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.

Protective Factors in the Sexual Offending Area: Analysis of the Concept and a Preliminary Model

<p>Traditionally, there has been a preoccupation with the concept of risk in criminal justice research and practice, with very little emphasis placed on the notion of protection. Recently, forensic psychology researchers and practitioners have become more interested in the idea of protective factors – the factors that are association with a reduction rather than an increase in offending. However, this area of research is in its infancy, and much is still unclear. The current thesis aims to analyse the development of this concept, as well as how it is currently understood. I will argue that current conceptualisations of protection are limited, and will outline a range of criticisms. I then develop a preliminary model that will aim to overcome these problems. More specifically, I will clearly define the notion of protection, offer an explanation of how protective factors may exert their protective effects, and discuss how this understanding of protection can be applied to offender interventions.</p>

Protective Factors in the Sexual Offending Area: Analysis of the Concept and a Preliminary Model

<p>Traditionally, there has been a preoccupation with the concept of risk in criminal justice research and practice, with very little emphasis placed on the notion of protection. Recently, forensic psychology researchers and practitioners have become more interested in the idea of protective factors – the factors that are association with a reduction rather than an increase in offending. However, this area of research is in its infancy, and much is still unclear. The current thesis aims to analyse the development of this concept, as well as how it is currently understood. I will argue that current conceptualisations of protection are limited, and will outline a range of criticisms. I then develop a preliminary model that will aim to overcome these problems. More specifically, I will clearly define the notion of protection, offer an explanation of how protective factors may exert their protective effects, and discuss how this understanding of protection can be applied to offender interventions.</p>

Biometric statehood, transnational solutionism and security devices: The performative dimensions of the IOM’s MIDAS

This article contributes to border criminology and transnational criminal justice research into the role of transnational actors in shaping practices of global justice, punishment and control, as well as to the criminological analysis of penal technologies. I examine the performative effects of the Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) developed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and I argue that these effects are multidimensional. For beneficiary states, the deployment of MIDAS constitutes a performance of sovereign territorial power, affirming membership in the international society of (biometrically capable) states. For the IOM, the development and deployment of MIDAS and carrying out training sessions operate as pedagogical interventions legitimizing the organization as a neutral, technical expert of migration management. Finally, MIDAS itself performatively acts upon its targets, constituting ‘the migrant’ as a governable, potentially risky subject and constituting ‘migration’ as a problem amenable to depoliticized techno-solutionist interventions.

Key Finding: Result of a Qualitative Study of Judicial Perspectives on the Sentencing of Minor Drug Offenders in Indonesia: Structural Inequality

Although there have been a number of recent developments in criminal justice research on the topic of structural inequality sentencing, much work is needed to explore the judicial perspective. Researchers use this paper illustrates how a recent study used qualitative semi-structure interviews to study current judicial perspectives on sentencing of minor drug offenders in Indonesia. This paper reports a recent study of judicial perspectives when sentencing minor drug offenders in Indonesia. Firstly, it reviews existing sentencing option and recent development that motivated me to explore the issues of justice among Indonesian Judges. Secondly, it reports the procedures and method used in the recent study. Thirdly, it reports the appropriateness of the methodology chosen, and how it may influence the finding of the study. Finally, it reports the judicial perception on structural inequality.

Documenting Current Practices of Accommodating Linguistic Needs of Deaf Defendants

Deaf defendants are an underexamined population in criminal justice research, and very few studies have examined their involvement in the criminal justice system. In addition, research on accommodating the linguistic needs of deaf defendants is sparse. Failure to accommodate the linguistic needs of deaf defendants presents several concerns, including disparate treatment and violations of ADA-guaranteed rights that may lead to inadmissible evidence, dismissals of cases, and not-guilty verdicts, as well as lawsuits and litigation, all of which create additional strain on an already overburdened system. The current study combines previous research on deaf defendants with the findings of data gathered from courtroom practitioners nationwide to gain an understanding of the current practices used to facilitate communication during criminal trials involving deaf defendants.