Sinéad’s work considers how law responds to the problem of sexual violence. She has recently published (with Kate Gleeson and Kim Stevenson Child Sexual Abuse Reported by Adult Survivors. Legal Responses in England and Wales, Ireland and Australia (Routledge, 2022).

The book traces how child sexual abuse has been understood and governed by law since the Victorian period until the present and explores how criminal law, civil law, inquiries and redress schemes have sought to do justice to adult survivors reporting childhood sexual abuse. Sinéad is currently working on a project in partnership with Rape Crisis Network Ireland examining the law on sexual experience evidence in rape and sexual assault trials in Ireland. The project is funded by the Irish Research Council under its New Foundations scheme.

Sinéad has made several interventions into law reform processes, such as the 2018 referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution, and the State’s responses to survivors of Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Industrial Schools. You can find out more about Sinéad’s work here: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/people/sin-ad-ring

Criminal Justice & Legal Reform Gender, Sexuality & Power
 Trauma, Mental Health & Recovery