Ghosts of other stories: a hauntological examination of crime in space

This paper sets out an analytical framework for using ‘hauntology’ to read the spatialised imprint of crime. It draws upon Derrida’s notion of the specter to trace the contours of a given space’s violent history. As such, we discuss the ways in which trauma becomes incorporated within space. A clinical approach to the transmission of transgenerational trauma sees the ‘specter’ reveal itself through somatic symptoms and linguistic tics. This paper performs an act of transliteration: using techniques derived from literary criticism and psychoanalysis to ‘read’ spaces for the ghostly imprints of violence. From hair sewn into the lining of haute couture to a doubled house in London’s East End, this paper draws upon diverse examples in its inter-disciplinary approach to applying hauntology to the examination of crime. It provides a means of understanding the ongoing traumatic effects of crime in space, as well as a point of departure to resolve those effects