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

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.