Deborah Tuerkheimer is a former prosecutor specializing in domestic violence, a legal expert, and leading authority on sexual violence. She teaches and writes in the areas of criminal law, evidence, and feminist legal theory at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. She is the author of Credible: Why We Doubt Accusers and Protect Abusers published 2021, in which she provides a framework to explain the “credibility discount”—our dismissal of claims by certain kinds of speakers—primarily women, resulting in justice denied for victims of sexual violence. Tuerkheimer received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College and her JD from Yale. In 2015, Tuerkheimer was elected to the American Law Institute, an esteemed group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars dedicated to the development of the law.
