The project Forensic Culture. A Comparative Analysis of Forensic Practices in Europe, 1930-2000 (FORCe), funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant, starts from the idea that cultural ideas and practices have been major determinants in the position of science in the courtroom. To expose the power of culture, the research project will compare forensic practices in four European countries (the Netherlands, England, Spain and Russia) with differing legal systems and ideologies. It will focus on criminal cases in which gender plays an important role, such as rape, murder and infanticide. These cases often play out in the media as well as the courtroom and can demonstrate the influence of cultural images of gender on the role of European forensic science.

• dr. Willemijn Ruberg