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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Gender, Health And
Justice Research Unit
Director: Associate Professor Lillian Artz
Acting Director: Dr Kelley Moult (2012)
Unit Profile
The mission of this Unit is to improve service provision to
victims of violence against women in South Africa through
research, advocacy and education. Drawing together
established researchers with a strong record of social-action
research in disciplines including law, criminology, forensic
sciences and pathology, gynaecology, and psychology,
this Unit is the first of its kind in South Africa to respond
to the pressing need for research and interventions that
cross disciplines in support of our efforts to address the
alarmingly high levels of violence against women in this
country. The Unit fulfils its mission by conducting rigorous
evidence-based research into:
South African women’s experiences of sexual and gender-
based violence;
The responses of women, their communities and the
criminal justice, health, and welfare systems to violence
against women;
The intersections and disjunctures between health and
criminal justice responses to violence against women;
The developmental context in which violence occurs,
and the role of violence in perpetuating women’s under-
development;
The implementation difficulties of translating ‘law on
paper’ into ‘law in practice’ in health, criminal justice and
medico-legal settings;
The development of indicators for monitoring the
implementation of progressive legislation and compliance
by criminal justice and health sector personnel with
statutory duties;
Risk factors andwomen’s pathways to crime and experiences
and impacts of female incarceration;
International and local models of best practice for
addressing violence against women.
The Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit was awarded
the University of Cape Town’s Social Responsiveness Award
for 2009.
Unit Staff
Research Staff
8
Associate Research Staff
2
Interns
7
Administrative
1
Total
14
Research Fields and Staff
Associate Professor Lillian Artz
Feminist legal theory; women and law reform; sexual
offences; domestic violence; research ethics; the medical
management of female survivors of violence; incarcerated
women; prison reform and torture.
Dr Kelley Moult
Feminist criminology; gender-based violence and policy;
domestic homicide; forensics, the intersection of traditional
and western justice systems, research methods.
Yonina Hoffman-Wanderer
International and comparative law; women’s socio-
economic rights; religious and cultural rights; incarcerated
women; sentencing.
Dr Steffi Röhrs
Women’s rights, HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence;
HIV/AIDS and the law; law reform.
Kate Aschman
Policing and law enforcement; sexual offences and HIV;
human rights; gender-based violence and incarcerated
women.
Talia Meer
Gender-based violence, women’s rights, LGBTI rights,
access to justice, rural development, and political ecology
Tsitsi Mpofu-Mketwa
Women’s empowerment, rural development, urban poverty,
social justice and social inclusion.
Carmen Corral-Bulnes
Gender-based violence, incarceration, women’s mental
health, domestic homicide and aggressive behaviour in
intimate relationships.