four - Aesthetics and crime

Summary

Introduction

There is a picnic bench on the shore of Loch Morlich in Scotland with a panoramic view of the wild Cairngorm mountains, one of the most beautiful views that I know. I may even go so far as to say that the landscape is sublime. But when I say the view is beautiful or sublime, what do I mean? Similarly, what makes something stand out as good art, or what characteristics make an everyday object or encounter a beautiful contribution to contemporary life? These are the concerns of aesthetics. In this chapter the relevance of aesthetics to criminology is explored. However, back in the Cairngorms, what if I discover that the apparent wilderness landscape is an illusion; that much of what I see is manmade, being formed by centuries of grazing, shooting and forestry management? In more recent years the skiing industry has scarred the mountainside with runs, lifts and a mountain railway. Does this have an impact on the area's ‘wild’ aesthetic? Globally, pure wilderness is increasingly rare and, in the British Isles at least, it is arguably no longer evident. In the UK many of the most ‘wild’ landscapes are legally regulated as National Parks (including the Cairngorms). According to Joe Hermer (2002: 69), North American National Parks sell a wilderness aesthetic that is regulated as highly ordered: ‘a landscape where the “wild” qualities of “nature” are manufactured by the promotion of quietness, decency and hygiene’. This type of aesthetic regulation makes landscape something that could be of interest to criminologists.

For me ‘natural’ or ‘wild’ beauty are not necessarily dependent on there being no human impact; however, when describing the English landscape the author DH Lawrence had a less favourable view of man's impact on the countryside: ‘The real tragedy of England, as I see it, is the tragedy of ugliness. The country is so lovely: the man-made England is so vile’ (1929/1977: 389). Lawrence was mistaken in making a distinct split between the countryside and ‘man-made’ spaces. A lot of people consider the country to be a rural idyll (Halfacree, 1996), without necessarily realising that the rural is often only possible because of human influence – and part of this influence is in terms of aesthetic regulation. With the advent of National Parks the same is also true for many of the wilder places on the planet.