Ghosts of other stories: A synthesis of hauntology, crime and space

Criminology has long sought to illuminate the lived experience of those at the margins. More recently, there has been a turn towards the spatial in the discipline. This article sets out an analytical framework that synthesizes spatial theory with hauntology. We demonstrate how a given space’s violent histories can become embedded in the texts that constitute it and the language that describes it. The art installation Die Familie Schneider is used as an example of how the incorporation of social trauma can lead to the formation of a spatial ‘crypt’. Cracking open this ‘crypt’ allows us to draw out Derrida’s notion of the spectre within the context of a ‘haunted’ city space.