ABSTRACT

Research on crime tends to emphasize clear-cut stories, either in support of or rejecting crime. Stories, however, are often ambiguous, mainly when they concern complex and multi-faceted phenomena. Based on qualitative interviews with Italian students, we explore how organized crime is viewed and evaluated by non-offenders. We found six widespread stories that highlight the moral ambiguity of organized crime, including such ambiguities as: people are good and evil; family relations take priority; crime involves ample opportunities and big money; organized crime is complex and involves “smart” organizations and that there are gray zones between business and crime and the endemicity of organized crime. Finally, we show the bounds of this moral ambiguity by pointing out what participants could not accept from organized crime organizations. The study was done within a framework of narrative criminology. We put a particular emphasis on how crime is socially constructed by those not involved, how worldviews of criminal organizations are embedded in more widespread values and the importance of ambiguity in storytelling.

摘要

犯罪研究倾向于强调明确的故事，支持或拒绝犯罪。然而，故事通常是模棱两可的，主要是当它们涉及复杂和多方面的现象时。基于对意大利学生的定性访谈，我们探讨了非犯罪者如何看待和评估有组织犯罪。我们发现了六个流传甚广的故事，突出了有组织犯罪的道德模棱两可之处，包括以下模棱两可的地方：人有善有恶；家庭关系优先；犯罪涉及大量机会和巨额资金；有组织犯罪是复杂的，涉及“聪明”的组织，商业和犯罪之间存在灰色地带，有组织犯罪也很普遍。最后，我们通过指出参与者不能从有组织犯罪组织那里接受什么来表明这种道德歧义的界限。这项研究是在叙事犯罪学的框架内完成的。我们特别强调犯罪是如何由未参与的人在社会上构建的，犯罪组织的世界观如何嵌入更广泛的价值观以及讲故事中模棱两可的重要性。