NCJ Number
97932
Journal
Crime and Justice Volume: 7/8 Issue: 3/4 Dated: (1979/1980) Pages: 220-225
Date Published
1980
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The obstacles faced by a female researcher involved in participant-observation studies in the field of criminology and criminal justice are examined, with a focus on their methodological implications.
Abstract
In doing fieldwork in the predominantly male environment of a police department and a prosecutor's office, the female researcher must acquire the shared meanings of doing justice and the culturally acquired and shared knowledge of being male. During the first weeks at the sites, the researcher was continually reminded that her presence would disrupt the ongoing justice work merely because of her gender. The researcher's ability to gain access and to remain in the field depends on established rapport with the subjects, a rapport that is established through sex-role relationships. The researcher must gain access to the all-male fraternity, an endeavor in which she is likely to encounter resistance. She also may encounter implicit or explicit (direct propositions) forms of hustling from the various male actors. Finally, merely by her presence, the woman researcher often is given the role of mascot. Each of these gender-related roles presents methodological and personal problems for the female researcher that must be overcome in addition to the standard obstacles faced by any researcher in criminal justice. Included are 12 references.