Beyond “pleasant lies”: The “fictionalizing tendencies” in family members’ narratives of men’s violence

Researchers have examined how perpetrators of harm—and those close to them—grapple with moral questions related to culpability and victimhood, often by developing excuses and justifications that “neutralize” the damage inflicted. Building on this research, I use 18 in-depth interviews with family members of men incarcerated for a violent offense to explore the “fictionalizing tendencies” in their accounts of their loved ones’ harm. Drawing on scholarship in philosophy and literary theory, I illuminate how the imposition of a narrative structure commonly found in fiction facilitated family members’ sense-making processes as they confronted their loved ones’ actions. Participants’ fictionalizing tendencies speak to the tensions embedded in perspectival narratives that aspire to truth, and situating knowledge about these tendencies alongside research focused on how harm is justified or excused can deepen our understanding of why and how people blur the boundaries of reality.