Conspiracy Crimiminology: Crime, Disorder, and the Conspiratorial other in Online British Conspiracy Sub-Cultures.

• In Event: Cultural Criminology

Abstract

What is the relationship between conspiracy theories and crime? To answer this question, this paper will examine how the increasing number of conspiracist sub-cultures in the United Kingdom understand, and sometimes justify criminal acts by their own members. Conspiracist crime has dramatically increased in the past decade as conspiracy theories have moved from the fringes to the political mainstream, yet we currently lack an understanding of how conspiracist sub-cultures conceptualise crime. This paper will consider the potential relationship between conspiracy theories and crime through presenting data drawn from online British conspiracist sub-cultures across a variety of social media platforms such as Twitter/X, Instagram, and Telegram. From analysing these sources, this paper will argue that conspiracy theorists articulate a type of popular criminology which seeks to explain, understand, and sometimes justify criminality through a master-narrative of what I call the “conspiratorial other.” These narratives blame crime and other social ills on an external alien force which has invaded society and then suggests the only means of rectifying this problem is for this “other” to be purged. In my analysis, I then highlight the way these narratives eerily accord with more dominant neo-liberal forms of criminology previously identified by theorists such as David Garland and Jock Young. This may suggest that rather than representing a new or deviant form of criminological thought conspiracy criminology could instead be conceptualised as a radicalisation or degradation of previous trends in the politics of crime and punishment put under strain by the disorder of this time of global, cultural, and political turmoil.The paper then concludes by outlining potential future directions for research in this area along with highlighting the need for a cultural criminological engagement with conspiracy cultures as they continue to grow and intrude into normal political life.

Author

• Joseph Patrick McAulay, University of Oxford, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies