Doing criminological research
in ‘dangerous’ fields
EU-Project:
„Internationalization in Sociology and Criminology studies“
Vilnius/Lithuania
Cultural Criminology
Dina Siegel
• Cultural criminology
• Mainstream crim.
• 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)
• 'Objective' methods: survey
research (quantitative and
policy-oriented) dominates
(society of control/
prevention)
• Multidisciplinary, but keeping
own traditional methods
(statistics, macrosociological)
• Study of 'facts': positivistic
approach
• Basis in soc. positivism &
classic crim. theory
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)
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.
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)
• Presdee: our desire for extreme forms of
pleasure vs rationalization
• Dynamic society: space for expression and
desires outside the normative conformity
…and emotions
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
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)
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)
What is dangerous?
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
Bronislav Malinowski
(1884-1942)
Fieldwork vs.
‘Armchair researcher’
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
What is ‘dangerous’
• Physical threat, violence
• Carolyn Nordstrom and Ton
Robben, 1995, Fieldwork Under
Fire.
• Fear, uncertainty, (on frontline,
conflict area, dictatorship)
Dangerous gender
• Being a female researcher:
– Contradiction in cultural perceptions
– Doing research in a ‘men’s world’
Ethnographic fieldwork
Ethnographic fieldwork
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
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
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
Ethnographic research problems
 Time and efforts demanding
 Hidden nature  'off' the streets
 Violent nature  dangerous
 Good training is necessary (Utrecht
University provides)
‘Going native’ with criminals
• Ethical perspective (‘coming too
close means identify with…’)
• Too much seduction (moral
considerations)
(Sluka, 1990; Sutherland and
Cressey, 1967; etc.)
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
In cultural criminology: art, fiction
and images
 Lyrics (gangster rap, favela funk ,
narcocorridos, tango, etc.)  content
analysis, context
Art, fiction and images
 Paintings and photos
Art, fiction and images
 Films (film noir, Yakuza, Gangster films,
Latin American realism, etc.)
Art, fiction and images
 Literature (Cervantes, Shakespeare, Quincey
Baudelaire, London, Chandler, etc.)
 Comics
Art, fiction and images
 Advertising
Art, fiction and images
 Videogames
Art, fiction and images
Abu Ghraib – visual criminology
Images, art and music in Cultural Criminology
History: each new style and genre were received with suspicion
and misunderstanding
Example: 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?
Moral enterpreneurs about jazz in 19201930:
‘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)
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?