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4 - Situating Remorse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2021

Irene van Oorschot
Affiliation:
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
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Summary

In this chapter, I venture into the courtroom. There, I show, accounts are elicited, truth and falsehood are at stake, and the “soul” of the deviant subject becomes a matter of empirical interest: is s/he really sorry? Here, emphasize in particular the local, narrative production of remorse. How, in other words, do defendants manage to “perform remorse” in court? How do judges make sense of defendants’ remorsefulness? How is it weighed and evaluated, and what are its consequences to judicial decision-making? Drawing on informal conversations with judges and in-court observations, this chapter demonstrates the narrative texture of judicial sense-making and decision-making, and the possible tensions that may arise between pursuing self-defense as a defense strategy and appearing sufficiently remorseful. I also show how narratives are subject to practices of typification, distinguishing between three typified whole-case narratives: the typical “angry young man”, the typical drug-addict, and the typical “explosive couple”. These three typified whole-case narratives help judges to make sense of and weigh defendants’ demonstrations of remorse. Here, I also highlight the methodological affordances of observation and informal conversation in shedding light on the narrative texture of legal practices, and contrast this emphasis on narrative with statistical approaches to judicial decision-making.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Law Multiple
Judgment and Knowledge in Practice
, pp. 85 - 115
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Situating Remorse
  • Irene van Oorschot, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
  • Book: The Law Multiple
  • Online publication: 18 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108859981.004
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  • Situating Remorse
  • Irene van Oorschot, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
  • Book: The Law Multiple
  • Online publication: 18 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108859981.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Situating Remorse
  • Irene van Oorschot, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
  • Book: The Law Multiple
  • Online publication: 18 February 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108859981.004
Available formats
×