NCJ Number
190253
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 41 Issue: 3 Dated: Summer 2001 Pages: 431-442
Editor(s)
Geoffrey Pearson
Date Published
2001
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article examined the imprisonment of women from a historical perspective to uncover continuities with the present in the causes and experiences of punishment, as well as the research process itself.
Abstract
This article described methodological issues that arose from the author’s research on early modern women’s imprisonment in order to reflect on broader questions about how crime and punishment were studied. The article concentrated on three methodological problems raised by historical inquiry. The author demonstrated that the ways in which a criminologist interprets their data, what evidence exists, and the emotional repercussions of writing on crime and punishment revealed the researcher’s ethical stance towards their subjects and the allegiances they created with them. It was argued that emotional and ideological issues transcended time and culture and they were built into the research goals of the discipline itself. When considering punishment in the past, it became clear that in order to challenge the current system of incarceration, must begin with some of the entrenched methodological traditions of criminology. In challenging criminology, research methods are the first-line of attack because they are sources upon which the form and legitimacy of the discipline rests. References