The Utopian Apocalypse: Crime, Justice and Redemption

Abstract

This chapter explores the ambiguous, double-sided character of the apocalyptic imaginary of crime, seeing it as welcome destruction of a flawed and failing social order that cannot secure justice. Rather than envisaging disaster as the realisation of a dystopian future of violence and predation, the ‘end of world’ serves as the gateway to creating a more moral society, one in which law satisfies victims’ need to punish offenders and see exemplary justice delivered. Drawing upon the original messianic roots of apocalyptic discourse, popular fictions express yearnings for a heroic carrier of frustrated hopes that the wicked will be brought to account for their crimes and the just will be rewarded with redemption.