Podcasts

Professor Susan Leahy is a lecturer and researcher in the School of Law at the University of Limerick. Her primary research interests lie in the areas of criminal justice (with particular emphasis on sexual violence and victims of crime) and family law (specifically domestic abuse and marriage). Her publications include two co-authored books: Sexual Offending in Ireland: Laws, Procedures and Punishment (Clarus, 2018) (with Dr Margaret Fitzgerald-O’Reilly) and The Victim in the Irish Criminal Process (Manchester University Press, 2018) (with Prof Shane Kilcommins, Dr Kathleen Moore-Walsh and Dr Eimear Spain). Susan has completed a number of funded research projects on sexual offences, gender-based violence and victims of crime. Her funded research includes a 2021 report, The Realities of Irish Rape Trials: Perspectives from Practice, which was funded by the Irish Research Council and conducted in partnership with Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. This research involved interviews with Irish legal professionals and court accompaniment workers who work within Irish rape trials. In 2024, she completed an Irish Research Council funded project with Sexual Violence Centre Cork which focused on media reporting on sexual offences, seeking to draft guidelines for reporting on these cases in Ireland.

In this podcast, Professor Leahy discusses the output of that project: ‘Words Matter: Guidance for Reporting on Sexual Violence in Ireland’, which she has drafted for use by journalists and editors based on discussions with relevant stakeholders and guidance documents from other jurisdictions. She also relates her findings to considerations for creating fictional representations of sexual violence. She describes the similar challenges media journalists and fiction creators face in creating balanced representations of sexual violence (particularly that which occurs in childhood) as well as in representing the systems surrounding it. She argues for representations which are balanced between accurately representing the gravity of the crime and avoiding gratuitous details.

Professor Leahy ultimately highlights that the primary concern for both groups is to remember that their work will be read or viewed by victims-survivors of sexual violence and advises that they should consider its role in encouraging victim-survivors to come forward and to share or report their experiences. She also describes the differences and relationship between media reporting and fiction, noting that they can influence each other and that fiction can offer a safe distance and more exploratory space for readers and viewers to explore their attitudes and opinions, especially with respect to biases and myths. She contextualizes the discussion with her research on the criminal justice system, and observes how all of these cultural attitudes permeate the legal process and affect attitudes towards and outcomes for victim-survivors.