Mixed Methods, Ethnography, and Criminology/Criminal Justice Research

This chapter provides an overview of the historical dimensions of ethnographies using mixed-methods approaches, supported by examples from selected landmark works within this tradition. It presents the epistemological assumptions about knowledge production, positionality, and the types of questions typically asked by a criminologist using mixed methods and makes clear how they differ from ethnographies using other approaches and traditions. The chapter considers what ethnographies using a mixed-methods approach can produce that other approaches may not be able to. It then details how ethnographies using mixed methods can contribute to policy development, framing this against the perspectives and needs of policymakers. The chapter concludes by assessing the potential future contribution of ethnographically grounded mixed-methods research to crime and criminal justice issues.

Team Ethnographies in Studying Crime and Criminal Justice

This chapter provides an overview of the team ethnography approach and how scholars have used it to study crime, drug use, and deviance. Studies employing ethnographic methods of inquiry help us to understand crime from the perspective of those who engage in it. Generally, an ethnographer is a solitary investigator who goes out into the field alone, collects data alone, and returns home to write about it alone. There is no denying the insights gained about culture, structure, and human agency offered by such approaches. However, there are serious limitations to the solitary approach to ethnographic research, including quality control. To combat a number of issues associated with solitary ethnographies, some advocate working in teams (from pairs to larger groups) when working in the field. After providing overviews of several key team ethnographies of crime and drug use, we discuss some of the promises and pitfalls of the methodology. Specifically, we elaborate on how both researchers and participants may benefit from such an approach as well as point out some of the pitfalls to avoid. We supplement this section with examples from team ethnographies and our own personal experiences working with others in the field. We conclude by pointing to the larger benefits of team ethnographies and call for scholars to embrace the method.

The Oxford Handbook of Ethnographies of Crime and Criminal Justice

The Oxford Handbook of Ethnographies of Crime and Criminal Justice provides critical and current reviews of key research topics, issues, and debates that crime ethnographers have been grappling with for over a century. Despite its long and distinguished history in the social sciences, ethnographies in criminology are still relatively rare. Over the years, however, ethnographers in the United States and abroad have amassed an impressive body of work on core criminological topics and groups, including gang members, sex workers, drug dealers, and drug users. Ethnographies on criminal justice institutions have also flourished, with studies on police, courts, and prisons providing deep insights into how these organizations operate and shape the lives of people who encounter them. This volume brings together a stellar group of ethnographers to discuss various research traditions that crime ethnographers have adopted, the ethical and pragmatic challenges associated with conducting crime-related fieldwork, relevant policy recommendations for practitioners in the field, and areas of future research for budding crime ethnographers. In addition to exhaustive overview chapters, the handbook also presents case studies that serve as exemplars for how ethnographic inquiry can contribute to our understanding of crime and criminal justice related topics.

28. Punishment

This chapter discusses the place that punishment occupies as a response to crime. In many ways, the idea of punishment lies at the heart of our thinking about crime and criminal justice. It acts as a kind of balancing factor to the offence and seems like an obvious and natural consequence of a wrongful act, as in the biblical idea of ‘an eye for an eye’. However, the criminologist’s task is precisely to interrogate fundamental assumptions and to question the obvious. As such, there is a need to consider, with a critical eye, some well-established conventions such as the principle of ‘just deserts’ and the idea that we should make ‘the punishment fit the crime’. The chapter explores aspects of the historical development of punishment and its changing role in society and looks at particular forms of penal sanction, notably the death penalty, the use of imprisonment, and community-based alternatives to the deprivation of liberty. The chapter then assesses the role of the judiciary in administering punishments, the consequences of imposing punitive measures, and the criticisms of the use of punishment.