Sexual History Evidence in Rape Trials: Is the Jury Out? By Charlotte Herriott (Abingdon, Routledge, 2023, 190 pp. £120.00 hbk)

In sexual violence studies, empirical research on mock jurors in the United Kingdom continues to provide us with important insights into the way jurors make decisions, how they respond to the different information they are exposed to in the trial, and what they bring in from outside (Ellison and Munro 2009a, 2009b, 2009c, 2010, 2013, 2015; Ormston et al. 2019).1 This work, along with the trial observation studies (see, recently: Durham et al. 2016; Smith 2018; Daly 2022), provide us a vital window onto the processes of the rape trial—what actually happens in the courtroom—as well as helping to pinpoint the way more problematic myths and misconceptions might infiltrate juror decision-making with a view to helping prevent it. Charlotte Herriott book joins this body of research and brings something new, with its specific focus on the impact that sexual history evidence has on the decisions and reasoning of mock jurors. Sexual history or behaviour evidence has always been controversial, and in the wake of the Ched Evans case in 2016,2 the Government asked the Law Commission in 2021 to review the law in this area, putting sexual history evidence firmly back on the policy agenda.