‘Impressed’ by Feelings: How Judges Perceive Defendants’ Emotional Expressions in Danish Courtrooms

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘Impressed’ by Feelings: How Judges Perceive Defendants’ Emotional Expressions in Danish Courtrooms

AU - Johansen, Louise Victoria

PY - 2019/4/1

Y1 - 2019/4/1

N2 - Emotions constitute an integrated part of crime trials, but the evaluation of these emotions is dependent on broader cultural norms rarely addressed by legal practitioners. Previous research on emotions in the judiciary has also tended to underemphasize this cultural dimension of judges’ assessment of defendants’ emotional expressions. This article presents an ethnographic study of Danish judges’ considerations when they encounter defendants in court and get an impression of their behaviour, emotional state and physical appearance. Combining theories about emotions with intersectionality approaches, the article highlights the processes in which social categories are dynamically shaped through emotions. Judges’ assessments of emotions are mediated through their own cultural understandings, and what counts as ‘appropriate’ emotion is dependent on how the defendant is culturally and systemically situated.

AB - Emotions constitute an integrated part of crime trials, but the evaluation of these emotions is dependent on broader cultural norms rarely addressed by legal practitioners. Previous research on emotions in the judiciary has also tended to underemphasize this cultural dimension of judges’ assessment of defendants’ emotional expressions. This article presents an ethnographic study of Danish judges’ considerations when they encounter defendants in court and get an impression of their behaviour, emotional state and physical appearance. Combining theories about emotions with intersectionality approaches, the article highlights the processes in which social categories are dynamically shaped through emotions. Judges’ assessments of emotions are mediated through their own cultural understandings, and what counts as ‘appropriate’ emotion is dependent on how the defendant is culturally and systemically situated.

KW - Courts

KW - embodiment

KW - emotion

KW - intersectionality theory

KW - judges

KW - social categorization

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044472479&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0964663918764004

DO - 10.1177/0964663918764004

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0964-6639

VL - 28

SP - 250

EP - 269

JO - Social & Legal Studies

JF - Social & Legal Studies

IS - 2

ER -