ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how hunters justify the unjustifiable. M. B. Scott and S. M. Lyman identified a number of subtypes of justifications and excuses. The violence deployed by a doorman to deal with a drunken troublemaker whose behaviour may be looked upon as more excusable might be a lot less severe than that meted out to an aggressive person. The chapter explores how hunters justify their hunting by deconstructing the general processes of justification in a number of domains, all unequal in various ways, including accounts of hard men working at the doors of nightclubs, terrorists, and trophy hunters. It seems that justifications are ubiquitous in certain types of accounts. Based on J. L. Austin's formulation, Scott and Lyman suggest that accounts may be classified as either justifications or excuses, depending upon their specific content and reasoning.
