Key research themes
1. How do legal and cultural frameworks shape the conceptualization and response to 'crime passionnel' or crimes of passion?
This research area focuses on how crimes of passion are understood and treated within different legal systems and cultural contexts. It investigates the intersection of criminal law, social morality, and gendered notions of honor and emotion, showing how these factors influence both legal defenses and societal perceptions of such crimes. Understanding this theme is crucial to analyzing the legal justifications, social norms, and cultural narratives that underpin impassioned criminal acts, as exemplified in countries like Portugal and regions with strong honor cultures.
2. What roles do emotion, passion, and the senses play in criminal behavior and the legal adjudication of crimes, particularly crimes of passion?
This theme examines the affective and embodied dimensions of crime, with special attention to how emotions such as anger, jealousy, and rage influence both offender motivation and societal reactions. The research analyzes how legal systems interpret emotional states, challenge traditional rationality-based criminal models, and how cultural narratives about passion affect criminal responsibility. This perspective is essential for understanding how crimes of passion occupy liminal spaces between law, emotion, and social control.
3. How do popular culture representations and media shape public perceptions and social knowledge about crimes, including crimes of passion?
This research theme interrogates the role of media—ranging from reality television to crime fiction—in constructing and disseminating public understandings of crime and punishment. It explores concepts like 'crimesploitation' and the metamorphosis of crime narratives across media forms. This theme reveals how popular depictions influence ideological frameworks, legitimize punitive approaches, and affect societal responses to impassioned crimes, highlighting the reciprocal relationship between cultural representation and legal/social realities.