Ghost Criminology

The haunting effects of crime, violence, and death in our history, memory, and media spaces

From Abu Ghraib and Holocaust death camps to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and slave plantations, spaces where violent crimes have occurred can often become forever changed, or “haunted,” in the public imagination. In this volume, Michael Fiddler, Travis Linnemann, and Theo Kindynis bring together an interdisciplinary group of distinguished scholars to study this phenomenon, exploring the origins, theory, and methodology of ghost criminology.

Featuring Jeff Ferrell, Michelle Brown, Eamon Carrabine, and other prominent scholars, Ghost Criminology takes us inside spaces where the worst crimes have imprinted themselves on our history, memory, and media spaces. Contributors explore a wide range of these hauntological topics from a criminological perspective, including the excavation of graffiti in the London underground, the phantom of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, VA, during the 2017 riots, and the ghostly evidentiary traces of crime in motel rooms.

Ultimately, Fiddler, Kindynis, and Linnemann offer ghost criminology as another way of seeing, and better understanding, the lingering impact of violence, oppression, and history in today’s world. Ghost Criminology curates cutting-edge research to break exciting new terrain.

Michael Fiddler is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Greenwich. He is the co-author of Sex and Crime.Kindynis Theo :

Theo Kindynis is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.Linnemann Travis :

Travis Linnemann is Associate Professor of Sociology, Kansas State University. Among other works, he is the author of our Meth Wars: Police, Media, Power and coauthor of Media and Crime in the US (Sage) and coeditor of our Ghost Criminology: The Afterlife of Crime and Punishment, and he is coeditor-in-chief of Crime, Media, Culture.Michael Fiddler (Editor)
Michael Fiddler is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Greenwich. He is the co-author of Sex and Crime.

Theo Kindynis (Editor)
Theo Kindynis is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Travis Linnemann (Editor)
Travis Linnemann is Associate Professor of Sociology at Kansas State University. He is the author of Meth Wars: Police, Media, Power and is co-editor of Ghost Criminology: The Afterlife of Crime and Punishment.

The further we travel into the twenty-first century, the more otherworldly criminology feels, possessed by long-dead theoretical spirits who refuse to be exorcised, and covered over with the spider webs and pentagrams of ancient methodological approaches. It's no surprise, then, that a 'ghost criminology' has now made its presence felt with this innovative and exciting new collection. Like all good ghost stories, Fiddler, Kindynis and Linnemann’s Ghost Criminology: The Afterlife of Crime and Punishment evokes a range of emotions but never once flinches from its underlying goal of posing reflective questions about the soul and purpose of criminology as a critical endeavour.