- Room 14, 20 Portland Villas, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
- +44 1752 585834
- kim.stevenson@plymouth.ac.uk
Profiles
Professor Kim Stevenson
Emeritus Professor
School of Law, Criminology and Government (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)
Kim can be contacted through arrangement with our Press Office, to speak to the media on these areas of expertise.
- Law
- Employment law
Email publicrelations@plymouth.ac.uk to enquire.
Professor of SocioLegal History and Deputy Director Research Centre for Law and Criminal Justice.
Co-director SOLON: Promoting Interdisciplinary Studies in Law Crime and History Joint editor Law Crime and History and General Editor for a new book series Routledge SOLON Explorations in Crime and Criminal Justice Histories.
Qualifications
PhD (Nottingham Trent); LLB(Hons)
Kim joined the University of Plymouth in 2004 and formerly taught at Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University, for 15 years where she lectured Constitutional and Administrative Law and Sexuality and the Law; she has also taught courses as part of business studies, surveying, social sciences and criminology degrees. She was also a visiting professor at the William Mitchell College of Law, St Paul, Minnesota, USA and the Open University Hong Kong.
Roles on external bodies
Member ESRC Peer Review College July 2010 to present (ESRC reviewer since 2008)
Peer reviewer Australian Research Council
Teaching interests
English Legal System
Legal Skills
Criminal Law
Sex Power and Legal Control
Law in Context
Research interests
Research interests and expertise
include historical and contemporary aspects of the criminal law with particular emphasis on sexual offences, sexuality, morality and violence. She has currently published a monograph with Judith Rowbotham and Samantha Pegg (Nottingham Trent) Crime News in Modern Britain: Press Reporting and Responsibility 1850-2010 (Palgrave Macmillan 2013). She jointly edited with Jones, Grear, Fenton, Gender, Sexualities and the Law (Routledge 2011); and with Rowbotham, Criminal Conversations: Victorian Crimes, Social Panic and Moral Outrage (Ohio State University Press 2005) follow-up to Behaving Badly: Visible Crime, Social Panics and Legal Responses - Victorian and Modern Parallels (Ashgate, 2002).
Joint Director SOLON: Promoting Interdisciplinary Studies in Law, Crime and History and Co-Editor of international refereed e-journal Law, Crime and History This is an inter-institutional and collaborative research project drawing primarily on legal and historical perspectives. Universities leading the project are Nottingham Trent, Oxford Brookes, Plymouth, Liverpool John Moores and West of England.
Lead General Editor Routledge SOLON Explorations in the Histories of Crime and Criminal Justice Book Series launched 2012.
Research degrees awarded to supervised students
Director of Studies: Iain Channing ‘Blackshirts and White Wigs: Reflections on Public Order Law and the legacy of the British Union of Fascists in Modern Extremism University bursary awarded March 2014
Director of Studies: Henry Yeomans (Plymouth) Spirited Measures and Victorian Hangovers: Public Attitudes to Alcohol, the Law and Moral Regulation ESRC 3+ 1 funded bursary awarded May 2012
Director of Studies: Jane Abbott, (Nottingham Trent University) Contemporary Analogies, Victorian Parallels; Juvenile Delinquency - Causation, Continuity and Change in the periods 1840-1880 and 1980-2000, awarded November 2004
Key publications
Key publications are highlighted
Journals
Articles
2017 '‘CHILDREN OF A VERY TENDER AGE HAVE VICIOUS PROPENSITIES’: CHILD WITNESS TESTIMONIES IN CASES OF SEXUAL ABUSE' Law, Crime and History Open access
2017 'Writing the History of Crime. By Paul Knepper. Bloomsbury. 2016. 241pp. £19.99' History 102, (349) 114-116 , DOI
2016 '“Not just the ideas of a few enthusiasts”: Early Twentieth Century Legal Activism and Reformation of the Age of Sexual Consent' Cultural and Social History 14, (2) 219-236 , DOI Open access
