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Para-crime : Notes Towards A ‘Grey Criminology’

Vigh, Henrik and Sausdal, David LU (2025) In British Journal of Criminology
Abstract
Although criminology has long debated the so-called ‘crime drop’, the shifting nature of criminality complicates any clear-cut assessment. While some offences have decreased, this is not necessarily due to moral reform or growing securitisation but rather to transformations in crime modalities. The illicit does not simply retreat or relocate, we argue; nowadays, it increasingly adapts, embeds, and exploits the very systems designed to structure and secure social life. This article thereby explores how contemporary crime operates in grey zone, para-criminal modes—that is, as parasitically entangled within the very flows of technology, trade, finance and governance that define late modernity. Indeed, instead of existing in opposition to... (More)
Although criminology has long debated the so-called ‘crime drop’, the shifting nature of criminality complicates any clear-cut assessment. While some offences have decreased, this is not necessarily due to moral reform or growing securitisation but rather to transformations in crime modalities. The illicit does not simply retreat or relocate, we argue; nowadays, it increasingly adapts, embeds, and exploits the very systems designed to structure and secure social life. This article thereby explores how contemporary crime operates in grey zone, para-criminal modes—that is, as parasitically entangled within the very flows of technology, trade, finance and governance that define late modernity. Indeed, instead of existing in opposition to legal orders, illegality thrives within them. It flourishes within their infrastructural vulnerabilities. (Less)
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author
and
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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
in
British Journal of Criminology
publisher
Oxford University Press
ISSN
1464-3529
DOI
10.1093/bjc/azaf024
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
667480d8-5aae-4284-b908-ec889331b80a
date added to LUP
2025-06-24 19:43:05
date last changed
2025-06-26 09:16:39
@article{667480d8-5aae-4284-b908-ec889331b80a,
  abstract     = {{Although criminology has long debated the so-called ‘crime drop’, the shifting nature of criminality complicates any clear-cut assessment. While some offences have decreased, this is not necessarily due to moral reform or growing securitisation but rather to transformations in crime modalities. The illicit does not simply retreat or relocate, we argue; nowadays, it increasingly adapts, embeds, and exploits the very systems designed to structure and secure social life. This article thereby explores how contemporary crime operates in grey zone, para-criminal modes—that is, as parasitically entangled within the very flows of technology, trade, finance and governance that define late modernity. Indeed, instead of existing in opposition to legal orders, illegality thrives within them. It flourishes within their infrastructural vulnerabilities.}},
  author       = {{Vigh, Henrik and Sausdal, David}},
  issn         = {{1464-3529}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  series       = {{British Journal of Criminology}},
  title        = {{Para-crime : Notes Towards A ‘Grey Criminology’}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azaf024}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/bjc/azaf024}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}