After dunblane: Crime, corporeality, and the (hetero-) sexing of the bodies of men

Journal of Law and Society

Volumn 24, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 177-198

  Collier, Richard ^a  

^a NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0031156365     PISSN: 0263323X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-6478.00042     Document Type: Article

References (131)

1. Quoted in the Guardian, editorial, 14 March 1996.
2. These are distinct from the phenomena of 'serial killing', on which see, further, J. Stratton, 'Serial Killing and the Transformation of the Social' (1996) 13 Theory, Culture and Society 77-98. On non-politically motivated homicides, including the spree killing, see D. Gresswell and C. Hollin, 'Multiple Murder: A Review' (1994) 34 Brit. J. of Criminology 1-14.
3. These are distinct from the phenomena of 'serial killing', on which see, further, J. Stratton, 'Serial Killing and the Transformation of the Social' (1996) 13 Theory, Culture and Society 77-98. On non-politically motivated homicides, including the spree killing, see D. Gresswell and C. Hollin, 'Multiple Murder: A Review' (1994) 34 Brit. J. of Criminology 1-14.
4. A detailed account of the events can be found in the Report of the Public Inquiry into the shootings at Dunblane Primary School on 13 March 1996 (1996; Cm. 3386; Chair, Lord Cullen) - hereafter, the Cullen report. An outline of the events can be found in 'Minutes of Mayhem that took 17 Lives: Dunblane Inquiry' Guardian, 30 May 1996. The details of what happened will be considered further below.
5. A detailed account of the events can be found in the Report of the Public Inquiry into the shootings at Dunblane Primary School on 13 March 1996 (1996; Cm. 3386; Chair, Lord Cullen) - hereafter, the Cullen report. An outline of the events can be found in 'Minutes of Mayhem that took 17 Lives: Dunblane Inquiry' Guardian, 30 May 1996. The details of what happened will be considered further below.
6. In relation to theorizing masculinity, see, further, S. Gutterman, 'Postmodernism and the interrogation of masculinity' in Theorizing Masculinities, eds. M. Kimmell and M. Kaufman (1994); D. Saco, 'Masculinity as Signs: Poststructuralist Feminist Approaches to the Study of Gender' in Men, Masculinity and the Media, ed. S. Craig (1992).
7. In relation to theorizing masculinity, see, further, S. Gutterman, 'Postmodernism and the interrogation of masculinity' in Theorizing Masculinities, eds. M. Kimmell and M. Kaufman (1994); D. Saco, 'Masculinity as Signs: Poststructuralist Feminist Approaches to the Study of Gender' in Men, Masculinity and the Media, ed. S. Craig (1992).
8. See, for example, J. Butler, Gender Trouble (1990); J. Butler, Bodies that Matter (1993); E. Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism (1994); M. Gatens, Imaginary Bodies (1996). Also J. Butler, 'Against Proper Objects', (1994) 6(2/3) Differences: J. of Feminist Cultural Studies 1-27; 'Gender as Performance: An Interview with Judith Butler' (1994) 67 Radical Philosophy 32-9 (interviewed by P. Osbourne and L. Segal). For an excellent introduction to queer legal theory see, further, C. Stychin, Law's Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (1995): L.J. Moran, The (Homo) Sexuality of Law (1996).
9. See, for example, J. Butler, Gender Trouble (1990); J. Butler, Bodies that Matter (1993); E. Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism (1994); M. Gatens, Imaginary Bodies (1996). Also J. Butler, 'Against Proper Objects', (1994) 6(2/3) Differences: J. of Feminist Cultural Studies 1-27; 'Gender as Performance: An Interview with Judith Butler' (1994) 67 Radical Philosophy 32-9 (interviewed by P. Osbourne and L. Segal). For an excellent introduction to queer legal theory see, further, C. Stychin, Law's Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (1995): L.J. Moran, The (Homo) Sexuality of Law (1996).