2016 '“These are cases which it is inadvisable to drag into the light of day” : Disinterring the Crime of Incest in Early Twentieth-Century England' Crime, History and Societies 20, (2) , DOI Open access
2016 'The Sexual Constitution of Political Authority: The 'Trials' of Same Sex Desire' , DOI Open access
2015 'Reparation for Betrayal of Trust in Child Sexual Abuse Cases: The Christian Duty of Care, Vicarious Liability and the Church of England' Australian Feminist Law Journal , DOI Open access
2014 'OUTRAGEOUS VIOLATIONS: ENABLING STUDENTS TO INTERPRET
NINETEENTH CENTURY NEWSPAPER REPORTS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND RAPE' Law, Crime and History 1, (4) 36-61 Publisher Site Open access
2012 ''It is What "Girls of Indifferent Character" Do ...' Complications concerning the Legal Age of Sexual Consent in the Light of R v C (2011)' American Journal of Criminal Law (76) 130-139
2010 ''Breaking the Thrall of Ambiguity: Simplification (of the Criminal Law) as an Emerging Human Rights Imperative'' Journal of Criminal Law 74, (6) 516-532
2009 '“She got past knowing herself and didn’t know how many there were”: Uncovering the Gendered Brutality of Gang Rapes in Victorian England,' Nottingham Law Journal 1, (18) 1-17
2009 'Truth, law and hate in the virtual marketplace of ideas: perspectives on the regulation of Internet content’' Information & Communications Technology Law 2, (18) 155-184 Publisher Site
2008 'Inaccessible and Unknowable: Accretion and Uncertainty in Modern Criminal Law' Liverpool Law Review 247-267
2007 ''For today in this arena...' Legal performativity and dramatic convention in the Victorian criminal justice system' Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture 14, (2) 113-141
2007 'Unearthing the realities of rape: Utilising Victorian newspaper reportage to fill in the contextual gaps' Liverpool Law Review 28, (3) 405-423 , DOI
2007 'Editorial: Answering Baker: Utilising ‘Best’ Evidence. The Challenge for Socio-legal Studies' Liverpool Law Review 28, (3) 319-326 , DOI
2006 'A Question of (dis)engagement? Historical Lessons in Promoting an Effective Public Interface to Address Current Crime Concerns' Crime Prevention and Community Safety 8, (2) 69-89 , DOI
2005 'Review: Sex Crime: Sex Offending and Society, Stone's Justices' Manual, Blackstone's Police Q&A and Blackstone's Police Sergeant's Mock Examination Paper 2005, the Criminal Jury Old & New: Jury Power from Early Times to the Present Day' The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles 78, (2) 175-185 , DOI
2004 'Fulfilling Their Mission: The Intervention of Voluntary Societies in Cases of Sexual Assault in the Victorian Criminal Process' Crime, Histoire & Sociétés 1, (8) 93-110
2003 'Children of Misfortune: The Parallel Cases of Child Murderers Thompson and Venables, Barratt and Bradley' Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 2, (42) 107-122
2000 'Dystopias and Legal Utopias?: Reflections on Visions Past and the Enduring Ideal of Criminal Codification,' Nottingham Law Journal 1, (9) 25-38
2000 'Unequivocal Victims: The Historical Mystification of the Female Complainant in Rape Cases,’' Feminist Legal Studies (8) 346-366
1999 '‘Observations on the Law Relating to Sexual Offences: the 'Historic Scandal of Women's Silence,’' Web Journal of Current Legal Issues http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/1999/issue4/stevenson4.html (4)
Reviews
2012 'The Beauty Bias The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law by Deborah L. Rhode (Book Review)' European Journal of Women’s Studies 4, (19) 4-7
Editorial comments
Stevenson K & Rowbotham J 2007 'Editorial: ‘Answering Baker – Utilising ‘Best’ Evidence. The Challenge For Socio-Legal Studies’' Liverpool Law Review 3, (28) 319-326
Books
stevenson K 2017 Leading the Police A History of Chief Constables 1835-2017. Routledge Routledge SOLON Open access
