A Justice Site
Mirror Sites:
CSUDH Habermas UWP
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: May 11, 2001
Latest update: May 11, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org
Review and Teaching Essay by Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata
Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, May 2001. Fair use "encouraged."
This essay is based on Richard Rhodes' Why They Kill. Vintage Books, Division of Random House, 1999. ISBN: 0-375-70248-2Athens used a narrative methodology. He interviewed convicted perpetrators of violent crimes. He asked for and listened in good faith to their stories.
Of course they lied. Of course they exaggerated. Of course they made themselves sound and look better than an "objective listener" might. But for us that labels their story only as coming from their perspective, the perspective of an "other," not as being false. Maybe the stories they told once had the possibility of truth, but were obscured by the events that followed and never really came to pass. Athens has recorded those stories to gain a more effective understanding of those who do commit violence.
More up soon on this, but meanwhile you can read Athens' position, as Rhodes tells it, pp. 59-65 of Why They Kill.