Professional authority and sexual coercion: A paradigmatic case study of doctor abuse

Natasha Mulvihill*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)
290 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Professionals occupy a position of esteem in society. Doctors and health professionals tend to score especially highly on public opinion surveys of trust. Sexual violence and abuse (SVA) by medical professionals towards their patients is a grave breach of that confidence. This paper uses thematic analysis of a paradigmatic case study of doctor abuse, drawn from a larger sample of semi-structured interviews conducted for an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded United Kingdom (UK) study 2015–2018 into justice and gender based violence. It explores how professional authority can both facilitate and conceal sexual coercion through building dependency; use of language and authorship of the official record; and by functional complicity and ‘data doubling’ within intra and inter-professional cultures. While there is an established literature on child sexual abuse, including in institutional contexts, this paper focuses on the lived experience of grooming and sexual violence of an adult survivor of doctor abuse.
Original languageEnglish
Article number115093
Number of pages8
JournalSocial Science and Medicine
Volume305
Early online date30 May 2022
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 30 May 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 5 - Gender Equality
    SDG 5 Gender Equality
  2. SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
    SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Research Groups and Themes

  • SPS Centre for Gender and Violence Research
  • Perpetrator
  • Sexual violence
  • Justice
  • Professionals
  • Coercion
  • Authority
  • Doctors
  • Administrative justice
  • Criminal justice
  • Gender
  • gender based violence

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  • Full-text PDF (final published version)

    This is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via Elsevier at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115093. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher.

    Final published version, 502 KBLicence: CC BY

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  • Full-text PDF (author accepted manuscript)

    Accepted author manuscript, 275 KB

    Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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  • Justice, Inequality and Gender Based Violence

    Hester, M. (Principal Investigator), Abrahams, H. A. (Co-Investigator), Aghtaie, N. (Co-Investigator), Bates, L. (Co-Investigator), Eisenstadt, N. (Co-Investigator), Gangoli, G. (Co-Investigator), Matolcsi, A. (Co-Investigator), Mulvihill, N. (Co-Investigator), Patsios, D. (Co-Investigator), Turner, W. (Co-Investigator), Walker, S.-J. (Co-Investigator), Williamson, E. (Co-Investigator), Robinson, A. (Co-Investigator), McPhee, D. (Co-Investigator), Rumney, P. (Co-Investigator), Williams, A. (Co-Investigator), Sterk, G. (Collaborator) & Magnusson, L. (Principal Investigator)

    1/10/15 → 18/05/18

    Project: Research

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