ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how and why emotions are at the centre of the social and normative role of punishment, and how punitive emotions are manifest in the practice and representation of criminal justice, media and popular culture in western liberal democracies. Using sociological, social psychological, cultural criminological and socio-legal research, we examine and seek to understand the ‘urge’ to punish – our tendency to pursue punishment and to assume it to be useful or necessary – and how punitive sentiments have recently infiltrated areas of social life that go beyond crime and justice issues. We suggest that punishment is inherently affective. It reflects some of our innermost desires, fears, and insecurities, and seeks to provide an illusory yet temporarily satisfying sense of reassurance in an otherwise uncertain and ambivalent social world, by enacting a sense of social solidarity through hostility. From this perspective, we warn against a rationalist criminology that takes the affective dimension of punishment for granted, and highlight the need in criminal justice scholarship for a rigorous study of how the emotions, subjectivities and self-identities of offenders, victims, judges, juries, media and general members of the public contribute to the existence and maintenance of the framework of punishment in contemporary liberal societies. We conclude by suggesting that unpacking the emotional dimension of punishment is essential to properly examine its role and limitations, and to propel potentially more effective critiques of punishment within critical criminology.
