City Research Online

Abstract

Narrative criminology is now an established subfield in criminology that calls on scholars to theorize the role of narrative in sustaining, motivating, responding to, and resisting harm. This chapter offers a critical review of narrative criminology, examining both its potential for critical criminological scholarship as well as how narrative criminology itself might benefit from further engagement with critical criminological concerns. The chapter first summarizes key features, forerunners, and influences of narrative criminology, identifying some of the key ontological and epistemological debates that have characterized the field. Following this, the chapter turns to consider some key concerns and criticisms of the field, and it identifies opportunities for further development. It calls for deeper engagement between narrative criminology and diverse critical criminological traditions, experimentation with alternative conceptualizations of narrative including creative research methods, and more political scholarship committed to challenging the harmful tendencies of mainstream criminology.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Publisher Keywords:	narrative, story, power inequality, crime, harm, epistemology, ontology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Department of Sociology & Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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