Sketches, Drawings, and Caricatures: Justice in Images

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In the world of representations in which we live, the most recent images of justice have rarely been studied. Neglected, even ignored, they are absent in research in human sciences. However, a mass of images are available: drawings, rough drafts, sketches... One sometimes comes across a few clumsy preliminary sketches of the accused, whose personal papers – requisitioned by the authorities – are added to the preparation of the case, and are kept, with epistolary documentation, in the file. Plus, of course, the immense fields of caricatures and press cartoons, Not to mention some more unexpected ones such as tattoos. The issue then is to follow the path of the investigation from the discovery of the body to the memory of criminality. Therefore, it is necessary, in order to reconstruct the judicial procedure, to go through four stages: first, study the images of the investigation, then analysize the sketches of the trial and the caricatures drawn afterwards, view the images of the punishment and finally those of memory.