10. See, for example, J. Butler, Gender Trouble (1990); J. Butler, Bodies that Matter (1993); E. Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism (1994); M. Gatens, Imaginary Bodies (1996). Also J. Butler, 'Against Proper Objects', (1994) 6(2/3) Differences: J. of Feminist Cultural Studies 1-27; 'Gender as Performance: An Interview with Judith Butler' (1994) 67 Radical Philosophy 32-9 (interviewed by P. Osbourne and L. Segal). For an excellent introduction to queer legal theory see, further, C. Stychin, Law's Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (1995): L.J. Moran, The (Homo) Sexuality of Law (1996).
11. See, for example, J. Butler, Gender Trouble (1990); J. Butler, Bodies that Matter (1993); E. Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism (1994); M. Gatens, Imaginary Bodies (1996). Also J. Butler, 'Against Proper Objects', (1994) 6(2/3) Differences: J. of Feminist Cultural Studies 1-27; 'Gender as Performance: An Interview with Judith Butler' (1994) 67 Radical Philosophy 32-9 (interviewed by P. Osbourne and L. Segal). For an excellent introduction to queer legal theory see, further, C. Stychin, Law's Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (1995): L.J. Moran, The (Homo) Sexuality of Law (1996).
12. See, for example, J. Butler, Gender Trouble (1990); J. Butler, Bodies that Matter (1993); E. Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism (1994); M. Gatens, Imaginary Bodies (1996). Also J. Butler, 'Against Proper Objects', (1994) 6(2/3) Differences: J. of Feminist Cultural Studies 1-27; 'Gender as Performance: An Interview with Judith Butler' (1994) 67 Radical Philosophy 32-9 (interviewed by P. Osbourne and L. Segal). For an excellent introduction to queer legal theory see, further, C. Stychin, Law's Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (1995): L.J. Moran, The (Homo) Sexuality of Law (1996).
13. See, for example, J. Butler, Gender Trouble (1990); J. Butler, Bodies that Matter (1993); E. Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism (1994); M. Gatens, Imaginary Bodies (1996). Also J. Butler, 'Against Proper Objects', (1994) 6(2/3) Differences: J. of Feminist Cultural Studies 1-27; 'Gender as Performance: An Interview with Judith Butler' (1994) 67 Radical Philosophy 32-9 (interviewed by P. Osbourne and L. Segal). For an excellent introduction to queer legal theory see, further, C. Stychin, Law's Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (1995): L.J. Moran, The (Homo) Sexuality of Law (1996).
14. See, for example, J. Butler, Gender Trouble (1990); J. Butler, Bodies that Matter (1993); E. Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism (1994); M. Gatens, Imaginary Bodies (1996). Also J. Butler, 'Against Proper Objects', (1994) 6(2/3) Differences: J. of Feminist Cultural Studies 1-27; 'Gender as Performance: An Interview with Judith Butler' (1994) 67 Radical Philosophy 32-9 (interviewed by P. Osbourne and L. Segal). For an excellent introduction to queer legal theory see, further, C. Stychin, Law's Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (1995): L.J. Moran, The (Homo) Sexuality of Law (1996).
15. See, for example, J. Butler, Gender Trouble (1990); J. Butler, Bodies that Matter (1993); E. Grosz, Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism (1994); M. Gatens, Imaginary Bodies (1996). Also J. Butler, 'Against Proper Objects', (1994) 6(2/3) Differences: J. of Feminist Cultural Studies 1-27; 'Gender as Performance: An Interview with Judith Butler' (1994) 67 Radical Philosophy 32-9 (interviewed by P. Osbourne and L. Segal). For an excellent introduction to queer legal theory see, further, C. Stychin, Law's Desire: Sexuality and the Limits of Justice (1995): L.J. Moran, The (Homo) Sexuality of Law (1996).
