Criminals’ Narrative Identity

• In Event: Narrative Criminology #1: Narratives Doing and Undoing Crime

Abstract

Systematic procedures are described that explore criminals’ identities as embedded in their personal narratives. These allow quantitative explorations both at the episodic level of the actual crime and as part of a person’s view of who they are within an overall life trajectory. Results of various studies indicate a limited number of generic narratives that can be proposed as underlying most accounts. These encapsulate criminal identities that can be summarised in the roles of the protagonists in those narratives: professional, revenger, victim and hero.

Authors

• Donna Youngs, Northumbria University, UK

• David Canter, The University of Liverpool, UK

• David Rowlands, School of Law, University of Leeds, UK