The meaning of crime
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# 2.4 Summary

- While social scientists think about crime analytically, most of the time individuals think about crime in terms of narratives or stories. Narratives which describe and explain their lives.

- Societies also construct narratives about themselves. The dominant common-sense story about the crime problem in the contemporary UK is that a long wave of rising crime has created a society that is frightened, that feels both individual safety and the wider social order are under threat.

- Our society is also fascinated and attracted by stories and representations of crimes and criminals.

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