16. A. Young, Imagining Crime (1996) 112.
17. My use of 'Crimino-legal' here delineates, following Young, id., more than simply 'criminology', 'criminal justice' or 'criminal law' but, rather, '. . . all of these together with the popular discourses that are manifested in the media, cinema and advertising, in order to convey the sense that "crime" has become (been made?) a potent sign which can be exchanged among criminal justice personnel, criminologists, politicians, journalists, film-makers and, importantly, (mythical) ordinary individuals' (id., p. 2).
18. Gresswell and Hollin, op. cit., n. 2, p. 3.
19. See, for example, 'Slaughter in the Sun' Guardian, 29 April 1996: N. Rufford and P. Arthur, 'The Misfit Behind the Massacre' Sunday Times, 5 May 1995.
20. See, for example, 'Slaughter in the Sun' Guardian, 29 April 1996: N. Rufford and P. Arthur, 'The Misfit Behind the Massacre' Sunday Times, 5 May 1995.
21. K. Busch and J. Cavanaugh, 'The Story of Multiple Murder: Preliminary Examination of the Interface Between Epistemology and Methodology' (1986) 1 J. of Interpersonal Violence 5-23; R. Rappaport, 'The Serial and Mass Murder: Patterns, Differentiation, Pathology' (1988) 9 Am. J. of Forensic Psychiatry 38-48; M. Rowlands, 'Multiple Murder: A Review of the International Literature' (1990) 1 J. of the College of Prison Medicine 3-7.
22. K. Busch and J. Cavanaugh, 'The Story of Multiple Murder: Preliminary Examination of the Interface Between Epistemology and Methodology' (1986) 1 J. of Interpersonal Violence 5-23; R. Rappaport, 'The Serial and Mass Murder: Patterns, Differentiation, Pathology' (1988) 9 Am. J. of Forensic Psychiatry 38-48; M. Rowlands, 'Multiple Murder: A Review of the International Literature' (1990) 1 J. of the College of Prison Medicine 3-7.
23. K. Busch and J. Cavanaugh, 'The Story of Multiple Murder: Preliminary Examination of the Interface Between Epistemology and Methodology' (1986) 1 J. of Interpersonal Violence 5-23; R. Rappaport, 'The Serial and Mass Murder: Patterns, Differentiation, Pathology' (1988) 9 Am. J. of Forensic Psychiatry 38-48; M. Rowlands, 'Multiple Murder: A Review of the International Literature' (1990) 1 J. of the College of Prison Medicine 3-7.
24. Gresswell and Hollin, op. cit., n. 2, p. 3.
25. M. King, 'The James Bulger Murder Trial: Moral Dilemmas and Social Solutions' (1995) 3 International J. of Children's Rights 167-87.
26. See, for example, Young, op. cit., n. 6, p. 111: '. . . personal reactions to it are as strong as they ever were . . . in writing this chapter I have had frequent bad dreams and have felt a deep sense of horror'. Also, King, id., p. 168.
27. See, for example, Young, op. cit., n. 6, p. 111: '. . . personal reactions to it are as strong as they ever were . . . in writing this chapter I have had frequent bad dreams and have felt a deep sense of horror'. Also, King, id., p. 168.
28. King, id., p. 168.
29. T. Newburn and E. Stanko (eds.), Just Boys Doing Business? Masculinity and Crime (1994) 1.
30. D. Jackson, Destroying the Baby in Themselves: Why did the two boys kill James Bulger? (1995) 3.
31. See, for example, R. Ericson, P. Baranik, and J. Chan, Visualising Deviance: A Study of News Organisation (1987); R. Ericson, P. Baranik, and J. Chan, Negotiating Control: A Study of News Sources (1989); R. Ericson, P. Baranik, and J. Chan, Representing Order: Crime, Law and Justice in the News Media (1991).
32. See, for example, R. Ericson, P. Baranik, and J. Chan, Visualising Deviance: A Study of News Organisation (1987); R. Ericson, P. Baranik, and J. Chan, Negotiating Control: A Study of News Sources (1989); R. Ericson, P. Baranik, and J. Chan, Representing Order: Crime, Law and Justice in the News Media (1991).
