Lois Presser is an American criminologist and professor at the University of Tennessee. Her research focuses on narrative criminology, qualitative criminological methods, punishment, mass harm, and social justice. Presser is best known for developing Narrative Criminology together with Sveinung Sandberg. Her work examines how stories shape criminal behavior, justify violence, and structure moral understandings of harm and deviance. She has also contributed to debates on state crime, collective violence, and the cultural dimensions of punishment.
Lois Presser is considered one of the central founders of Narrative Criminology. Her work shifted attention from purely structural explanations of crime toward the stories individuals and groups use to interpret and legitimize harmful behavior. Presser conceptualizes narratives as “discursive actions” that actively shape social reality rather than merely describing it. Her research connects criminology with interpretive sociology, symbolic interactionism, cultural criminology, and narrative identity theory. In later works, she expanded the approach to analyze mass violence, political extremism, and collective harm.
