Policing Criminological Knowledge: The Hazards of Qualitative Research on Women in Prison

• NCJ Number: 206292
• Journal: Theoretical Criminology Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2004 Pages: 157-189
• Author(s): Joane Martel
• Date Published: May 2004
• Length: 33 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

Drawing on the sociology-of-knowledge literature, this paper exposes several social mechanisms used to police the production and circulation of criminological knowledge, using as an illustration the marginalization of a particular Canadian research project that yielded disquieting research.

Abstract

The research project at issue focused on the segregation of women prisoners from the general prison population in order to protect or punish them. Data were collected on the women's experiences and was conducted by a female researcher. In spite of sustained efforts to circulate the study's findings about prison practices and human suffering, the study and the prison practices analyzed were ignored and/or criticized by several audiences it sought to influence. The research report published in 2000 was trivialized by the media, ignored by prison authorities, and disqualified by administrative criminologists. Following an overview of the research, this paper reviews the literature on the policing of knowledge, followed by the development of a theoretical framework that draws on actor-network theory, feminist analyses of science, and technology studies. Combining case study and theory, the paper is divided into subsections that correspond to the various stages of the research on prison segregation. The topics addressed are the elaboration and realization of the study, the release of findings in the scientific community and subsequently in the media, and the elaboration of a broader proposal for future research. This paper highlights three key mechanisms through which knowledge still tends to be "policed" in criminological research; i.e., "bipolarization," which divides knowledge into paradigmatic universes typically conceived as mutually exclusive; "banalization," which involves social processes that trivialize alternative methodologies and knowledge claims; and the "interpenetration" of criminological knowledge and the media that blurs boundaries between the two. 27 notes and 88 references