Abstract
When the call for justice comes through the grief-stricken plea of the mother of a murdered child, it carries a potent affective charge, levying an unassailable demand for our concern and commanding urgent action. Today we are regularly confronted with images of suffering and vengeful crime victims. What kind of response can be envisioned as just? This article stages some encounters arising from press photographs of mothers bereaved by violent acts of criminality. The reflections presented here pose a grave test to the theory of the face. How to respond to the face of the hater, and specifically to the black wrath of the mother of the murdered child? How is the passage from ethics to justice to be negotiated?
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