2015 Public Indecency in England 1857-1960 'A Serious and Growing Evil’. Routledge
2013 Crime News in Modern Britain: Press Reporting and Responsibility 1820-2010. PalgraveMacmillan Publisher Site
Jones J; Greer A; Fenton R 2010 Gender, Sexualities and Law. Taylor & Francis
Rowbotham J; Stevenson K 2005 Criminal conversations. Ohio State Univ Press
2005 Criminal conversations: Victorian crimes, social panic, and moral outrage.
2004 Blackstone's guide to the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Blackstone Press
Rowbotham J; Stevenson K 2003 Behaving badly. Ashgate Pub Ltd
Chapters
2018 'Authoritative Judgments in a Provincial Town: Responses to Everyday Offending in Plymouth 1860 – 1900' in Gregory J; Grey D A Time of Judgement Routledge
2017 'Chief Constables and public order: tensions between discretion and consistency' in Stevenson K; Cox D; Channing I Leading The Police: A History of Chief Constables 1835–2017 Routledge 174-190 , DOI
2017 'Chief Constables as ‘moral heroes’ and guardians of public morality' in Stevenson KA; Cox DJ; Channing I Leading The Police: A History of Chief Constables 1835–2017 Routledge 91-108 Publisher Site , DOI Open access
2017 'Sexual assault' A Companion to The History of Crime and Criminal Justice 232-237
2017 'Sexual assault' A Companion to The History of Crime and Criminal Justice
2017 'Introduction: Behaving badly' Behaving Badly Social Panic and Moral Outrage - Victorian and Modem Parallels 1-13 , DOI
2013 'Challenging the ‘Golden Goose’? 1885–1900' Crime News in Modern Britain Palgrave Macmillan UK 60-83 , DOI
2013 'Enhancing Sensationalism: 1939–1960' Crime News in Modern Britain Palgrave Macmillan UK 143-170 , DOI
2013 'New Journalism Triumphant: 1900–1914' Crime News in Modern Britain Palgrave Macmillan UK 84-113 , DOI
2013 'New Perspectives and New Informants: 1914–1939' Crime News in Modern Britain Palgrave Macmillan UK 114-142 , DOI
2013 'Online and Offline: Postscript 2011–2012' Crime News in Modern Britain Palgrave Macmillan UK 202-223 , DOI
2013 'Positively Criminal? Press, Police and Politicians: 1960–2010' Crime News in Modern Britain Palgrave Macmillan UK 171-201 , DOI
2013 'The Beginnings of Crime Intelligence: 1800–1860' Crime News in Modern Britain Palgrave Macmillan UK 14-38 , DOI
2012 '‘Women and young girls dare not travel alone’: The dangers of sexual encounters on victorian railways' Gendered Journeys, Mobile Emotions 189-200
2010 '‘‘Most Intimate Violations’: Contextualising the Crime of Rape,' in Kilday A-M; Nash D Histories of Crime Britain 1600-2000 Palgrave MacMillan 80-99
2010 '‘She Never Screamed Out and Complained’: Recognising Gender in Legal and Media Representations of Rape,’' in Jones J Gender, Sexualities and Law Taylor & Francis 121-134
2005 '‘Crimes of Moral Outrage: Victorian Encryptions of Sexual Violence’' in Rowbotham J; Stevenson K Criminal conversations Victorian Crimes, Social Panics and Moral Outrage Ohio State Univ Pr 232-246
2003 '‘Causing a Sensation: Media and Legal Representations of Bad Behaviour’' in Rowbotham J; Stevenson K Behaving badly: Visible Crime, Social Panics and Legal Responses - Victorian and Modern Parallels Ashgate Pub Ltd 31-46
2000 '‘Ingenuities of the Female Mind: Legal and Public Perceptions of Sexual Violence in Victorian England 1850-1890’' in D'Cruze S Everyday violence in Britain, 1850-1950 Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd 89-103
2000 '‘The Respectability Imperative: A Golden Rule in Cases of Sexual Assault?' in Inkster I; Workshop NTH; University NT The Golden Age: Essays in British Social and Economic History, 1850-1870 Ashgate Pub Ltd 237-248
Conference Papers
2018 'The Credibility Gap: The Objectification of Child Victims of Sexual Abuse 1880-1980' ‘From Trauma to Protection: the twentieth century as the children’s century’ University of Warwick 4-/-0/20184-/-0/2018Open access
2017 'Creating the Virtuous Panopticon: Moral dimensions of Everyday Offending in Plymouth 1880-1910' Digital Panopticon Liverpool University St Georges hall 9-/-0/20171-/-1/2017Open access
