The epidemic psychology of pandemics creates an atmosphere of panic and fear that can expedite new laws and facilitate criminogenic narrative arousal. Using narrative criminology, we discuss crimes that emerged from pandemic narratives in the early phases of the disease in Mexico. We show how pandemic master narratives have unexpected criminogenic effects; can be negotiated to make them criminogenic; and are opposed by more fundamentally criminogenic counter-narratives. We also show how pandemics repurpose justifications for traditional crimes and offer an opportunity for narrative repositioning of “criminals”. Societal crises intensify the continuous narrative negotiation that always underlies the meaning of crime. Pandemics can therefore act as a prism through which social scientists can see how crime is an ongoing narrative accomplishment.

流行病的流行心理创造了一种恐慌和恐惧的气氛，可以加速新的法律并促进犯罪叙事的唤醒。使用叙事犯罪学，我们讨论在墨西哥疾病的早期阶段从大流行叙事中出现的犯罪。我们展示了流行病的主要叙述如何产生意想不到的犯罪影响；可以通过谈判使其具有犯罪性；并遭到更根本的犯罪反叙述的反对。我们还展示了流行病如何重新利用传统犯罪的正当理由，并为“罪犯”的叙事重新定位提供机会。社会危机加剧了持续的叙事协商，而这种协商始终是犯罪意义的基础。因此，流行病可以作为一个棱镜，社会科学家可以通过它看到犯罪是如何成为一种持续的叙事成就。