33. See, for example, R. Ericson, P. Baranik, and J. Chan, Visualising Deviance: A Study of News Organisation (1987); R. Ericson, P. Baranik, and J. Chan, Negotiating Control: A Study of News Sources (1989); R. Ericson, P. Baranik, and J. Chan, Representing Order: Crime, Law and Justice in the News Media (1991).
34. K. McEvoy, 'Newspapers and Crime: Narrative and the Construction of Identity' in Tall Stories? Reading Law and Literature, eds. J. Morison and C. Bell (1996).
35. See, further, A. McRobbie, Postmodernism and Popular Culture (1994).
36. Time Magazine, 25 March 1996.
37. Daily Express, 20 March 1996.
38. Daily Mirror, 20 March 1996.
39. Sun, 20 March 1996.
40. The 'quality' (broadsheet) press tends to seek more liberal, rational explanations in contrast to the more sensationalizing tendencies of the tabloids. Given the latter's (considerably) greater circulation, it is open to question what effect this has on the framing of public opinion. Notwithstanding these differences, each tended to share an initial depiction of Hamilton in terms of 'evil'; compare Daily Mirror, 20 March 1996. On the day Dunblane primary school re-opened, it was stated that 'the evil has gone.' (Sun, 23 March 1996).
41. Mr. Justice Moreland, summing up in the James Bulger murder trial (Guardian, 25 November 1993). On the Bulger case see, further, Young, op. cit., n. 6, p. 111: Jackson, op. cit., n. 16.
42. Mr. Justice Moreland, summing up in the James Bulger murder trial (Guardian, 25 November 1993). On the Bulger case see, further, Young, op. cit., n. 6, p. 111: Jackson, op. cit., n. 16.
43. King, op. cit., n. 12, p. 167-8.
44. Features of the spree killing have been taken up in the representation of other crimes: see, for example, accounts of the apparently random knife attack by a shopworker in Birmingham, England, which left one person dead and nine injured (Guardian, 30 July 1996).
45. Jackson, op. cit., n. 16, p. 4.
46. Editorial comment Daily Mirror, 14 March 1996.
47. P. Barker, 'Loner in Our Midst' Guardian, 15 March 1996.
48. Stratton, op. cit., n. 2, p. 78.
49. Guardian, 15 March 1996.
50. Compare with the representation of community in the aftermath of the murder of James Bulger; Young, op. cit., n. 6, p. 120.
51. B. Campbell, Goliath: Britain's Dangerous Places (1993).
52. Guardian, 14 March 1996.
53. E. Fergurson, D. D. Harrison, and R.McKay, 'Dunblane: the Story That Need Never Have Been Told' Observer, 17 March 1996.
54. See, for example, 'Fear Rules in No Go Britain: A Report on the parts of the country most people would rather not think about - never mind live' Independent on Sunday, 17 April 1994.
55. Time, op. cit., n. 20.
56. Observer, op. cit., n. 36.
57. A number of reports noted how the adults who lived in Dunblane, a commuter town, tended not to be familiar with each other. The children, in contrast, knew each other and the primary school had come to be a focus of life in the town. It brought people, who otherwise lived very separate lives, together. As such, the mass murder of the children took on a particular resonance in its symbolic violence against the idea of a community which had seemed crime-free.
58. Independent, 16 March 1996. Hamilton had been brought up to believe his natural mother, to whom he was very close, was in fact his sister: see, further, Cullen report, op. cit., n. 3, para. 4.2, p. 20.
59. Independent, 16 March 1996. Hamilton had been brought up to believe his natural mother, to whom he was very close, was in fact his sister: see, further, Cullen report, op. cit., n. 3, para. 4.2, p. 20.
60. Barker, op. cit., n. 30.
61. Jackson, op. cit., n. 16, p. 17.
62. Barker, op. cit., n. 30.
63. Fergurson, Harrison, and McKay, op. cit., n. 36. My emphasis.
64. Guardian, op. cit., n. 32.
65. Independent, 18 March 1996.
66. Time, op. cit., n. 20.
67. id.
68. Chicago Tribune, 20 March 1996.
69. Guardian, op. cit., n. 35.
70. Time, op. cit., n. 20.
71. D. Campbell, 'He was a loner: he kept his cliches to himself Guardian, 13 July 1996.
72. Guardian, 31 May 1996
73. id.
74. A similiar reading informs A. Young's discussion of the mothers of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, the two boys convicted of the murder of James Bulger (Young, op., cit., n. 6, p. 125).
75. Guardian, 29 April 1996.
76. id.
77. Gerard Bailes, Novik Clinical Forensic Unit, quoted in G. Younge 'He Just Shot Everyone Coming In', id.
78. Gerard Bailes, Novik Clinical Forensic Unit, quoted in G. Younge 'He Just Shot Everyone Coming In', id.
79. Ian Stephen, quoted in Younge, id.
80. Clive Meux, Senior Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry, London, and consultant at Broadmoor Top Security Hospital, quoted in Younge, id.
81. P. Hoggett, 'A Place for Experience: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Boundary, Identity and Culture' (1992) 10 Environment and Planning: Society and Space 345-56, at 345.
82. See, in particular, on the 1993 film Falling Down, C. Clover, 'White Noise' in Sight and Sound, May 1993, 6-9.
83. According to Clover (id., p. 9), the 'Average White Male' '. . . is the great unmarked or default category of western culture, the one that never needed to define itself, the standard against which other categories have calculated their difference'; 'No Travis Bickle this, Falling Down's story is precisely that of Taxi Driver . . . its whole effect depends on seeing D-Fens [the principal character in the film, played by Michael Douglas] not as a vet descending into madness, but as a tax-paying citizen whose anger allows him to see, with preternatural clarity, the madness in the society around him' (p. 8).
84. See, further, R. Collier, '"Coming Together?": Post-Heterosexuality, Masculine Crisis and the New Men's Movement' (1996) 4 Feminist Legal Studies 3-48.
85. In relation to urban disorder, see Campbell, op. cit., n. 34.
86. Time, op. cit., n. 20.
87. Compare with representations of school photographs in the Bulger case, notably in relation to representing the innocence of James Bulger himself: Young, op. cit., n. 6, p. 116.
88. The video was to later form the basis of a BBC Panorama documentary on Dunblane, broadcast 16 September 1996.
89. Men remain rare in primary school teaching, except as the Head of School. Even before the emergence of high-profile debates around school security in the 1990s, following a number of murders and attacks inside and outside school grounds, the very presence of an unknown man in any school is enough to arouse suspicion.
90. In July 1973 Thomas Hamilton became a leader in the Boy Scouts movement. In 1974, at the age of twenty-one, he was subsequently dismissed as leader of a local troop for 'inappropriate behaviour.' In the intervening years he made frequent attempts to be allowed to re-enter the organization, the last in 1988: he was rebuffed on every occasion.
91. P. Britton in the Sunday Times, 17 March 1996. Notwithstanding that the Cullen inquiry heard from 171 witnesses unrestrained by libel laws, hard evidence linking Hamilton with sexual abuse of children remained meagre (Guardian, 11 July 1996).
92. P. Britton in the Sunday Times, 17 March 1996. Notwithstanding that the Cullen inquiry heard from 171 witnesses unrestrained by libel laws, hard evidence linking Hamilton with sexual abuse of children remained meagre (Guardian, 11 July 1996).
93. See, further, A. Parker The Construction of Masculinity Within Boys' Physical Education' (1996) 8 Gender and Education 141-57.