2017 'The Significance of Union Street in the Unification of Plymouth’s Three Towns' PUNCS Union and Disunion Plymouth University 6-/-0/20171-/-1/2017Open access
2017 'The Legal Vilification of the Vulnerable Child Witness: Some Historical Perspectives' Responding to Historical Child Sexual Abuse. Kent University 3-/-0/20171-/-1/2017Open access
2015 '‘My experience has shown me that children of a very tender age have vicious propensities’: Child testimony in Nineteenth Century cases of sexual abuse' Historicizing Rape Cardiff University 7-/-0/20157-/-0/2015
2015 '‘The Youngest Chief Constable ever’' British Criminology Society Plymouth University 7-/-0/20157-/-0/2015
2014 '‘…these are cases which it is inadvisable to drag into the light of day:’ Revisiting the Historiography of Incest 1885 to 1977' TRANSNATIONAL RESPONSES TO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE Cardiff University 4-/-0/2014
2013 'Plymouth Student e-journals: comparing different approaches to publishing undergraduate research and scholarly work' British Undergraduate Research Conference 2013 Plymouth University 4-/-0/20134-/-0/2013
2012 'Open Journal Publishing: Letting Elpis out of Pandora's Box' North American Conference on British Studies Montreal 1-/-1/20121-/-1/2012History Working Papers Publisher Site
2012 '‘There is a strong consensus of public opinion …’:
Edwardian Activism and the utilization of Criminal Law to prohibit Immorality and
Indecency' SOLON Modern Activism Conference Liverpool John Moores 6-/-0/20126-/-0/2012
2011 ''"I Beg to Apologise for Troubling You on This Disagreeable Subject": the Criminal Law Amendment Acts and the Elusivity of Establishing the Age of Consent'' British Legal History Conference Clare College Cambridge Uhiversity 7-/-0/20117-/-0/2011
2010 '‘Real' Rape, ‘Real’ Consent' National Conference Sex and the Law, Criminalisation? Protection? Rights Centre for HIV and sexual health Sheffield 9-/-0/2010
2010 '‘Should there be a Human Right to know the criminal Law?’' Society of Legal Scholars Southampton University 9-/-0/20109-/-0/2010
2008 '“She got past knowing herself and didn’t know how many there were”: Uncovering the Gendered Brutality of Gang Rapes in Victorian England' European Social Science History Conference Lisbon Lisbon 2-/-0/20083-/-0/2008
2008 '‘The Legal Cassandra: Rethinking Fitzjames Stephen’s Influence on the Criminal Law’' Society Legal Scholars Annual Conference LSE London 9-/-0/20089-/-0/2008
2007 '‘Inaccessible and Unknowable: The problem of legislative hyperactivity and frenzied law making in the Criminal Law’' SOLON Experiencing the Law Conference Institute of Advanced Legal Studies 2-/-1/2007
2007 '‘“A Waste of Time?” Overcoming Student and Staff Resistance to Academic Development Planning in Curriculum Design and Delivery’' Association of Law Teachers Annual conference University of Plymouth 4-/-0/20074-/-0/2007
2005 'Female Monsters or Damsels in Distress?’' Behaving Badly Again SOLON 4th Annual Conference Galleries of justice Nottingham 9-/-0/20059-/-0/2005
2005 '‘Reporting Legal Ingenuities: Representations of Sexual Offences in the Press’' Hart Workshop Empirical Research in Law and Legal Process Institute of Advanced Legal Studies London 6-/-0/20056-/-0/2005
2004 '“The Sexual Offences Act 2003”' Sexual Offences Act Conference Manchester Metropolitan University 0-/-1/2004
2004 '‘Evil Counsels; Perspectives on recent legislative initiatives’,' Evil State and the law International Conference Oxford University 7-/-0/20047-/-0/2004
2003 '‘“She got past knowing herself and didn’t know how many there were”: Uncovering the Gendered Brutality of Gang Rapes in Victorian England.’' IAHCCJ International Colloquium ‘Gender and Crime in Historical Perspective Paris 6-/-0/20036-/-0/2003
2003 'Victorian Gang Rapes' Sociolegal Studies Association Annual Conference Nottingham Trent University 4-/-0/20034-/-0/2003
2003 '‘Ganging Up, Should Stranger Rape be Constituted as a Hate Crime?’' SOLON/NCSRHC Hate Crimes Conference Galleries of Justice Nottingham 2-/-0/20032-/-0/2003
