Science and technology studies has been an area where new analytical tools are constantly being elaborated. This paper proposes the sociology of expectations, developed in the past decade, as a new perspective to be used when analysing debates usually explored by science policy theories, and investigates the advantages and shortfalls of this discipline. To do so, the author uses an ensemble of work from the sociology of expectations to offer a different reading of the prosecution of six scientists and a government official in Italy, found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after an earthquake left over 300 victims in L’Aquila.