What can “Lies” Tell Us about Life? Notes towards a Framework of Narrative Criminology

Abstract

In criminology even studies that involve extensive fieldworks rely a great deal on research participants own accounts. The main question raised in the paper is: how do we know if research participants are telling the truth, and does it matter? It argues that criminological ethnographers have been too preoccupied with a positivist notion of truth, and the related question of whether research participants are telling the truth. For narrative analyses, this is not really important. The paper will present interview data from offenders to illustrate the fruitfulness of a narrative approach in criminology. Whether true or false, the multitude of stories people tell reflect, and help us understand, the complex nature of values, identities, cultures, and communities. The emphasis will be on offenders’ shifts between subcultural and more conventional narratives. The argument expands upon Presser’s notion of narrative criminology. The result is a framework that further challenges positivism and individualism in contemporary criminology.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Heith Copes for encouragement, edits, and comments on several versions of this paper. Also thanks to anonymous referees from JCJE.

Notes

1. Because they all involve leaving the office, interacting with people, and seeing them in their social surroundings, they will be considered ethnographic.

2. Ethnographic research can be categorized in different ways. Categorizations often include the questions: (1) were extensive fieldwork or interviews the primary source of data; (2) has fieldwork been conducted, but secondary to interviews; (3) have research participants been recruited by the researcher or by others; and (4) have institutionalized populations been interviewed. Following the ethnographic rationale, methodological approaches can best be seen on a continuum from extensive fieldworks to interviews in institutions.

3. As Ward (2008) points out, “standardized codes of ethical conduct cannot easily be translated to ethnographic research on criminal activity.” Observing crime in progress can be ethically problematic. While observing petty crime may be acceptable, observing large‐scale drug dealing, violence, or sexual offences should probably not be the goal of any researcher.

4. The scientific article is also a genre that limits what can be said.

5. There are great differences within postmodern approaches to qualitative method, as illustrated between the different “brick” handbooks. Gubrium and Holstein’s anthology (2001, see also 2003a) is, for example, less radical and political than Denzin and Lincoln’s (2005).

6. The interviews with Thomas, Moa, and Daniel were done in Norwegian and tape‐recorded. They were translated by the author.

7. From years of interviewing violent offenders I am used to this kind of talk, but this time I became uncomfortable. Was I encouraging a story about the rationale in killing a guy? And more importantly, was he talking about the past or the future? As a result, after long a period of silence, I confronted him with a different interpretation of what would be the “smart thing” to do. This was a very tense moment, and I was not sure what to expect. He could have seen this as an attempt by me to correct him and gotten angry. He was already quite aggressive. Fortunately, he only laughed and returned to the first narrative.

8. Thanks to Heith Copes for pointing this out.