Constructing Expertise. Body, Mind and Forensic Medicine in 19th century Dutch Cases of Rape and Infanticide

Whereas nowadays ‘expertise’ has become a problematic concept, especially in regard to the doubt expressed against scientists participating in the debate over climate change, the role this notion played in the past has hardly been researched. Specifically, the function of forensic medicine and psychiatry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is now starting to be explored. This paper will address the influence of medical evidence in Dutch cases of rape and infanticide (in the period 1811-1920), arguing that the expertise of physicians was strongly circumscribed by the law and the legal process. Furthermore, many physicians expressed their ignorance or disagreement. The introduction of technology, like the use of the microscope, did not influence the outcome of court cases at all. Authority, then, was not automatically conferred onto these experts. Influenced by Science and Technology Studies, the paper overall argues for more attention to the social construction of medical expertise in the court room.

Willemijn Ruberg is Assistant Professor in cultural history at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She received her PhD (2005) from Leiden University. From 2005-2008, she lectured in History and Women’s Studies at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Prof. Ruberg’s research interests include the history of gender, emotion, sexuality, the body and forensic medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Light refreshments will be served after the talk.

jwil 29.v.2012; hm 5/29/12, 6-4