Tuning In: Sound, Listening, and the Development of an Aural Criminology

Abstract

This paper takes up Keith Hayward’s (2012) call for criminologists to pay greater analytical attention to sound. I present the case for the
further development of an aural criminology that not only examines the ways sounds are regulated or mobilized to govern specific populations, spaces, and things, but also considers various ways of listening as part of this inquiry. How we hear, connect with, and make sense of sound shapes our understandings and responses to crime. This focus on sound and listening will open new sites of empirical research and provide an alternative epistemological framework for studying a variety of topics. The paper provides an overview of sound studies and discusses what criminology can gain from adopting some of the theoretical and methodological insights from this field. I conclude by highlighting some of the ways that criminologists and sociolegal scholars can benefit from paying closer attention to sound and listening.