Prospects for Reconstructing Aetiology

Abstract

This article seeks to reorient sociological-criminological thinking on aetiology. As a first step, it is argued that, for this purpose, the concept of crime should be abandoned, as the theoretical basis for using the concept is unfounded. After that, it is claimed that it can be a fruitful approach to take a dispersed view of a wide diversity of phenomena be they denominated as crimes or not, as interesting analogies can be revealed in the constitution as well as experience of crimes and non-crimes. The approach suggested in this article seeks inspiration from social theory, general sociology and other domains, among which the sociologies of excitement and emotions are seen to be important. The revealing of analogies between criminalized and non-criminalized practices, as called for here, could form a counter-force to essentializing and ab/normalizing discourses on crime and deviance.