Why emotions in court?

Blix, Stina Bergman; Wettergren, Åsa

doi:10.4324/9781315306759-1

Cited by 4 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Here, Heather recognises that if her feelings were displayed outwardly, they would not adhere to emotional display rules around displaying empathy. She therefore engages in ‘empathic perspective-taking’ (Bergman Blix and Wettergren, 2019: 108) by putting herself in the shoes of the frontline worker to remember how it feels in that position. Here, then, Heather prioritises being ‘street cop’ over ‘management cop’ (Reuss-Ianni, 1983) and – through deep acting – displays emotions which align with those feelings (Hochschild, 1983).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Pushed from above and pushed from below’: Emotional labour and dual identities amongst senior probation officers in England and Wales

Westaby

Phillips

Ainslie

et al. 2022

European Journal of Probation

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Senior Probation Officer’s (SPOs) in England and Wales work at the ‘front and centre’ of the organisation’s hierarchy. They act as both manager and developer of frontline probation practitioners. Previous research has focused on the emotional labour undertaken by probation practitioners yet there is very little research on the emotional labour of SPOs, even though they must be skilful emotion managers of their own emotions and those they supervise. Using data gathered from interviews with 28 SPOs and managers across England and Wales, we analyse how SPOs’ emotions are ‘controlled’ by senior management, and how SPOs ‘control’ the emotions of frontline workers they supervise. SPOs attempts at managing emotions are resisted by their supervisees, and SPOs resist the emotional displays they are expected to present in their work role. We conclude by considering the impact of emotional labour on SPOs and how best to support them in their role.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Pushed from above and pushed from below’: Emotional labour and dual identities amongst senior probation officers in England and Wales

Westaby

Phillips

Ainslie

et al. 2022

European Journal of Probation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research on criminal trials in a Nordic context has analysed a number of interconnected aspects regarding spatiality, professional interactions and emotions, and the evaluation of credibility (Bergman Blix and Wettergren, 2018; Dahlberg, 2009; Flower, 2019; Johansen, 2019). In the following section, we break down this comprehensive issue to examine how prosecutors, victims’ counsel and judges regard the victim both as an actor possessing conclusive knowledge and as an individual displaying their own needs.…”

Section: Professional Roles In Victim Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A specific prosecutor work stance has been described elsewhere as the presentation of an objective demeanour that tries to balance commitment to the victim with detachment and dissociation (Bergman Blix and Wettergren, 2018). In our study, the prosecutors expressed a similar ambivalence when engaging emotionally with the victim in court, and we additionally argue that they not only ‘handled’ emotions based on their professional gaze but also classified victims’ emotions in order to establish if they ‘deserved’ support in the courtroom.…”

Section: Professional Roles In Victim Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Investigating emotions has become a more accepted approach to understanding interactions between legal institutions and lay people (Bandes and Blumenthal, 2012), resulting in an increased number of studies examining how, for instance, judges and prosecutors are actively involved in emotion management during criminal trials which are otherwise characterized by strict ideals for conduct. While part of this research focuses on professionals’ management of emotions (Bergman Blix and Wettergren, 2018; Flower, 2019; Mack and Roach Anleu, 2005), other studies have described how legal professionals interpret lay people’s expressions and how, for example, one may evaluate defendants’ remorse in relation to questions of guilt and punishment (e.g. Bandes, 2014; Johansen, 2019; Tata, 2010, 2020; van Oorschot et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Literature on how the police handle victims’ emotions often highlights police officers’ difficult working conditions and emotional labour (Bakker and Heuven, 2006; Horwitz et al, 2011; Lumsden and Black, 2018; Turgoose et al, 2017). In their study of legal actors in Swedish courtrooms, Bergman Blix and Wettergren (2018) show how legal actors ideally try to achieve an ‘unemotional’ performance of justice by exercising a professional management of emotion. As suggested, these different studies typically focus on only one institutional space, be that the police station or courtrooms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The power of professional ideals: Understanding and handling victims’ emotions in criminal cases

Johansen

Adrian

Asmussen

et al. 2022

International Review of Victimology

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This article explores how criminal justice actors interpret and process victims’ emotional expressions. On the basis of a qualitative study on the interactions between legal institutions and victims of violence in Denmark, the article demonstrates how police officers, prosecutors, victims’ counsel and judges each separately understand and evaluate victims’ emotional reactions. These actors interpret victims’ feelings according to their own professional roles and motivations so as to gain an overview of a case and the actions required of them in relation to it, resulting in quite different perceptions of victims’ needs and degree of trustworthiness. At the same time, professionals also interact across institutions by writing and exchanging case files, and in so doing police officers’ perceptions of victim reactions are often disclosed to both prosecutors and judges. This article contributes to existing knowledge of how different professional ideals specifically influence the handling of victims and their emotional needs, while the more general consensus on ‘appropriate emotions’ simultaneously generates knowledge across professions and institutional settings.

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Silence and Voice in Oral Hearings: Spatial, Temporal, and Relational Conditions for Communication in Asylum and Compulsory Care Hearings

Johannesson

2022

Social & Legal Studies

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The legal right to be heard by a judge is an important human right. However, what happens if a claimant does not meet the requirements of legal communication when given the opportunity to be heard in court? In this article, I address this question by exploring how temporal, spatial, and relational conditions encourage or silence vulnerable claimants’ voices in asylum hearings and compulsory psychiatric care hearings in Swedish administrative courts. In addition, I analyze the multiple functions orality has when judges make decisions in these case types. The results provide nuance to claims in previous studies about the importance of enough time, spaces that signal solemnity, and flexibility in judges’ approaches to vulnerable claimants’ voices by demonstrating how these conditions interact with each other and generate different communicative atmospheres. Moreover, this study challenges the idea that oral hearings are necessarily beneficial for claimants as it demonstrates that under certain conditions orality can place claimants at a disadvantage and amplify their defenselessness. However, orality brings legitimacy to court proceedings even in these cases as it communicates justice to the public evaluating these procedures from a distance.

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Why emotions in court?

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

‘Pushed from above and pushed from below’: Emotional labour and dual identities amongst senior probation officers in England and Wales

‘Pushed from above and pushed from below’: Emotional labour and dual identities amongst senior probation officers in England and Wales

The power of professional ideals: Understanding and handling victims’ emotions in criminal cases

Silence and Voice in Oral Hearings: Spatial, Temporal, and Relational Conditions for Communication in Asylum and Compulsory Care Hearings

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