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Article published In: Narrative Inquiry
Vol. 36:1 (2026) ► pp.133–159

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Modus narrandi sceleris: Temporal shift in the crafting style of crime narratives

ORCiD logo with link | University of Łódź | Vilnius Gediminas Technical University
Published online: 24 May 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.24007.pop
Abstract
This study contributes to a methodological debate within narrative studies, emerging from the specific context of narrative criminology. It examines the evolution of storytelling styles, focusing on how the narrative selection process shapes a narrative, thereby revealing both the origins of narratives and their capacity to offer critical insights into the narrator’s perspective. This research specifically investigates the change of how narratives about the same events or topics, as recounted by two different individuals, change over time in terms of their narrative construction. Focusing on crime narratives provided by two participants – a drug dealer and a gangmaster – first in 2019 and again in 2023, the study demonstrates how these narratives not only evolve in structural complexity but also incorporate more sophisticated elements that highlight the narrators’ agency, rationalize or justify their criminal actions, or depict complex criminal identities. The findings underscore the potent methodological contributions this approach can make to narrative criminology, offering new insights into criminal behavior and dynamics that might not be as apparent in single-time-point interviews. This approach thus enriches the broader narrative studies discourse by applying its techniques and insights to the unique challenges and structures of criminal narratives.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Narrative criminology and the missing dynamics
  • Narratives and narrative selection
  • Mechanisms of selection and crafting styles
  • Temporal shifts in crafting narratives about crime
  • Participants, methods and data set
  • Temporal shifts in the crafting style of crime narratives
    • “Debuts in crime”
      • Antonio – 2019: “Everything happened very quickly”
      • Antonio – 2023: “Everything happened very fast, but I was good”
      • Habib – 2019: “I was smart and I was hungry”
      • Habib – 2023: “ If you work well, eventually you become the boss.”
    • “Growth and power”
      • Antonio – 2019: “I felt like a king”
      • Antonio – 2023: “When I felt I had money in my pocket and people respected me, I also thought about those insecurities”
      • Habib – 2019: “They shake my hand, act like we’re brothers”
      • Habib – 2023: “I was like their dad, you know?”
    • “Expressions of evil”
      • Antonio – 2019: “It’s better that he crashed, better this way.”
      • Antonio – 2023: “That’s a real betrayal. It’s when you shift your values, break your promises”
      • Habib – 2019: “People need to know who’s in charge.”
      • Habib – 2023: “I gave him a good one right in front of everyone, and no one did a thing”
  • Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Ethics
  • Conflict of interest statement
  • Note
  • References
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