ALSA 2025 meeting

Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of 300 sentencing judgments involving mentally disordered offenders from Hong Kong courts, this paper explores judicial constructions of the defendant-subject as situated within their family environment and relationships. Two narratives relating to the defendant as a ‘familial subject’ are highlighted. The first views events in their early family life as contributing to the development of their mental disorder and subsequent criminal behaviour, which in turn has implications for their culpability. The second, in contrast, sees these events as central to the development of their character ‘outside of’ the offence and the onset of their disorder. In this dual manner, family is seen as a powerful influence upon the offender’s various instincts and drives leading up to their disordered act. By considering these prominent ‘threads’ through which the criminal is linked to their crime, these findings give renewed substance and nuance to Foucault’s claims about ‘the biography of the criminal’ in today’s penal context.