British Society of Criminology Midlands Regional Network Seminar
Criminal Justice Centre, School of Law, University of Warwick
Guilt and Criminal Justice: (Re)Opening the Dialogue
Speaker programme
Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe (Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge)
‘Some reflections on psychoanalytical dimensions of guilt in criminal justice processes: depression,
denial and defiance.’
There has been a re-enchantment with ‘emotion’ in regard to crime and criminal justice in recent
years. The ‘live phenomenology of crime’, the various moral emotions inscribed in criminality and
the fascination for ‘evil’ which men and women have, have all been systematically ignored by a
positivist criminological tradition; Criminology has arguably repressed the horrors of everyday life,
translating them into platitudes of rational discourse. But where has the resurgence of interest in
emotions taken us? Does it take us as far as guilt (and shame) as feelings? Being ‘found guilty’ is not
the same as feeling guilty. What does it mean to feel guilt, or to want others to feel guilt? To what
extent does punishment expatiate ‘guilt’ and to what extent does it generate other destructive
emotions such as depression, denial and defiance?
Dr Samantha Ashenden (Department of Politics, Birkbeck, University of London)
‘The inescapability of collective responsibility’
The idea that individual persons rather than collective entities must be held accountable for crimes
lies at the heart of contemporary criminal justice. But this is challenged both domestically and
internationally by recognition of notions such as ‘joint criminal enterprise’, corporate manslaughter,
and in particular by the crime of genocide; the latter of which figures collective actors both as
victims and as perpetrators. In this talk I will try to tease apart the reasons for our wariness about
designating crimes as ‘collective’, but also argue the necessity of some kinds of collective reckoning.
At the same time I will argue against those who suggest that we can always make clear distinctions
between guilt and responsibility, such that guilt remains individualised and responsibility becomes
collectivised. I will suggest that this attempted partitioning does not do justice to the experience of
collective crimes, and that something like collectively experienced guilt may be a necessary
phenomenon of group identities.
Dr Leonidas Cheliotis (Department of Social Policy, LSE)
‘Putting Judges on Trial: Can Guilt be Used to Reduce Judges' Punitiveness at the Sentencing
Stage?’
Guilt is integral to a range of criminal justice processes, yet our understanding of its limitations and,
perhaps even more so, its potentialities tends to be narrow. Following a critique of the ways in
which guilt is typically conceptualised and pursued in criminal trials and restorative justice practices,
this paper will interrogate the extent to which guilt can be used to put a halt to punitive reactions to
lawbreaking, particularly as concerns the role of the judiciary. In so doing, the paper will engage with
recent work on the rise and consequences of 'mass incarceration' in the Anglo-American world.