About the project
CRIMLIFE combines studies of life-courses with life-stories to study how the two combined shape criminal paths. The project aims to develop a global comparative life-course criminology that emphasizes the particular social, cultural, economic, and institutional factors of crime. Six countries are included – Norway, Czechia, Türkiye, Nigeria, India, and Colombia.
CRIMLIFE focuses especially on the role of the state, family, employment, and culture and studies, with a mixed-method approach, how these institutions influence criminal trajectories and marginalization in different societal contexts.
Method
The main research questions will be addressed through repeat qualitative life-story interviews with prisoners, as well as questionnaire surveys, in six countries on four continents. The qualitative study has 300 participants and 900 interview sessions. The survey will have at least 1000 participants in each country.
Objective
CRIMLIFE aims to develop a global comparative life-course criminology. The framework will benefit from research on family formations, cultural particularities, and state organization in the respective countries and regions to better understand offending life-courses and crime in immensely different societal contexts.
Background
Contemporary research on crime relies mainly on perspectives and data from the Global North and especially Western Anglophone countries. Important overlooked sites include Asia, Africa, and even locations within Europe such as Eastern Europe and Türkiye. There has also not yet been attempts at comparative global studies of life-course trajectories – and few attempts at combining insights from studies of life-stories with those of criminal life-courses.
CRIMLIFE builds upon and expands the previous project Crime in Latin America (CRIMLA) which studied the role of the State, labour market, family, culture and religion for crime in Latin America.
Participating countries
