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

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

At last year’s ASC conference, an initially light-hearted proposal about the need for a ‘Joke Criminology’ provoked a serious discussion about the need for more sustained consideration of the roles and uses of humour in narrative criminological research. This might include analysing jokes about crime, social control and punishment, but also more broadly examining the social uses of humour about and among criminalised people, victims of crime, criminal justice professionals, and activists for reform or abolition. For all of these groups, humorous stories may function as coping mechanisms enabling levity in ‘heavy’ circumstances, helping to make them more survivable. But of course, what lightens the weight for one may crush another. Clowning, joking and other uses of humour in storytelling may have much to teach us about crime and punishment related tastes and sensibilities in different cultures and about how they are policed (pun definitely intended). The joker may be a powerful actor in spaces of crime and punishment; or they may be using humour as a means of contesting a disempowered position. The social practices of humour may also reveal, guard and sometimes open the borders between inclusion and exclusion within social groups.

Sub Unit

• Area X. Critical Criminology / 73. Narrative and Visual Criminologies

Individual Presentations

• Making Light of Imprisonment: Humour, Connection and Resistance - Fergus McNeill, Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, University of Glasgow; Oliver Escobar, University of Edinburgh; Phil Crockett Thomas, University of Stirling; Lucy Cathcart Frödén, University of Oslo, Norway; Jo Collinson Scott, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland; Alison Urie, School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, University of Dundee

• No Laughing Matter? The Use and Utility of Humour in Interviews With Men Convicted of Sexual Offences - Danielle Arlanda Harris, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University

• “I Was an Ex-Con, Haha”: The Role of Humour in Social Reintegration of the Formerly Incarcerated - Dwayne Antojado, University of Melbourne

• Embracing Absurdism in Criminal Justice Progress - Gemma Flynn, University of Strathclyde

Chair

• Fergus McNeill, Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, University of Glasgow

Discussant

• Anja Emilie Kruse, University of Oslo, Norway