Abstract

This article discusses the relation between paternity and crime using discourse analysis. We researched case that contained the judgment regarding the emotional abandonment by the father. In particular, we analyze the subject’s production in statement as they blame the father for his absence in children’s life. The use of the statements outlined the family responsibility and established differences between the family’s responsibility and community or State’s responsibility. Within the family unit, the statements described the father’s responsibility when they built specific roles for men and women with specific prescriptions, functions, and features, thereby creating a heterosexist matrix. When this turns into a legitimate legal demand, the affection will be translated as care and family intimacy. In this discursive analysis, differences can be observed in the manner in which the maternal and paternal care are discursively produced. In the case of paternal care, this difference can be translated into the child’s need for authority and the demand for limits. This difference could be at the base of the association between paternal absence and crime.

Paternity; Afecct; Forensic Psychology