Power at play: the policing of sex work in two European cities

Emotions play a central role in the commission, as well as perception of, and response to, a deviant act. Incivilities, particularly social incivilities (in contrast with ‘mere’ environmental ones), often stir people’s emotions. Sometimes (or often) it is only people’s negative emotional reaction, rather than any direct or immediate harm, that is evoked by anti-social behaviour (e.g. response to youngsters hanging about, noisy neighbours). This chapter examines various emotive dimensions of incivilities and of its social control in urban space. More specifically, it addresses the role of people’s sensibilities in the perception of, and response to, incivilities with examples of people’s emotional responses to incivilities as well as the emotionalisation of social control responses to incivilities with examples of people’s emotional responses as constitutive elements of a prohibited act. In the concluding part, more pro-social cases of affective interaction – i.e. emotions that may help reduce incivilities and those that can restore justice between offenders, victims and wider urban community – are highlighted, together with certain criminal law policy arguments why emotions should not be neglected in rational criminalisation or emotionally intelligent justice, and some considerations for future research.