Lois Presser

Narrative Criminology: Understanding Stories of Crime - Alternative Criminology Lois Presser

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Review Quotes: "Lois Presser and Sveinung Sandberg are onto something with this smart, beautifully organized collection of rich essays, each showing the importance of the 'narrative turn' not only to sociology and across disciplines, but to criminology. The collection shows how people involved with crime, and criminologists ourselves, use narrative all the time even though, until now, we may not have known why. This book is bound to be the 'go to' volume about the centrality of stories to the criminological enterprise."-Lynn Chancer, author of High Profile Crimes: When Legal Cases Become Social CausesReview Quotes: "This is an impressively global collection of case studies. Together these demonstrate the flexibility, ubiquity and enduring utility of the concept of narrative for criminology. It is shown to be both an analytic tool for scholars and a resource shaping action and belief in the lifeworld. By exploring and highlighting these two properties this book provides a valuable service to cultural criminology."-Philip Smith, author of Punishment and CultureReview Quotes: Lois Presser and Sveinung Sandberg are onto something with this smart, beautifully organized collection of rich essays, each showing the importance of the narrative turn not only to sociology and across disciplines, but to criminology. The collection shows how people involved with crime, and criminologists ourselves, use narrative all the time even though, until now, we may not have known why. This book is bound to be the go to volume about the centrality of stories to the criminological enterprise. -Lynn Chancer, author of High Profile Crimes: When Legal Cases Become Social Causes"Review Quotes: This is an impressively global collection of case studies. Together these demonstrate the flexibility, ubiquity and enduring utility of the concept of narrative for criminology. It is shown to be both an analytic tool for scholars and a resource shaping action and belief in the lifeworld. By exploring and highlighting these two properties this book provides a valuable service to cultural criminology. -Philip Smith, author of Punishment and Culture"Biographical Note: Lois Presser is Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee. She is the author of Why We Harm and Been a Heavy Life: Stories of Violent Men. Publisher Marketing: Stories are much more than a means of communication stories help us shape our identities, make sense of the world, and mobilize others to action. InNarrative Criminology, prominent scholars from across the academy and around the world examine stories that animate offending. From an examination of how criminals understand certain types of crime to be less moral than others, to how violent offenders and drug users each come to understand or resist their identity as criminals, to how cultural narratives motivate genocidal action, the case studies in this book cover a wide array of crimes and justice systems throughout the world. The contributors uncover the narratives at the center of their essays through qualitative interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, and written archives, and they scrutinize narrative structure and meaning by analyzing genres, plots, metaphors, and other components of storytelling. In doing so, they reveal the cognitive, ideological, and institutional mechanisms by which narratives promote harmful action. Finally, they consider how offenders narratives are linked to and emerge from those of conventional society or specific subcultures. Each chapter reveals important insights and elements for the development of a framework of narrative criminology as an important approach for understanding crime and criminal justice. An unprecedented and landmark collection, Narrative Criminologyopens the door for an exciting new field of study on the role of stories in motivating and legitimizing harm." Contributor Bio:  Presser, Lois Lois Presser is Professor of Sociology at the University of Tennessee. She is the author of Why We Harm and Been a Heavy Life: Stories of Violent Men. Contributor Bio:  Sandberg, Sveinung Sveinung Sandberg is Professor in the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo. His work has appeared in journals such as Sociology, British Journal of Sociology, British Journal of Criminology, Theoretical Criminology, and Sociology of Health & Illness.