Criminology and Narrative: A Critical History of Dangerousness Evaluations

• In Event: Expertise, Evidence and Knowledge Production in Criminology

Abstract

Drawing on Philip Fisher’s concept of a “new geography of fear” produced by the security of modern society, this paper sketches a critical history of the concept of dangerousness and predictions of its future manifestations in criminology. Dangerousness predictions depart from the classical experience of fear as an individual encounter with dangerousness, instead developing a sense of general anticipatory fear where “the state of fear of those in no imminent danger at all is placed in the center.” If the social production and diffusion of fear is crucial to our understanding of dangerousness, it is possible to write a history of the purification of dangerousness as a purely scientific concept in criminology. By leveraging Latour’s concepts of purification and hybridization in scientific networks, this paper seeks to explore the cultural and narrative terrain that dangerousness predictions rely on, and force a re-examination of the nature of scientific claims of dangerousness.

Author

• Chase Burton, University of California, Berkeley