Svend Ranulf’s characterization of criminal law as a ‘disinterested tendency to inflict punishment’ challenges the conventional view that whereas crime may express emotion, emotion is extinguished in the operations of law. This is because Ranulf argues that criminal law arises through middle-class moral indignation. Thus an emotion, moral indignation, links social structure—in the form of class configuration, and social action—to the formation of criminal law. In the discussion to follow, Ranulf’s thesis is situated in the development of the sociology of criminal law, critically evaluated, and reformulated. The continuing relevance of Ranulf’s framework is also indicated.
Allardt, Erik (1993) ‘Scandinavian Sociology and its European Roots and Elements’, in Birgitta Nedelmann and Piotr Sztompka (eds) Sociology in Europe: In Search of Identity, pp. 119-140. Berlin: de Gruyter.
2.
Andersen, Heine and Lars Bo Kaspersen (2000) Classical and Modern Social Theory. Oxford: Blackwell.
3.
Aristotle (1975 [c. 330BC]) The Art of Rhetoric. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4.
Barbalet, J.M. (1998) Emotion, Social Theory and Social Structure: A Macro-sociological Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5.
Ben-Ze’ev, Aaron (2000) The Subtlety of Emotions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
6.
Berger, Peter (1966) Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
7.
Brunner, August (1960) ‘Forward’, in Max Scheler On the Eternal in Man, pp. 7-9. London: SCM Press.
8.
Central Statistical Office (1989) Annual Abstract of Statistics. No. 125. London: HMSO.
9.
Christie, Nils (1993) Crime Control as Industry: Towards Gulags Western Style?London: Routledge.
10.
Collins, Randall (1981) ‘On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology’, American Journal of Sociology86(5): 984-1014.
11.
Collins, Randall (1990) ‘Stratification, Emotional Energy, and the Transient Emotions’, in Theodore D. Kemper (ed.) Research Agendas in the Sociology of Emotions, pp. 27-57. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
12.
Davies, A.F. (1980) Skills, Outlooks and Passions: A Psychoanalytic Contribution to the Study of Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
13.
Denzin, Norman K. (1984) On Understanding Emotion. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
14.
Durkheim, Emile (1964 [1893]) The Division of Labor in Society. New York: The Free Press.
15.
Durkheim, Emile (1964 [1895]) The Rules of Sociological Method. New York: The Free Press.
16.
Field, G. Lowell and John Higley (1980) Elitism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
17.
Gusfield, Joseph (1963) Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
18.
Harré, Rom (ed.) (1986) The Social Construction of Emotions. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
19.
Hochschild, Arlie (1979) ‘Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure’, American Journal of Sociology85(3): 551-575.
20.
Hochschild, Arlie (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
21.
Kelley, Jonathan and M.D.R. Evans (1993) ‘The Legitimation of Inequality: Occupational Earnings in Nine Nations’, American Journal of Sociology99(1): 75-125.
22.
Kemper, Theodore D. (1978) A Social Interactional Theory of Emotions. New York: John Wiley.
23.
Lasswell, Harold D. (1964) ‘Preface’, in Svend Ranulf Moral Indignation and Middle Class Psychology, pp. ix-xiii. New York: Schocken Books.
24.
Lazarsfeld, Paul F. (1973) Main Trends in Sociology. London: George, Allen & Unwin.
25.
McCarthy, E. Doyle (1994) ‘The Social Construction of Emotions: New Direction from Culture Theory’, in William Wentworth and John Ryan (eds) Social Perspective on Emotion, vol. 2, pp. 267-279. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
26.
Maine, Sir Henry Sumner (1905 [1861]) Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society and its Relation to Modern Ideas. London: John Murray.
27.
Merton, Robert (1968) Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: The Free Press.
28.
Nedelmann, Birgitta and Piotr Sztompka (1993) ‘Introduction’, in Birgitta Nedelmann and Piotr Sztompka (eds) Sociology in Europe: In Search of Identity, pp. 1-23. Berlin: de Gruyter.
29.
Nelson, Joel I. (1995) Post-Industrial Capitalism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
30.
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1992 [1887]) ‘On the Genealogy of Morals’, in Basic Writings of Nietzsche, pp. 451-599. Translated and edited by Walter Kaufman. New York: Random House.
31.
Ortony, Andrew, Gerald L. Clore and Allan Collins (1990) The Cognitive Structure of Emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
32.
Parsons, Talcott (1951) The Social System. New York: Free Press.
33.
Ranulf, Svend (1933 [1930]) The Jealousy of the Gods and Criminal Law at Athens: A Contribution to the Sociology of Moral Indignation, vol. 1. London: Williams & Northgate.
34.
Ranulf, Svend (1934 [1930]) The Jealousy of the Gods and Criminal Law at Athens: A Contribution to the Sociology of Moral Indignation, vol. 2. London: Williams & Northgate.
35.
Ranulf, Svend (1964 [1938]) Moral Indignation and Middle Class Psychology: A Sociological Study. New York: Schocken Books.
36.
Scheff, Thomas J. (1988) ‘Shame and Conformity: The Deference-Emotion System’, American Sociological Review53(3): 395-406.
37.
Scheff, Thomas J. (1990) Microsociology: Discourse, Emotion and Social Structure. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
38.
Scheff, Thomas J. and Suzanne M. Retzinger (1991) Emotions and Violence: Shame and Rage in Destructive Conflict. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath.
39.
Scheler, Max (1998 [1915]) Ressentiment. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press.
40.
Schoeck, Helmut (1987 [1966]) Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour. Indianapolis: Liberty Press.
41.
Smith, Adam (1982 [1759]) The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
42.
Stearns, Peter N. (1994) American Cool: Constructing a Twentieth-Century Emotional Style. New York: New York University Press.
43.
Tönnies, Ferdinand (1963 [1887]) Community and Society. New York: Harper & Row.
44.
UK National Statistics (2001) Annual Abstract of Statistics. No. 137. London: HMSO.
45.
US Census Bureau (2000) Statistical Abstracts of the United States: The National Data Book. Washington, DC: US Department of Commerce.
46.
Weber, Max (1978 [1922]) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
