This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Weisman, R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Being and Doing: The Judicial Use of Remorse to Construct Character and Community

York University, Canada

This article argues first that attributions of remorse are used in legal discourse to distinguish those whose character is perceived as different from their wrongful act (the remorseful) from those whose character is perceived as consistent with their wrongful act (the remorseless). It then advances an explanation as to why courts emphasize the showing of remorse more than the offering of an apology as the true measure of the wrongdoer's character. Next, using a population of Canadian judgments rendered between 2002 and 2004, It proceeds to identify how judges constitute the category of remorse through the criteria they use to decide which claims to remorse are valid and which are not. Finally, building upon work in the sociology of affect, the article looks at how judicial speech shapes the form that expressions of remorse are expected to take.

Key Words: apology • feeling rules • law and affect • mercy • remorse

Social & Legal Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1, 47-69 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0964663908100333


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?