This is a version of my Jonathan Cooper Memorial Lecture at the Mansfield College, Oxford, May 2026. The lecture was supported by the Sigrid Rausing Trust and organized by Helen Mountfield (Principal of the Mansfield College), Matt Cook (the Jonathan Cooper Chair of the History of Sexuality), and Asima Qayyum (Executive Assistant to the Principal). I never met Jonathan Cooper, but it turns out that we shared some good friends, who praise his enthusiasm, kindness, sense of

On Wednesday, 25 th March 2026, Elizabeth (‘Betsy’) Ettore and I sat down on Teams to discuss her research. JB: Lovely seeing you, Betsy. Let’s start. You were born in Connecticut and educated at Fordham University in New York and then at the LSE in London, where you did your PhD. After posts in London (including the Institute of Psychiatry and my college Birkbeck, University of London in the 1980s), Finland, and Plymouth, you settled at the University of Liverpool wher

A very enjoyable interview about 'Five Evil Women' with the wonderful Miranda Melcher on New Books Network. You can listen to it here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/five-evil-women . Why do certain women become icons of evil? My new book, Five Evil Women: Hindley, West, Wuornos, Homolka, Tucker (Reaktion, 2026) is the first comparative, non-sensationalist account of five of the most reviled women in the modern Anglophone world: Myra Hindley, Rosemary West, Aileen Wuornos, Karl

My new book will be published on 1 March 2026, with the amazing publisher, Reaktion Books. Five 'evil' women.... Myra Hindley, Aileen Wuornos, Rosemary West, Karla Homolka, and Karla Faye Tucker. The book is a non-sensationalist history of five women who have been called 'icons of evil'. What do we mean when we label a person 'evil'? How else might we understand their acts of extreme cruelty? Why should we bother thinking about them at all? The central question I have struggl

‘A new motto: What have they done to you, poor child? But now enough of my filthy stories.’ (Sigmund Freud writing to Wilhelm Fliess on 22 December 1897). Peter Whitehead and Niki de Saint Phalle’s 1973 film Daddy is an angry retort to oppressive regimes, particularly that most destructive one of childhood sexual abuse. But its power lies equally in its ambivalence and, in the end, its profound negativity. While Whitehead and de Saint Phalle resolutely sought to free

(This is a version of a talk I gave at the Recovery Histories Network , led by Dr Ruth Beecher, at Birkbeck , University of London, in May 2025. Please note, this blog includes profanity.) This is a difficult topic to think about, let alone discuss. In this blog, I explore debates about intergenerational sex between older and younger males from the 1970s onwards, with a focus on the largest U.S. organization supporting such sexual activity, NAMBLA or the North American Ma

Incels is the portmanteau of Involuntary Celibates. They are primarily young men furious about being excluded from romantic and sexual...

Caption: Reception for the Shameless! Festival of Activism Against Sexual Violence. Left to right: Professor Joanna Bourke, Julia...

I loved working with the SHaME (Sexual Harms and Medical Encounters) team over 5 and a half years. SHaME’s Public Engagement Lead, Dr...

The SHaME project have talked to some incredible people who reflect on sexual violence and ways to create rape-free worlds. You can...

The events I have enjoyed most in connection with the SHaME project were our two Shameless! Festivals of Activism Against Sexual...

For five and a half years, I have been privileged to work with the SHaME team at Birkbeck. It has been the most intellectually rewarding...

Are you like me? Working on 'difficult' subjects? So.... Take care of yourself and your friends. Here is something more relaxing…. Try...

Clare Shaw, Towards a General Theory of Love (Hexham: Bloodaxe Books, 2022) Clare Shaw’s new, prize-winning poetry collection is...

We are never told her name. None of the soldiers encircling her would have been interested in such niceties. The only relevant...

The three sites of cruelty I will explore are (firstly) hierarchies of sentience, (secondly) wartime wounding, and (thirdly) sexual...

On 4 March 2020, the Black feminist organisation Imkaan launched a report in the Houses of Parliament on sexual violence against...

On 12 June 1993, the editors of the British Medical Journal published an account by a male doctor of being sexually assaulted by another...

The Covid-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of human vulnerability. To be vulnerable (from the Latin ‘vulnus’, meaning ‘wound’) is to be...

Covid-19 exposed girls, women, and other minoritised groups to increased domestic violence. As has happened throughout the world, calls...