Dual Punitiveness- Tolerant Approaches to Response to Drugs and Psychotropic Crimes: Discourse Analysis of “Metri Shisho Nim” movie

Extended Abstract Introduction: Although there has been a deep consensus among criminal science scholars about the necessity of applying punishment per se in response to the most severe criminal behaviors, human beings still tend to instinctively respond to criminal behavior with repressive measures. While there is no denial of the necessity of applying penalties in the fight against criminal phenomena, it should be noted that some societies have overused the criminal penal mechanisms and abused in this area. This is what is called “Punitiveness”. In general, although epistemic and empirical developments in the Iranian criminal justice system have reduced the severity of criminal activity on some crimes and groups of criminals, Iran’s criminal policy against narcotics and psychotropic offenses has always been on the rise. In fact, strict criminal penalties have been predicted and implemented in the Iranian penal system based on the belief that adopting a strict criminal policy on drug crimes is supposed to be helpful. It is obviously assumed that crime rate can only be controlled by increasing the severity of the punishment. However, after years of rejecting tolerant ideas in the field of drug-related crimes, this approach has gradually emerged alongside the punitiveness approach. Given that tolerant-punitive discourses in Iran have been the site of political-social conflict and, consequently, sensitive to the public, cinema has always attracted the attention of filmmakers. For this reason, one of the subjects that Iranian cinema has always been keen to reflect on is drug-related crimes. Selection of the “Metri Shish-o Nim” as a sample of this article is due to the fact that, on the one hand, it is the only Iranian film to evaluate tough control policies on “drug and psychiatric crime” and to critically analyze punitiveness-tolerant discourses in this area. On the other hand, the movie focuses on the death penalty. According to the findings, in post-revolutionary films – in this genre – the focus has been on representing that the fight against drug trafficking and addiction is only possible through strict policies and because of this default, no Iranian films have focused on assessing anticipated criminal responses in the Iranian penal system, specifically execution. In addition, due to the year of production of the movie, this work is a product of the discursive arena around the death-penalty movement in recent years. Method: As one of the most important theorists of critical discourse analysis, Wodak considers discourse a complex mix of discursive actions that are simultaneously and sequentially interrelated and within and across social domains of actions, genres, signs, and spoken texts. Thus, Wodak’s discourse analysis in the historical approach as a method of contextual analysis, unlike the linguistic analysis of Foucault, does not merely deal with the syntactic elements of the sentence, but it goes  beyond and pays attention to the external factors, namely situational, cultural, and social contexts. Considering language as a form of social behavior, Wodak establishes a dialectical relationship between discourse-linguistic practices and specific domains. Thus, unlike Foucault who defines language in the light of power relations and introduces it as a repressive tool, Wodak uses a historical approach to constructive and restorative approaches. To form a peaceful coexistence between different discourses using ethical approaches. In other words, Wodak’s historical approach seeks to eliminate discourses and bring them closer. In general, Wodak’s critical discourse analysis approach becomes more applicable when there are conflicting discourses around a problem. In this context, the historical approach provides a framework for bringing the conflicting discourses closer and  reaching a shared worldview on common issues. Findings: According to the findings of the study, in this movie, the police are portrayed as an institution that endorses punitiveness policies. However, the lack of an independent body that rejects the tough policies in the movie has led the author to criticize punishment in this area through various images, sequences, and dialogues. The director rejects tough penal policy in this sphere based on four discourse components of deterrent execution and ineffectiveness of tough policies, the impact of economic inequality on crime, the failure of the police-judicial system to identify key leaders (descriptive-empirical aspects), and legislative shortcomings (normative punishment) Discussion: One of the prominent features of the movie “Metri Shisho Nim” is the extensive recruitment of criminal science concepts in both normative and descriptive contexts. The most important ones are police-judicial corruption, repressive organizational culture of the police, violations of the defendants’ rights, and the prosecution of felony charges; However, the impact of the study on the underlying layers focuses primarily on the author’s approach to criminal reactions, and in particular on drug-related crimes and executions. In fact, all normative concepts have also been used to illustrate Iran’s criminal policy in fighiting against drug traffickers (the current status) and then the director’s agreement or disagreement with the application of the policies (the ideal status). It has been well demonstrated in the work that believers in rigorous policies seek to protect society from the dangers of drug distribution and the eradication of addiction, given the concepts of deterrence and criminal efficiency. On the other hand, the second approach focuses on punitive damages in general and the death penalty in particular by rejecting punitive policies and resorting to empirical-scientific assessments. The lack of functioning of penal policies indicates the ineffectiveness of penal law in this area. The author of movie “Metri Shisho Nim” introduces himself as a “critical criminologist” in support of the death penalty movement, with a deep understanding of this discourse and in line with Iran’s historical-political perspective. However, his efforts to reject rigorous policies have drowned him in the atmosphere of the abolitionist movement. Also, the author forgets one of the most central challenges in the execution of drug-related crimes, namely the damage done to the families of the executed. However, one of the important and effective points about execution in this area relates to the families and relatives of the executed. The families of the executed persons are involved in psychological, social, and cultural issues from the moment of their arrest until the execution sentence is conducted, and consequently they experience various issues that have not been addressed in the movie. Finally, using Wodak’s historical approach and approaching two conflicting worldviews – as opposed to Foucault’s –  it may be argued that the existence of both punitiveness-tolerant ideas in the movie is to adopt a functional perspective on penalties in general and “deterrence” in particular. Ethical Considerations Authors’ contributions All authors contributed in producing of the research. Funding In the present study, all expenses were borne by the authors and they  did not have any sponsors. Conflicts of interest The authors declared no conflict of interest. Acknowledgments In this article, all rights relating to references are cited and resources are carefully listed.