Empathy, Narrative, and Victim Impact Statements

Abstract

This chapter suggests that the scholarship tends to treat emotions as monolithic, unambiguous entities; it has yet to contend with—much less incorporate in any meaningful way—the complex, unruly field of emotion theory. The term is employed by legal scholars to describe a good deal more than simply stories appearing in law journals. The chapter argues that the notion of outsider narrative is significant, first, because it provides a crucial normative grounding for narrative scholarship, and second, because in doing so it reveals the limiting principle that explains why more narrative is not always better. The chapter also argues that the emotions they evoke—hatred, bigotry, and unreflective empathy—demean the dignity of both victim and defendant. Empathy is a tool of the police officer interrogating a suspect. Empathy is an instrumental concept, and, in the legal arena, it is also a political concept.