'The fire smolders in a soul more than under the ashes, the arsonist is the most hidden criminal. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayFire is such a fascinating thing because it is a privileged phenomenon that can explain everything. It is the only phenomenon that truly attributes both good and evil, it creates and breathes life and destroys. This is why I want to explore the “history” of fire through cultural criminology and understand the fear and fascination with fire and why it is criminalized. To do this effectively, it is necessary to understand both cultural criminology and the meaning of fire. Fire has played a key role in the development of the natural and human world as it has helped shape the world around us and the way we live in it. Early humans quickly understood that although they were fascinated by fire, they had to be wary of its power. Eventually, early humans learned to harness fire as a tool for cooking food and as a weapon for killing and hunting prey. On top of that, they noticed how much new growth occurred after a fire. Thanks to this observation, a new form of agriculture with fire was founded, and this is how humans began to play with the power of fire, both creative and destructive. Some experts, like Freud, argue that civilization did not truly begin until humanity figured out how to contain and “control” fire. The importance of fire was also highlighted by Lévi-Strauss who stated that "culture and creativity were only possible when humanity moved from raw to cooked." As fire became not only a necessity for human life but also an important element for the continuation of social life, fire became an integral part of cultural life and was often used in celebrations and ceremonies. It symbolized both life and death, the beginning and end of the seasons, hence the symbolism of the passing of the torch considered as a transfer of power. In ancient societies, those who possessed the equipment necessary to create fire were called alchemists and were often marveled as magical beings holding in their hands the power to create or destroy. Before the time of science, these people became "the guardians of life" and were the beings who guided and protected the passage of life and death, thus becoming the earliest versions of priests in the early religions. This duality of destructiveness and creativity, held within the abstraction of fire, has resulted in a profound polarity buried deep in the consciousness of human cultures, so much so that it seems today, in contemporary society, to be a natural and therefore instinctive, innate and emotional cultural response to fire. But it is actually the result of social actions over time, exercised through social structures and relationships that slowly manifested through cultural forms and formations. The fire has slowly permeated our emotional makeup, penetrating our cultural consciousness in deep and layered ways. Fear but fascination; destruction but creation; death but life. These dualities of fire are buried within us, erupting from time to time, whenever and wherever the passage or survival of social life and social identity becomes a burning issue. At the end of the 20th century, cultural criminology emerged as a form of intervention for the archetypal discipline. It confronts the normal objective of the development of methodsstatistics and brings to light issues of what crime is and why it matters, which might otherwise have been slightly neglected. Cultural criminology has developed into a distinctive perspective on modern crime and its control. As its name suggests, cultural criminology focuses and emphasizes the role of culture which extends from a variety of topics such as subcultures of crime, shared styles and symbols, dynamics media and other related factors, in the formation of criminal natures, actions and criminal justice. Cultural criminologists argue that these factors are essential and therefore must be taken into account for a better understanding of crime in all its forms, such as a moment of victimization at home or on the street, crime as a collective activity or crime as a social problem as it relates to politics or the public. Some examples of what cultural criminologists study would be how criminal subcultures retain or recruit new members through shared experiences, specific clothing styles, and covert or distinctive means of communication. They also examine police officers and how they use and display their authority through the use of uniforms and how authority over criminal justice is symbolized in both courts and prisons. Another area of ​​interest in cultural criminology is media. More specifically, how popular films, television shows, and newspaper reports address themes of crime, criminals, and the justice system and how these portrayals influence public perception. On top of that, they also study politicians and legislators and how they prioritize and define certain crimes as more important than others and then manage to hide their definitions in laws and enforcement policies. With such an emphasis on culture and communication, it can be argued that cultural criminology allows criminologists and others to develop a more critical understanding of crime. This is due to the view that crime and criminology itself cannot be limited to criminals and the study of what they do, but rather must include different perceptions of how crime is perceived and specific meanings that crime develops for offenders, victims, and others involved. holidays. It also allows for a more in-depth examination of the consequences of these meanings and perceptions, while also allowing a critical look at the politics of current society. Cultural criminology not only has a qualitative methodological approach, but also requires an "ethnographic sensitivity", a dedication to being familiar with the phenomenology of crime or, as Young calls it, "the versatility, the pizzazz, the sensuality of the criminal act.” Rather than accepting the positivism of some quantitative studies, cultural criminologists believe that the importance of the criminal moment lies partly in the feeling of participating in crime and studying it, being both analytical and passionate about how whose crime affects everyone. On the other hand, cultural criminologists agree that focusing on the affective and agentive without clarifying structure would be incomplete work. Rather, they argue that action and structure constitute each other. There are a few central themes around which cultural criminology tends to focus while providing diverse areas of research. One of the central concepts is the “.’.