Doing criminological research in

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Doing criminological research in dangerous
fieldsEU-ProjectInternationalization in
Sociology and Criminology studiesVilnius/Lithuan
ia

• Cultural Criminology
• Dina Siegel

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• Cultural criminology
• Ethnographic methods (qualitative) each method
  which reveals meaning, experience emotion of
  crime engaged criminology
• Multidisciplinary from different fields
  (postmodern approach) visual/ textual, film,
  art, music etc.
• Study of emotions experiences, meaning making
• Roots critical criminology( phenomenology)

• Mainstream crim.
• 'Objective' methods survey research
  (quantitative and policy-oriented) dominates
  (society of control/ prevention)
• Multidisciplinary, but keeping own traditional
  methods (statistics, macro- sociological)
• Study of 'facts' positivistic approach
• Basis in soc. positivism classic crim. theory

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Cultural criminology was born

• Because new research (research methods) is
  needed
• Because of a domination of policy-making projects
• CC aks not what works, but why, for whom
  and under which conditions (Nelen, 2008)
• Search of meaning and interpretation
• Criminology is an object study with sometimes
  unbridgeable differences, therefore we need to
  conduct a detailed analysis (Bovenkerk, 2008)

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Differences

• Mainstream vs. CC
• Mainstream reason intervention
• Cultural Criminology experience reckoning
  (Boutellier, 2008)
• Key concepts in CC meaning, emotion, expression,
  consumerism, representation, style, social
  construction, power, reputation, virtual
  identity, etc.

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Mike Presdee, 2000, Cultural Criminology and the
Carnival of Crime. London Routledge

• Criminality and violence can be enjoyable
• Carnival character of a temporary reversal of a
  social order
• In present culture - carnival transgression,
  when it has to do with truth, authority and
  consumption
• Second life incl. immoral, non-civilized social
  behavior, fantasy, unconscious consumption of
  criminality (in media egoism, decay)

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• Presdee our desire for extreme forms of
  pleasure vs rationalization
• Dynamic society space for expression and desires
  outside the normative conformity

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and emotions
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Study of emotions in Cultural Criminology

• Step 1. Recognizing importance of human emotions
  in crime, punishment and social control
• Step 2. Understanding how emotions work and what
  are the reasons
• Step 3 Analyzing the phenomenological basis,
  placing emotions in the context of situations,
  aesthetics and social interaction

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• Jack Katz, How Emotions Work, 1999
• Emotions are on one hand outside our control
  (hysteric)
• On the other hand make up a part of our lives
  (subjective)
• Analysis of emotional condition or experience
  understanding background (power, gender, social
  class, ethnicity)

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Difficult and dangerous communities

• Cultural criminologists apply ethnographic
  research methods
• It often fails, but if successful
• Excellent to research culture, motives,
  backgrounds, perceptions, internal and external
  relations, functions, relations with street
  crime, with economy and with social context. Also
  good for the mundane and common (everyday life)

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What is dangerous?
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What is dangerous?

• Something unknown means must be discovered,
  revealed, understood.
• Nikolai Miklucho-Maklai (1846-1888) Indonesia
  and Australia ethnography
• Bronislav Malinowski Trobriand Islands
  participant observation

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Bronislav Malinowski (1884-1942)
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Fieldwork vs.Armchair researcher

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Dangerous fields Unknown city

• Chicago School
• Robert Park, William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki
• Criminological research
• Ned Polsky (1969) hustlers
• William Chambliss (1978) corrupt officials
• Patricia Adler (1985) drugs dealers

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What is dangerous

• Physical threat, violence
• Carolyn Nordstrom and Ton Robben, 1995, Fieldwork
  Under Fire.
• Fear, uncertainty, (on frontline, conflict area,
  dictatorship)

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Dangerous gender

• Being a female researcher
• Contradiction in cultural perceptions
• Doing research in a mens world

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Ethnographic fieldwork
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Ethnographic fieldwork
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Research on Organized Crime in the Netherlands

• Frank Bovenkerk and Yucel Yesilgoz - The Turkish
  Mafia
• Informants babas (leaders of the Turkish
  heroin trafficking networks) and drug couriers
• Participant observation in coffee-houses,
  informal settings
• Most important conclusions second generation
  migrants serve the heroin traders, this is the
  chance for poor young Turks to climb up on a
  social ladder in the Netherlands.

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Colombian traquetos

• Damian Zaitch
• Informants cocaine dealers, Colombian
  prostitutes
• Participant observation salsa clubs Red light
  district informal settings
• Important conclusions no cartels, demand/supply,
  no violence

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Russian Mafia in the Netherlands

• Research in 1999-2004, as a result of
• contract killings of Russian criminals in the
• Netherlands
• Informants Russian businessmen legal
• semi-legal and criminal.
• Participant observation Russian restaurants,
  informal settings.
• Important conclusion Russian Mafia did not
  present a threat to the Dutch economy and
  democracy, Russian mafia is not embedded in the
  Russian immigrant community. Activities in the
  Netherlands extortion, money laundering, women
  trafficking, car theft

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Ethnographic research problems

• Time and efforts demanding
• Hidden nature ? 'off' the streets
• Violent nature ? dangerous
• Good training is necessary (Utrecht University
  provides)

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Going native with criminals

• Ethical perspective (coming too close means
  identify with)
• Too much seduction (moral considerations)
• (Sluka, 1990 Sutherland and Cressey, 1967 etc.)

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Ethnographic fieldwork

• Seems to be more successful in some activities
  (drugs), aspects (underground), location (public)
  and groups (young, groups, ethnic minorities) ?
  more and more done in the area of human
  trafficking, corporate crime and in prisons

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In cultural criminology art, fiction and images

• Lyrics (gangster rap, favela funk ,
  narcocorridos, tango, etc.) ? content analysis,
  context

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Art, fiction and images

• Paintings and photos

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Art, fiction and images

• Films (film noir, Yakuza, Gangster films, Latin
  American realism, etc.)

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Art, fiction and images

• Literature (Cervantes, Shakespeare, Quincey
  Baudelaire, London, Chandler, etc.)

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Art, fiction and images

• Comics

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Art, fiction and images

• Advertising

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Art, fiction and images

• Videogames

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Abu Ghraib visual criminology
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History each new style and genre were received
with suspicion and misunderstandingExample
Jazz in the 1920s labeled as primitive,
degrading, etc. Why? Emotional features, or
political symbols, protest, dreams?What was
criminal in jazz?Can music be a reason for
criminality?

• Images, art and music in Cultural Criminology

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Moral enterpreneurs about jazz in 1920-1930

• Give up your masculinity, let yourself be
  castrated (Adorno)
• Jazz has the same effect on the brain as
  alcohol (Dr. Elliot Rawlings)
• In 1921-22 jazz had caused the downfall of 1000
  girls in Chicago (Illinois Vigilance Association)

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Doing ethnographic research in criminology is

• Difficult but not impossible
• The data is there, the problem that
  criminologists are not (Chambliss)
• Make you hands dirty!
• Questions?