We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Degrees of Emotion: Judicial Responses to Victim Impact Statements.
- Authors
Schuster, Mary Lay; Propen, Amy
- Abstract
Emotional standards and hierarchies in the courtroom may affect judicial reactions to victim impact statements. Based on judicial conversations and courtroom observations in two judicial districts in Minnesota, we suggest that judges contrast emotion with reason in order to maintain control of their courtrooms; when faced with emotional expressions in victim impact statements, judges appreciate expressions of compassion and tolerate expressions of grief but are uncomfortable with expressions of anger. These judicial responses to emotional expression, however, must be contextualized; for example, the judges we spoke with often articulated different reactions to impact statements given by victims of sexual assault, those who are strangers to the perpetrator, and impact statements given by victims of domestic violence, those who are in a relationship with the perpetrator.
- Subjects
JUSTICE administration; JUDGES; CRIMINAL sentencing; SELF-expression; DOMESTIC violence
- Publication
Law, Culture & the Humanities, 2010, Vol 6, Issue 1, p75
- ISSN
1743-8721
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/1743872109349104