Trial By Social Media’: The Intersectional Politics of Online Witnessing, Tanya Serisier.- 14. ‘I just wanted to tell my story…’: Survivor narratives of sexual violence in digital society, Tully O’Neill and Anastasia Powell.- 15. Testimony received? Hearing/refuting/supporting narratives of sexual violence  online, Lena Karlsson.

This book critically examines the last few decades of discussion around sex and violence in the media, on social media, in the courtroom and through legislation. The discursive struggles over what constitutes sexual violence, victims and offenders is normally determined through narratives: a selective ordering of events and participants. Centrally, the book investigates the social processes involved in the telling of stories of rape and its political implications. From a multidisciplinary feminist perspective, this volume explores what narratives about sexual violence are deemed legitimate at this historical juncture. This volume brings together feminist scholars working in a wide variety of disciplines including law, legal studies, history, gender studies, ethnology, media, criminology and social work from across the globe. Through situated empirical work, these scholars seek to understand currents movements between the criminal justice system and the cultural imagination. 

“This is a great book – truly international and interdisciplinary. It reveals the power of narratives to shape our understanding of rape and, hopefully, this knowledge can help us to develop better, more transformative, responses to sexual violence. The book draws on feminist conceptual thinking around the power of narratives, while also providing insightful legal analyses and reform recommendations.” (Professor Clare McGlynn, Durham Law School, Durham University , Law School, Durham University, Palatine Building, Durham, UK)

Explores how the notions of rape, sex and violence are negotiated through narratives across a variety of settings Draws on empirical data and theory from the fields of sexual violence, narrative studies and feminist theory Speaks to academics, legal practitioners and rape counselling professionals