Undermining the Sanitized Account. Violence and Emotionality in the Field in Northern Ireland

Posted: 16 Jul 2008

See all articles by Sharon Pickering

Sharon Pickering

University of Oxford - Border Criminologies; Monash University - Faculty of Arts

Date Written: 2001

Abstract

The experience of researching violence is underpinned by experiences of emotionality. Yet such emotionality is considered at best peripheral to the substance of our research or even our 'confessional tales'. This paper is interested in the ways emotionality has been so easily ignored in most criminological work and the ways it was impossible to ignore during a study of women, policing and resistance in Northern Ireland. Examining the impact of emotionality on the experience of researching violence offers a way to challenge traditional distinctions between reason and emotion and suggests that there are serious theoretical and epistemological consequences in ignoring the many roles of emotion in our research. In this paper I identify the ways emotionality is central to understanding the experience of researching violence.

Suggested Citation

Pickering, Sharon, Undermining the Sanitized Account. Violence and Emotionality in the Field in Northern Ireland ( 2001). British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 41, Issue 3, pp. 485-501, 2001, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1160710

Sharon Pickering (Contact Author)

University of Oxford - Border Criminologies ( email )

Manor Road Building
Manor Rd
Oxford, OX1 3UQ
United Kingdom

Monash University - Faculty of Arts ( email )

Clayton Victoria, 3800
Australia

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