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Asking the right questions about crime

Criminologist Dr Laura Bui wants us to ask the right questions when it comes to crime. True crime is popular but is it helping us better understand the origins of crime?

Criminologist Dr Laura Bui wants us to ask the right questions when it comes to crime. The popular genre of ‘true crime’ may be popular but is it helping us better understand the origins of crime?

We turn to crime novels, film and documentaries to compare ourselves to both victims and perpetrators. How different are we?

This genre loves to tell us the ‘origin stories’ of infamous criminals to tell us of their childhoods and often past traumas - as if to explain their future actions. But this can have the effect of erasing the victims, diminishing their memory in some way.

But is the habit of asking ‘why’ a criminal committed a crime and not ‘how’ they got to the point of becoming a criminal flawed? We take one criminal out of the public only to have them replaced by another - Laura argues asking ‘how’ helps to finally break this cycle.

Presenter - Olly Mann
Producer- Jordan Dunbar
Editor - Tara McDermott
SM- Rod Farquhar

Available now

17 minutes

Last on

Sat 30 Jul 2022 05:45
Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Radio 4

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Image credit: Daniel Marshall

Broadcasts

  • Wed 27 Jul 2022 09:30
    Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Radio 4
  • Wed 27 Jul 2022 20:45
    Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Radio 4
  • Sat 30 Jul 2022 05:45
    Â鶹ÊÓƵAV Radio 4

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