Making Monsters: The Polygraph, The Plethysmograph and Other Practices for the Performance of Abnormal Sexuality

This chapter in 'Crimes of Passion' considers the late arrival of sexology to British medicine, the role of criminology and forensic psychiatry in its development, and some of the diagnositc criteria which doctors in Britain used to determine which sexual offenders could be 'cured'. It also touches upon some of the reactions to medical interpretation and treatment from sexual offenders themselves.

American Psychologist, 2019

This article charts the historical period from the 1950s to the 1990s, focusing on the role of Psychology in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) people in Britain. Psychology has been, and is, central to the social, legal, and medical understandings of biological sex and how best to understand diversity in gender and sexuality. Likewise, gay liberation and liberationist politics also had an effect on Psychology. For the 1950s to 1960s, we outline how psychologists influenced the law in relation to the Wolfenden Report (1957) and how expertise was centrally located within the 'psy' disciplines. Following this, in the 1960s to 1970s, activists began to challenge this expertise and became increasingly critical of pathologization and of 'treatments' for homosexuality. They did not reject Psychology wholesale, however, and some groups engaged with queer affirmative psychologists who had similar liberatory aims. Finally, for the 1980s to 1998, we highlight the establishment of the Lesbian and Gay Section of the British Psychological Society, which signaled institutional recognition of lesbian and gay psychologists. This is explored against a backdrop of a specific British history of HIV/AIDS and Section 28. The past 50 years have been a battleground of categories in which LGBTIQ people were conflated, compared, and confused. We demonstrate that psychologists (not all of whom adopted a pathologizing perspective), alongside politicians, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and activists, all played a role in the boundary-making practices of this period. Across this entangled history, we demonstrate varied and significant shifts in the legitimacy of professional and personal expertise.

2015

This document is the author deposited version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. Published version COWBURN, M. and DOMINELLI, L. (2001). Masking hegemonic masculinity: reconstructing the paedophile as the dangerous stranger. British journal of social work, 31 (3), 399-414. Repository use policy Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in SHURA to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain.

British Journal of Social Work, 2001

Social Science & Medicine (Mental Health), 2022

Medium secure forensic psychiatric units are unique environments within the broader “post asylum” landscape of mental health services. Length of stay is much greater and restrictions on behavior, including sexual behavior, are legally and institutionally legitimated, due to concerns regarding risk. As a result, sexuality is rarely explored with service users and no official policies on sexual conduct and sexual safety have yet been developed, despite sexuality being linked to positive recovery outcomes. The aim of this study was to explore with service users how they experience and more specifically “feel” their sexuality during their time in secure care and in the community. A further aim was to understand how sexuality connected with their thoughts and feelings on recovery and relationships, and their perceived impact on mental health. We report on the findings from 29 service users participating in a qualitative-visual study, using drawing as a visual technique to provide an opportunity for expression of feeling. In this paper, the analytical focus is on how institutional practices can induce a “liminal hot-spot”, wherein an impasse between past crisis and future recovery is reached, taking theoretical direction from Stenner’s work on liminality and Fuch’s work on vitality. Specifically, we examine how service users experience liminality and the practices that emerge from such a state of living that can serve to objectify and suspend feelings of vitality. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for a recovery model and the development of policies on sexuality, sexual safety and relationality, within secure forensic settings.

Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2010