In Mother’s Lap: Forging Care and Kinship in Documentary Protocols of Sexual Assault Intervention

Abstract

In this article, I examine the documentary practices of forensic intervention into sexual assault as they reveal a larger set of imaginaries about kinship, gender, violence and healing. In the course of the forensic encounter, sexual assault victims frequently disclose victimization by intimates or relatives. The reading practices and audit mechanisms to which forensic documents are subjected reveal tensions between the real-life experiences of sexual assault victims and their families on the one hand, and institutional imaginaries of care and victimization on the other.