Liquid Crime History: digital entrepreneurs and the industrial production of ‘ruined lives’

Godfrey, BS ORCID: 0000-0002-4119-5137 (2016) Liquid Crime History: digital entrepreneurs and the industrial production of ‘ruined lives’. In: Liquid Criminology: Doing imaginative criminological research. Routledge,London. ISBN 978-1-4724-5523-9, 131710482X

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Abstract

Recent exhibitions at art galleries across Europe have raised some interesting questions about modernity and the celebration of decay caused by the passing of time. The works featured under the title of ‘Ruin Lust’ depict fallen structures, relics, buildings and monuments (for example, John Constable’s Hadleigh Castle or William Turner’s Temple of Poseidon at Sunium). These works have aroused interest amongst visitors, art critics and cultural theorists (as well as members of the viewing public). There is also much to interest social scientists, historians and digital theorists, as this chapter goes on to prove. There is a clear community of interest that joins the viewers of ‘ruin lust’ with many criminologists who are seeking to understand how and why some people suffer ‘ruined’ lives, and who want to do something about it. This chapter argues that a significant strand of criminological inquiry shares a similar and long-standing interest in ruins (of lives rather than buildings) and makes three main points. First, it asserts that one strand within criminological research and practice has always contained a latent and unacknowledged romanticism which seeks to investigate, understand and ‘repair’ ruined lives through a more sophisticated analysis of how and why life-chances are damaged or restricted.2 In other words, this strand of criminology is fundamentally concerned with lives that appear to be ruined, but which can be rescued. The second assertion is that crime historians are similarly affected; in fact, the chapter argues that they are perhaps even more prone than criminologists to the ‘redemption impulse’ which seeks to recover ruined lives. Third, the chapter argues that the new forms of crime history which utilize digital resources have changed the character of biographical research to the extent that it has taken on a ‘liquid’ character, and this chapter suggests that the availability of digital data on the Internet (which is quite staggering) offers a hyper-extension of criminology’s reach towards uncovering and recovering the lives of the dispossessed and powerless.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Social Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	17 Nov 2017 09:11
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 07:19
DOI:	10.4324/9781315592503
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3005769