The Spectre of Crime: Photography, Law and Ethics

Biber, Katherine

doi:10.1080/10350330500487802

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The socio-legal scholarship examining visual evidence, by contrast, has generated considerable theoretical insight into the ambivalent position of images, particularly photographs, in the courtroom (Biber, 2006(Biber, , 2007Edmond et al, 2009;Feigenson, 2011;Mnookin, 1998;Young, 1996). In so doing, the literature illuminates how cultural assumptions about the visual and its relationship to truth do and do not influence the legal process.…”

Section: Theorizing Visual Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing crime, feeling crime: Visual evidence, emotions, and the prosecution of domestic violence

Moore

Singh

2017

Theoretical Criminology

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Changes in prosecutorial strategies vis-a-vis domestic violence introduced new models of investigation that privilege images of victims. Drawing on case law, we argue these visual artefacts of victims’ injuries as well as their videotaped sworn statements describing their assaults constitute what Haggerty and Ericson call a ‘data double’, a virtual doppleganger who is meant to stand, often antagonistically in the stead of the flesh and blood victim. We further suggest, following theorizing on the emotional impact of images, that these pictures and videos, presented in court, have an emotional stickiness that differently affects both judges and juries as compared to the testimony of the flesh and blood victim. Thinking through temporality and notions of femininity we conclude that the truth effect of these images is that the victim’s data double becomes more human than human, forcing us to rethink the relationships between victims, images, and the machinations of justice.

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Section: Theorizing Visual Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing crime, feeling crime: Visual evidence, emotions, and the prosecution of domestic violence

Moore

Singh

2017

Theoretical Criminology

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“…Around the world, it is customary to use visual ads in campaigns (Wakefi eld et al 2010) to direct people's att ention to specifi c problems (Kilbourne 1999) including DV (Borzekowski and Poussaint 1999;Hill 2000). A growing body of research in criminology and socio-legal studies has also examined, for example, how, in the context of the courtroom, visual aids can convey the truth about domestic violence against women (Biber 2006;Moore and Singh 2017). In advertisement, it is believed that images can communicate the same message to large audiences repeatedly over time (Wakefi eld et al 2010(Wakefi eld et al : 1262.…”

Section: Talking Images and Anti-violence Signs In Cosmopolitan Spacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Silence and Visual Representations of Anti-Violence Campaigns in Cosmopolitan Brisbane

Igreja¹

2018

Anthropology in Action

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In spite of the growing public focus on domestic violence (DV) in mainstream Australian society, ethnographers have remained aloof from analysing this problem. In an ethnographic study in the Brisbane region, I analysed people’s perceptions of anti-violence images that were part of a public campaign and assessed the appropriateness of the images’ locations. Occasionally, my interlocutors unexpectedly included accounts of DV. My analysis reveals the tensions between public display and the concealment underlying the campaign. The interlocutors revealed experiences of competing responsibilities related to DV. The use of subtle images of anti-violence in locations filled with competing images, coupled with a failure to consider historical continuities and changes in local imaginaries of violence, exposed the difficulties associated with conveying persuasive messages of DV prevention.

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“…The particular power of images to provoke multiple interpretations stands in especially strong contrast to the post-enlightenment ideal of law as grounded in reason and rationality. It has been argued that, while the visual has largely been assigned by our society to the realms of imagination, creativity and playfulness, law by contrast has increasingly been assigned to control, discipline and sobriety (Vismann, 2008; Biber, 2008; Douzinas and Nead, 1999). The photograph poses a particular danger in this context.…”

Section: A Closer Look At the Ban On Photographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Revolting consumers: a revisionist account of the 1925 ban on photography in English and Welsh courts and its implications for debate about who is able to produce, manage and consume images of the trial

Mulcahy

2018

International Journal of Law in Context

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This paper offers a revisionist history of the banning of photography in English and Welsh courts in 1925 and explores the contention that a complete rationale for the ban has never been adequately articulated. While existing accounts of the ban have placed emphasis on the outrage caused by press coverage of a handful of sensational murder trials, this paper offers the first comprehensive analysis of photographs of trial scenes in the decades leading up to the ban. In doing so, it argues that the exposure of the legal system to scrutiny by the press and public, made possible by new technologies and reporting practices, was much more pervasive than has previously been suggested. It also contends that, although parliamentarians claimed that the purpose of the ban was to protect vulnerable members of the public, it actually did a much better job of preserving the interests of the legal, political and social elite, including judges, against a backdrop of fears about an increasingly disrespectful populace. More particularly, it is suggested that the ban allowed the state to take back its monopoly over the production, management and consumption of images of judges and other key actors in the courtroom in an effort to re-impose social order and retain the mystery of law.

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The Spectre of Crime: Photography, Law and Ethics

Cited by 8 publications

References 6 publications

Seeing crime, feeling crime: Visual evidence, emotions, and the prosecution of domestic violence

Seeing crime, feeling crime: Visual evidence, emotions, and the prosecution of domestic violence

Silence and Visual Representations of Anti-Violence Campaigns in Cosmopolitan Brisbane

Revolting consumers: a revisionist account of the 1925 ban on photography in English and Welsh courts and its implications for debate about who is able to produce, manage and consume images of the trial

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