No Laughing Matter? The Use and Utility of Humour in Interviews With Men Convicted of Sexual Offences

• In Event: Narrative Criminology #4: No Laughing Matter? Humor, Jokes and Satire in Research on Social Harms

Abstract

Humour plays a significant role in narrative storytelling but the extent to which it emerges (and is useful) during life history interviews with justice-involved populations remains unknown. The psychological value of “dark” or “gallows” humor is well established to buffer the impact of work stress, especially for emergency personnel or first responders. Drawing on the author’s experience of interviewing men who have served custodial sentences for sexual violence, this paper uses the “Psychology of Humour” (Martin & Ford, 2018) to present a preliminary typology of the ways humour emerged during 74 research interviews. Results indicate that humour was used (with varying success) by interviewees in four main ways: To relieve the tension of the interview itself, as an adaptive measure to cope with (or soften) the recall of a traumatic memory, as a defense mechanism (much like a Technique of Neutralization), or to normalize one’s experience and seek common ground. Implications for narrative criminology and for narrative therapy with justice-involved individuals are discussed, in the broader context of a discussion of the merits of developing 'Joke Criminology'.

Author

• Danielle Arlanda Harris, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University