2002 '‘Revealing the Sexual Truth, Sourcing records of sex crimes’' Crime Research Network One Day Seminar Series Nottingham Trent University 1-/-1/2002
2002 '‘Indecent Propositions - The Mystification of the Female Complainant in Rape Cases’' Gender Sexuality and the Law International Second Conference Keele University 6-/-0/20026-/-0/2002
2002 '‘Damsels in Distress or Female Monsters - Sexual Violence and Seduction in Railway Carriages’' SOLON Off the Rails One Day conference York Railway Museum 5-/-0/2002
2001 '‘Courting Connexions: Legal Protagonists and the Press in the Victorian Period’' Law, Cultures and the Humanities, International Conference, Fourth Meeting University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA 1-/-1/20011-/-1/2001
2001 '‘Helping the Vulnerable or Helping Themselves? The role of Voluntary Societies in Nineteenth Century Prosecutions of Sex Crimes’' Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association Palmer House, Chicago, USA 1-/-1/20011-/-1/2001
2001 '’Media Manipulations: Lawyers Reporting and Bad Behaviour?’’' Behaving Badly First SOLON International Conference Galleries of Justice Nottingham 9-/-0/20019-/-0/2001
2001 '‘“Taking Indecent Liberties;” The Victorian Encryption of Sexual Violence’' International Conference on the History of Violence University of Liverpool 7-/-0/20017-/-0/2001
2001 '“Taking Indecent Liberties?” Victorian Representations of Sexual Violence’' Women and Gender Keele University 6-/-0/2001
2001 '‘Media Manipulations? Images of Crime, Lawyers, Judges and Police - Past and Present’' SOLON Open Public Lecture Galleries of Justice Galleries of Justice, Nottingham 3-/-0/2001
2000 'The Mystification of Rape: An exercise in Cultural Contextualisation’' Law, Cultures and the Humanities - International Conference, Third Meeting Georgetown University, Washington DC 3-/-0/20003-/-0/2000
2000 '‘Societal Distopias and Legal Utopias: In Pursuit of a Code Victoria’' Social History Society Millennium Conference Gonville and Caius Cambridge University 1-/-0/20001-/-0/2000
1999 '’The Respectability Imperative: A Golden Rule in Cases of Sexual Assault?’' One Day History Conference, The Golden Age, Nottingham Trent University 6-/-0/1999
1999 '‘Ingenuities of the Female Mind: Legal and Public Perceptions of Sexual Violence in Victorian England 1850-90’' Women Gender and Interpersonal Violence: Historical Perspectives Leeds Metropolitan University 2-/-0/1999
1998 '‘Loose Ends and Legal Disjunctions: Offences Against the Person? Socio-Legal Dynamics and Sexual violence in the mid nineteenth century’' Critical Legal Studies Conference Lancaster University 9-/-0/19989-/-0/1998
Exhibitions
(Re)Purposed Communities: Law, History and Heritage in Devonport Exploring historical and contemporary Crime and Everyday Offending in Devonport. Devonport Guildhall 06/11/201727 Open access
ESRC Festival of Social Science 2016 Piracy and Plymouth: privateering, profiting and policing. Sherwell United Reform Church 12/11/201620 Open access
Posters
'‘Conscientous Objectors: A Matter of Conscience or Freedom Expression?' Open access
'A Plymouth Contribution: The development of the Cowpox Vaccine' Open access
'Criminalists or Rationalists?'
'Decrying Drunkenness in Devonport' Open access
'Devonport – Building a Purposed Community: Who lived in Plymouth Dock?' Open access
'FIT FOR PURPOSE: INSTITUTIONS FOR DISPENSING LAW AND JUSTICE: Devonport Police' Open access
'FIT FOR PURPOSE? INSTITUTIONS FOR DISPENSING LAW AND JUSTICE Devonport Prison: The most efficient establishment of its kind' Open access
'Pirates, Visionaries or Entrepreneurs' Open access
'Purposeful Collaborations in Devonport – Police and Services in the Community' Open access
'PURPOSEFUL INSTITUTIONS FOR DISPENSING LAW AND JUSTICE: Devonport Magistrates' Open access
Other Publications
2014 ‘Oh Man of Learning! Victorian Public Education in Matters Legal. PUNCS Publisher Site Open access
2013 An Inadvertent Revolutionary? Developing Law Crime and History as an Open Access Journal. History Workshop Online