Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Theoretical Criminology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by EVANS, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

Vigilance and Vigilantes

Thinking Psychoanalytically about Anti-paedophile Action

JESSICA EVANS

The Open University, UK

This paper applies a psychoanalytic approach to the protests of members of `Residents Against Paedophiles' on the Paulsgrove estate in Portsmouth, UK, in August 2000. It sets these in the context of the strains existing in the British government's policy on sexual offenders. It is argued that the protests demonstrate the existence of links between a vigilante state of mind and the `mind of state' that makes community members responsible for crime management. Evidence is provided by the protesters' fabrication of a `mental list' of convicted sex offenders that mimicked the official register. The paper concludes that access to information does not always have the effect of containing adults in such a way that enhances their capacity to act as `responsible' citizens.

Key Words: anti-paedophile campaigns • community • information • psychoanalysis • responsibilization • vigilantism

Theoretical Criminology, Vol. 7, No. 2, 163-189 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1362480603007002416
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Punishment SocietyHome page
D. Spencer
Sex offender as homo sacer
Punishment Society, April 1, 2009; 11(2): 219 - 240.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Critical Social PolicyHome page
C. Scanlon and J. Adlam
Refusal, social exclusion and the cycle of rejection: A cynical analysis?
Critical Social Policy, November 1, 2008; 28(4): 529 - 549.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Int J Offender Ther Comp CriminolHome page
M. Petrunik and L. Deutschmann
The Exclusion-Inclusion Spectrum in State and Community Response to Sex Offenders in Anglo-American and European Jurisdictions
Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol, October 1, 2008; 52(5): 499 - 519.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Br J CriminolHome page
R. Levi
Auditable Community: The Moral Order of Megan's Law
Br. J. Criminol., September 1, 2008; 48(5): 583 - 603.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Theoretical CriminologyHome page
S. P. Hier
Thinking beyond moral panic: Risk, responsibility, and the politics of moralization
Theoretical Criminology, May 1, 2008; 12(2): 173 - 190.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Theoretical CriminologyHome page
D. Gadd
The role of recognition in the desistance process: A case analysis of a former far-right activist
Theoretical Criminology, May 1, 2006; 10(2): 179 - 202.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Crime Media CultureHome page
S. Cross
Paedophiles in the community: Inter-agency conflict, news leaks and the local press
Crime Media Culture, December 1, 2005; 1(3): 284 - 300.
[Abstract] [PDF]