Doing criminological research: Affective states versus emotional reactions

MERCAN B. A.

THEORETICAL CRIMINOLOGY, cilt.24, sa.2, ss.335-352, 2020 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 24 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1177/1362480618779399
  • Dergi Adı: THEORETICAL CRIMINOLOGY
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, IBZ Online, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Psycinfo, Public Affairs Index, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Violence & Abuse Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.335-352
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Affect, crime, criminological ethnography, emotion, restorative justice, RESTORATIVE JUSTICE, VIOLENCE, SHAME
  • Ankara Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Criminology has not yet adequately distinguished 'emotional expression' from 'unconscious affect'. As a result, there are deficits in its understanding of criminal motivation. This article introduces a psychosocial approach that reveals the unconscious affects that are hidden within offender discourses. To do so it draws on Freud's psychoanalytical account of affects and thus allows for an understanding of the energies and fantasies that lurk behind them. Using examples from crime ethnographies and restorative justice conferences, the article demonstrates that this theoretical orientation and these methods allow the criminologist to engage with the inner-world of offenders more deeply. Doing so, for example, shows that emotional reactions of offenders, in fact, fantasmatically conceal the latent negativity of anxiety and the fear of violent humiliation. Through establishing 'affect' as a more distinct analytic within criminology, its theoretical and methodological tool-box is significantly enhanced.