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Driven by Sexual Desire: Rape and Criminal Investigation in Contemporary Japan

Friday, March 21, 2014
12:00 AM
2239 Lane Hall (204 South State St., Ann Arbor)

Dr. Makino introduces how the Japanese police conduct criminal investigation in rape cases. Her research shows that the police predetermine and frame an offender's criminal motive within the discourse of uncontrolled male 'sexual desire.' Based on the assumption that it is the uncontrolled sexual desire that causes men to rape, police investigators lead suspects to confess frustrations deriving from, for example, unfulfilling conjugal life. By interviewing rape suspects and examining the police manuals and reference books for rape, Dr. Makino, who was once a police officer herself, has uncovered the police bureau’s a priori definition of rape, which did not necessarily match the confessions made by the suspects themselves. The lecture will be in English. A translator will be available to facilitate Q and A.

Co-sponsored by the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the Department of History, and the Women’s Studies Department.

Dr. Masako Makino is researcher at Asian Studies Unit of Kyoto University, Japan. After graduating from Nara Education University in 1991, she served as a Shiga Prefectural police officer for six years. She resigned the position, and entered the graduate program in Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, and won her Ph.D. in 2012. Her many publications include Penal Law and Gender (2013), “Interviewing the Criminal Perpetrators” (2013), “Administration of Sex during the War: Controlling Adultery among Wives of the Men at the Front” (2013), “Police Organization and Gender: Historical Analysis of ‘Female Police Officer”(2006), "How to Care for Life and Death (2000)."

Speaker:
Dr. Masako Makino, Researcher, Asian Studies Unit, Kyoto University, Japan