Overview

Exploring the rationales behind legal anger, its logic and origins, this book builds on the perspectives of judges and prosecutors in Italy, Sweden, the United States, and Scotland. When do judges and prosecutors become angry in court, what do they become angry about, and which other emotions open up for anger? Anger brings people to court and is essential in evaluating wrongdoing and attributing blame, but at the same time, anger is seen as a threat to well-reasoned and just decision-making. Drawing on observations, interviews, and shadowing of legal professionals, the text demonstrates how anger is entangled with legal thought and comes into play in legal practices. By comparing the workings and displays of anger found in different legal systems and emotional cultures, the book elucidates assumptions about law, morality, truth, and emotions that we commonly take for granted. Rational Anger will be of great interest to students and scholars of criminology, criminal justice, sociology, law, social psychology, and organisation studies.

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9781032361772

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It is the pervasive presence of anger in criminal courts that best epitomises the emotionality of doing justice. In this brilliant study of four legal systems, Stina Bergman Blix and Nina Törnqvist shed light on the vagaries of this primordial emotion in the courtroom: the paradoxes of substance and formality of justice, moral outrage and judicial restraint, functional rationality and irrationality. This quintessential study is a quantum leap in our understanding of the complex nature of emotions and the law. Susanne Karstedt, Professor in Criminology, Griffith University, Australia A fascinating and highly readable account of the role anger plays in four distinct legal systems. The international comparisons are eye opening! A terrific addition to the literature on the role of emotion in the law. Susan A. Bandes, Centennial Professor of Law Emeritus, DePaul University College of Law, USA This book is a fine piece of research that helps us understand what anger does in our world, revealing that even at the heart of the supposedly rational legal profession, anger can be used to solve problems and make good decisions. Mary Holmes, Professor of Emotions and Society, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Author Information

Stina Bergman Blix is Professor of Sociology at Uppsala University. She studies emotions in professional work, rationality, law, theatre, and qualitative methods. She is principal investigator of an international comparative project (JUSTEMOTIONS) funded by the European Research Council investigating the emotive-cognitive process of judicial decision-making. Her work has been published in journals such as Symbolic Interaction, Emotion Review, and Qualitative Research and she co-authored Professional Emotions in Court: A Sociological Perspective (Routledge, 2018). Nina Törnqvist has a PhD in Criminology from Stockholm University and is a researcher at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University. Her main research interests include legal professionals, emotions, victimology, narratives, and qualitative methods. After working in the JUSTEMOTIONS project, she is currently engaged in research projects on The emotional dynamic of police and crime victim interactions in IPV investigations and on Justice and accountability for business involvement in international crimes.

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