Seeing crime, feeling crime: Visual evidence, emotions, and the prosecution of domestic violence
| Date | 01 February 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480616684194 |
| Author | Rashmee Singh,Dawn Moore |
| Published date | 01 February 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480616684194
Theoretical Criminology
2018, Vol. 22(1) 116 –132
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1362480616684194
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Seeing crime, feeling crime:
Visual evidence, emotions,
and the prosecution of
domestic violence
Dawn Moore
Carleton University, Canada
Rashmee Singh
University of Waterloo, Canada
Abstract
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.
Keywords
Affect, domestic violence, feminist theory, photograph, visual criminology
Corresponding author:
Dawn Moore, Associate Professor, Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Dr,
Ottawa, ON K1S5B6, Canada.
Email: Dawn.moore@carleton.ca
684194TCR0010.1177/1362480616684194Theoretical CriminologyMoore and Singh
research-article2016
Article
Moore and Singh 117
Introduction
Neil Feigenson (2011: 13) asks, ‘how does justice change in a culture awash with pic-
tures?’ Visual images are firmly intertwined with criminal justice practices. Building on
the classic ‘mug shots’ (Biber, 2006, 2007; Cole, 2001) and crime scene photos, we see
photography as well as video imagery playing an increasingly important role in evidence
collection. This is particularly true in the investigation of incidences of domestic vio-
lence where changes in both policing and prosecutorial practices have moved justice
systems more and more toward a heavy reliance on images and a commensurate assign-
ment of probative value. Enshrined in what is now colloquially known as the victimless
prosecution in the United States and the vigorous prosecution model in Canada, both
video and still images are now routinely privileged in the prosecution of domestic vio-
lence. Specifically, what are known in Canada as KGB statements1 are routine and their
collection, along with photographs of victim injuries, is seen as vital to good policing
practice (Dawson and Dinovitzer, 2001).
If justice is now awash with images and the prosecution of domestic violence cases in
particular is now routinely image reliant, what does this mean for the actual victim?
Where does she sit in relation to these images? How does the proliferation of images of
her injured body impact her own presence in the prosecution of her assault? As part of a
larger project on the significance of the visual in the prosecution of domestic violence,
we argue here that these images—particularly ones that contemporaneously capture vic-
tims relaying their police statements immediately following an assault—have particular
truth effects2 in domestic violence trials, effects that sit in direct relationship to but also
distinctly apart from the victim herself. We suggest that the widespread use of images in
these prosecutions creates a ‘data double’ (Haggerty and Ericson, 2000) of the victim, a
virtual doppelganger whose relationship to the actual victim is at times friendly but is
also fraught and even antagonistic, particularly for those ‘uncooperative’ victims who
recant or renarrate their experiences of violence (Dawson and Dinovitzer, 2001; Hanna,
1996; Landau, 2000; Mills, 1998, 1999). Further, we argue that beyond truth effects,
images also have certain affect, often marshaling, or intending to marshal emotive
responses that claim a degree of contestable universality which saturates their consump-
tion. The role of this affective response, we suggest, cannot be ignored in exploring a
refinement of Fiegenson’s initial question: how does justice act and change in a legal
process awash with images of victims and violence?
Theorizing visual evidence
While the literature exploring the mismatch between the law’s truth and women’s experi-
ences in domestic violence prosecutions is extensive, and the socio-legal scholarship on
visual evidence is growing, studies that aim to bridge these two bodies of work to exam-
ine how photos and videos tell the truth about violence against women are generally
lacking. Though postructuralist, feminist theorizations of law offer critical insight into
the varying ways in which the law’s claims to neutrality disqualify women’s testimony
as irrational and unreliable (Naffine, 2014, 1990; Smart, 1989), generally overlooked
within this body of work is how imagery influences the production of truth and legal
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