Introduction: Narrative, Criminology, and Fiction

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce narrative representation, criminology, and the concept of fiction. The chapter begins with a delineation of criminology as an academic discipline and crime as a contested concept. Narrative vs. non-narrative distinguishes narrative representation from the various forms of non-narrative representation and identifies two types of narrative representation: minimal narratives and exemplary narratives. Fiction vs. non-fiction begins by differentiating ‘fiction’ from ‘narrative’ and then draws attention to the problems with differentiating fiction from non-fiction in terms of either the imagination, invention, or falsity. The chapter defines fiction in terms of a practice, which unites a particular kind of creative utterance to a particular kind of receptive stance. The chapter concludes with an extended abstract of the book.