94. The stated aims of the 'boot camps' introduced by the British government as a way of instilling military discipline for young offenders, for example, emphasize similar concerns with the disciplining, surveillance, and regulation of male bodies. C. Murray, The Emerging British Underclass (1990). In the British context, see N. Dennis and G. Erdos, Families Without Fatherhood (1991).
95. The stated aims of the 'boot camps' introduced by the British government as a way of instilling military discipline for young offenders, for example, emphasize similar concerns with the disciplining, surveillance, and regulation of male bodies. C. Murray, The Emerging British Underclass (1990). In the British context, see N. Dennis and G. Erdos, Families Without Fatherhood (1991).
96. C. Skelton, 'Sex, Male Teachers and Young Children' (1994) 6 Gender and Education 87-93. Also K. Pringle, Men, Masculinities and Social Welfare (1995).
97. C. Skelton, 'Sex, Male Teachers and Young Children' (1994) 6 Gender and Education 87-93. Also K. Pringle, Men, Masculinities and Social Welfare (1995).
98. A. Burgess and S. Ruxton, Men and Their Children: Proposals for Public Policy (1996).
99. Stratton, op. cit., n. 2, p. 82.
100. By way of an exception, see B. Campbell, 'The Problem With Arms and Men' Guardian, 23 July 1996.
101. On the gender politics of the gun lobby, see, further, R. Connell, 'Politics of Changing Men' (1995) 25 Socialist Rev. 135-59, at 146-7.
102. Note, for example, the Masonic links it was suggested Thomas Hamilton had made (Scotsman, 22 March 1996).
103. Guardian, 11 July 1996.
104. 'Who Are the Judges?' (1987) 76(1) Labour Research 9-11.
105. For example, 'Gun Man Obsessed by Hungerford shot 17 bystanders' Times, 25 May 1996.
106. G. Bailes, quoted in Younge, op. cit., n. 59.
107. Independent, 16 March 1996.
108. The results of a survey of 24,000 teenagers in 1996 (J. Balding, Young People: Tenth Report (1996).
109. Times, 15 March 1996. On the events preceding the massacre, see Cullen report, op. cit., n. 3, ch. 5.
110. Times, 15 March 1996. On the events preceding the massacre, see Cullen report, op. cit., n. 3, ch. 5.
111. Jackson, op. cit., n. 16, p. 9.
112. id., p. 16.
113. id., p. 32.
114. See N. Eastman, 'Madness or Badness?' Guardian, 22 October 1996.
115. Cullen report, op. cit., n. 3, para. 5.46.
116. Jackson, op. cit., n. 16, p. 24.
117. This section re-writes, in the context of Dunblane, Jackson's analysis of the Bulger murder (id., p. 4).
118. id., p. 28.
119. Editorial, They Deserve Our Answers' Independent on Sunday, 17 March 1996.
120. Young, op. cit., n. 6, p. 6.
121. C. Jenks 'The Postmodern Child' in Children in Families: Research and Policy, eds. J. Brannen and M. O'Brien (1996).
122. id., p. 20.
123. id., p. 21.
124. H. Young 'Many Questions, No Answers' Guardian, 14 March 1996.
125. Independent, Editorial, 15 March 1996.
126. See, for example, paras. 5.2, 5.25-5.28, 5.37-5.49. Government strategy continues to be to regulate the body of the paedophile in quite specific ways: see the consultation paper, Sentencing and the Supervision of Sex Offenders, published 17 June 1996.
127. See, for example, Cullen report, op. cit., n. 3, ch. 4.
128. For a rare exception to this, in another context, see J. O'Sullivan, 'We're still in the dark over West's madness' Independent, 12 September 1996.
129. Which is, in effect, what the Cullen report concludes. A senior police officer subsequently resigned in the wake of the comments made on bureaucratic failings in the report.
130. It is an interesting question as to whether, had the complaints being made about Thomas Hamilton come from men, rather than women, they would have met with a similar reception in terms of identification of men's dangerousness.
131. T. Jefferson, Review (1996) 36 Brit. J. of Criminology 323.