Emotional Labour and Moral Management in Youth Justice Professional Relationships

• In Event: Reviewing Support Systems for Troubled Youth

Abstract

In recent years, there has been growing use of the sociological concept of ‘emotional labour’ in criminology (Hochschild, 1983). This has provided valuable insights into the ways in which criminal justice workers suppress and evoke the ‘right’ emotions to perform their roles, and the human costs of this. However, there is scarce scholarship on the labour involved in managing genuine emotion, despite its presence and important implications. This paper draws on the findings of a 12-month ethnographic study, involving 63 interviews with children and professionals in an English youth justice service, observation of practice, and participatory research. My analysis builds on emotional labour scholarship, arguing that existing work does not reflect the complexity of strategies that practitioners employ to manage genuine emotion. Practitioners display deep commitment to employing genuine emotion in ways that stretch organizational ‘feeling rules’. Bringing together the concept of emotional labour with virtue ethics, I argue that this can be understood as a moral decision; a means of staying ‘true’ to one’s values and ideas of self. Through examining the management of genuine emotions, the paper seeks to advance the theorisation of emotional labour and deepen insight into the moral terrain of youth justice.

Author

• Ali Wigzell, University of Nottingham