Better researchers, better people? The dangers of empathetic research on the extreme right

The difficulties of empathising with violent perpetrators has preoccupied a small number of social scientists, particularly criminologists and critical security and terrorism scholars. Most of this work examines how researchers can mitigate the impact of engaging with violent perpetrators and minimize any distress this may cause. This article examines whether a deeper empathetic exchange with violent actors - one in which researchers open themselves cognitively and emotionally and that accepts the dialogical nature of empathy - is the next step that needs to be undertaken by critical scholars. It then examines the costs of such a move. The discomfort and danger of empathizing with violent actors is examined through the particularly thorny example of research with violent actors from the extreme-right.