ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the problematic definition of criminal activity. It takes up first a theory of crime which sees it as defined by and for the powerful. It uses crime fiction texts such as Didier Daeninckx’s Murder in Memoriam and Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’ to illustrate the genre’s capacity to both articulate and criticize such constructivist positions. It then examines the concepts of natural law and realist definitions of crime, tracing the way crime fiction articulates the problem of wrongdoing and evil both in older texts like Agatha Christie’s Golden Age mysteries and in more recent works.
