Hybrid | Prejudicial, But Not Unduly So: Prejudicial Effect & Rap Evidence

Speaker: Dr Abenaa Owusu-Bempah, Associate Professor of criminal law and criminal evidence (LSE)

Chair: George Letsas, Professor of Philosophy of Law (UCL Laws)

Recent years has seen mounting concern about the use of rap music as evidence in criminal proceedings, alongside an ever-increasing number of cases involving ‘rap evidence’. Yet, while rap music is widely recognised to be highly prejudicial as evidence in court, there has been little consideration of how ‘prejudicial effect’ is, or should be, conceptualised and addressed. This seminar will unpack the meaning of prejudicial effect in criminal trials and the distinction between ‘prejudice’ and ‘undue prejudice’; interrogate how the unique social and cultural context of rap music can make it ‘unduly prejudicial’ as evidence; and explore how the appellate courts approach and address the prejudicial effect of rap evidence. In addition to advocating for restrictions on the admissibility of rap evidence, an expansive understanding of ‘prejudicial effect’ that encompasses non-epistemic fairness considerations will be advanced, while emphasising the importance of assessing evidence in its proper social and cultural context.

Dr Abenaa Owusu-Bempah is Associate Professor of criminal law and criminal evidence at the LSE. Her scholarship focuses on criminal procedure, the law of evidence and criminal law, with a particular emphasis on procedural fairness and fair trial rights. She is author of the book, Defendant Participation in the Criminal Process (2017, Routledge). Abenaa’s current research focuses on the criminalisation of rap music and the admissibility of rap as evidence in criminal trials. She is a founding member of the Art Not Evidence campaign.

Photo by Chris Rosiak on Unsplash

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