Gender, Truth and State Power

Dr Anette Ballinger is a lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Science and Public Policy, Keele University. This study builds on her previous book Dead Woman Walking, winner of the Hart Socio-Legal book prize, 2001.

• 1 Introduction 2 Feminist Epistemologies and the Construction of Alternative Truths 3 Subjugated Knowledge, State Power and the Annihilation of Condemned Women: The Case of Louie Calvert 4 Infanticide and Child Murder: The ‘Leniency versus Harshness’ Debate Re-Visited 5 A Muted Voice from the Past: The Appeal of Ruth Ellis, 2003, 6 A Victory for Injustice: Truth, Lies and Expert Knowledge – the Sally Clark Case 7 Conclusion

'Anette Ballinger has a reputation for meticulously theorized, yet accessible, feminist archival research. This welcome sequel to her award-winning book, Dead Woman Walking, demonstrates the dynamic nature of knowledge production and the continuing need to challenge the established social order in the treatment of women charged with murder.'Anne Worrall, Emerita Professor of Criminology, Keele University'Combining theoretical and methodological sophistication with empirical rigour, Ballinger’s excavations into the convictions of women for murder – from the early 19th C to that of Sally Clark in 1999 - reveal much about the gender of law and the state and, in her superb transgressions of disciplinary boundaries, about the wider heteropatriarchal social order.'Steve Tombs, Professor of Criminology, The Open University'Anette Ballinger’s new book is an eloquent testimony to the power of careful historical excavation to shed light on the dynamics of the present. By airing voices suppressed in powerful practices such as law, it shows us that law’s claims to truth are constructed from particular points of view, and can be deconstructed and revised.'Nicola Lacey, School Professor of Law, Gender and Social Policy, London School of Economics