‘You and Your Laws and Us With Our Laws’: A Murderer’s Stories Navigate Conflicting Normative Domains

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4322/dilemas.v14n3.43542

Keywords:

narrative, stories, accounts, subculture, murder, Venezuela

Abstract

Employing Labov’s structural model of stories and Schönbach’s typology of accounts, we examine an interview with a murderer in Venezuela and compare two stories that were narrated within it: one about the murder and one about his family life. While most of the first story accounted for the murder by calling on values and norms that attach to the criminal subculture, it also evaluated the crime from the perspective of a conventional framework that recognized the importance of family. The second story was set within that same family framework, revealing a conflict between different normative demands made on the murderer. He resolved it by finally giving primacy to his subcultural values and identity.

Author Biographies

Christopher Birkbeck

Professor de criminologia na University of Salford (Salford, Reino Unido) e professor emérito de criminologia na Universidad de Los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela).

Juan Antonio Rodríguez, Universidad de Los Andes

Professor e pesquisador na Escola de Criminologia da Universidad de Los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela). É doutor em psicologia social e graduado em criminologia.

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Published

2021-09-16

Issue

Section

Dossiê Violencia, Narrativa y Moralidad