Full Description
This book compiles the fieldwork experiences of 55 researchers, addressing the challenges, ethical considerations, and methodologies employed to study 30 diverse populations and phenomena within Criminology and Security Studies. This volume contributes to filling a gap in academic literature by highlighting the often unspoken realities and intricacies of fieldwork.
The book is systematically structured into five thematic sections: The Powerful, The Invisible, The Vulnerable, The Violent, and The Cyber. These categories encompass various aspects and dimensions of fieldwork, including managing emotional distress, negotiating access through gatekeepers, ensuring the protection of informants, and exercising discretion in navigating sensitive issues.
As a scholarly resource, this book is invaluable for academics, practitioners, and students involved in criminology, security studies, anthropology, sociology, and political science. By offering in-depth reflections and insights, this volume enhances the reader's understanding of the nuances of fieldwork, and informs the development of robust and ethical research practices.
Chapters 2, 9 and 11 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Contents
Foreword.- Introduction.- Chapter 1. Talking with spies: from naïve to distrustful researcher.- Chapter 2. Doing research on, for and with Police in Canada and Switzerland: Practical and methodological insights.- Chapter 3. Research in probation settings: experience and "field policy".- Chapter 4. Silence of the altars: Researching sexual abuse in religious institutions in Catalonia (Spain).- Chapter 5. Studying the military: unlocking a closed organization.- Chapter 6. Researching the elites of power: the case of the parliamentarians.- Chapter 7. Challenges and complexities when researching vulnerable populations and sensitive topics: Working with women experiencing violence and homelessness.- Chapter 8. Researching party zones: Drugs, alcohol, and the night.- Chapter 9. Conducting criminological practitioner research with sex workers in Switzerland.- Chapter 10. Fieldwork and ethical challenges on criminological research with immigrants.- Chapter 11. Researching the Roma in criminology and legal studies: Experiences from urban and rural participant observation, interviews and surveys.- Chapter 12. Street children, criminological research and emotional labour: Reflections from the field.- Chapter 13. Research in child and adolescent victimization: Incentives, threats and challenges.- Chapter 14. Research with trafficking victims. Exploring methods, ethics and emotions.- Chapter 15. How to do criminological research on, for, and with children and young people.- Chapter 16. Researching imprisoned persons: Views from Spain and Latin America.- Chapter 17. Language, emotions, and access to refugee women: Ingredients for reflexivity.- Chapter 18. Gangs: Fieldwork experiences, ethical dilemmas, and emotions in youth street groups research.- Chapter 19. Exploring organized crime beyond institutional sources.- Chapter 20. How to investigate a criminal psychopath?.- Chapter 21. Researching extremists and terrorists: Reflections on interviewing hard-to-reach populations.- Chapter 22. Conducting research with, and on perpetrators of domestic and family violence: insights from Australian research.- Chapter 23. Protecting them, protecting you: tips and cautions when doing research in sexual offending.- Chapter 24. Control, confusion, and failure: Fieldwork in areas of violent conflict and limited state authority.- Chapter 25. Using ethnography to access, understand and reflect on video observation of violence.- Chapter 26. Researching cybersecurity governance: Insights from fieldwork with cybersecurity experts and end-users.- Chapter 27. Fieldwork experiences researching cybercriminals.- Chapter 28. Hidden platforms for cybercrime: Experiences investigating darknet service.- Chapter 29. Conducting psychosocial research with victims of sexting and online sexual victimization.- Chapter 30. Researching cyberbullying: A colorful palette of methods and experiences.- Chapter 31. Researching hate: Negotiating the digital as field site in the study of extremist cultures and propaganda online.- Chapter 32 Deciphering the unspoken: A collective examination of sensitive fieldwork experiences in Criminology and Security Studies.
