Golden threads and cross-cutting themes

The first golden thread that runs throughout the book and its chapters is that doing research involves engaging in a process of decision making. Doing Criminological Research commences by stressing the importance of: preparing and planning your research; designing your research project such that it will shed a light on your research questions; reflective thinking about decisions you have made and are making; and forward thinking about how you will undertake the research and analyse, write up and present it. Focusing on decision making at the preparation and planning stage encourages you to take decisions to rule out, as far as possible, potential risks and threats to the validity of your conclusions (see more below). One key initial decision concerns the choice of subject matter of research, or what is sometimes referred to as the research problem. This decision is pivotal because the research subject or problem provides the main focus for your research project and is a major influence on subsequent decisions about the ways in which your project is to be accomplished.

Another key decision that the book is concerned with is the kinds of methods to

use and the sorts of data to collect. Crucially, each decision must be properly rea- soned and justified to ensure that the research is as valid, reliable and robust as it can be. All of the chapters explore the many ways in which criminological research is entered into and carried out. They consider the exciting and innovative ways in which criminological researchers execute their research. This book assembles a col- lection of chapters that illustrate the importance of planning, preparing, doing and presenting criminological research, with each of the contributors giving some thought to these various stages. Importantly, they do this by drawing on their own experiences of doing criminology in the field, and by describing and reflecting on the decisions they made throughout that process.

The second golden thread that runs throughout the book and its chapters is that of the excitement, fun and reward of doing high-quality criminological research. Despite the need for good decision making, in what is often an uncer- tain and messy environment of working, doing criminological research is really exciting. Whether you are a third-year undergraduate student embarking on your dissertation; a postdoctoral researcher undertaking a funding council fel- lowship; an associate professor or a professor of criminology leading a collaborative research project, outlining the topic and the reasons for the research, developing your thinking and ideas as the evidence unfolds against a research question that you have formulated in light of an identified problem, can be hugely rewarding. Why wouldn’t it be – after all, it involves doing what you want to do, in an area that you are interested in, with the intention of gen- erating new and original research outputs and outcomes. Done well, it can stoke the criminological imagination; certainly it can ensure curiosity, challenge and criticality remain central to your thinking and practice – essential for being a good researcher. With this in mind, central to this book is the importance of the criminological imagination to doing criminological research. Indeed, each con- tributor focuses on how criminological research is accomplished. Each chapter does so through illustrations and exemplifications from those who have experi- enced doing criminological research in the field – even when their field is an office, library, archive and desk!

A third golden thread that runs throughout the book and its chapters is that

despite the best-laid plans, the practice and experience of doing criminological research can be, and often is, different to that envisaged. That is, whilst decision making is key, sometimes those decisions may turn out to be wrong, or sometimes you may well need to make additional decisions that run counter to those you first made, to address errors in previous thinking or issues that have arisen in practice. Research is a social activity often influenced by factors external to and outside the control of the investigator. It is not possible to escape the reality that even the best-laid plans and designs have to be actualized in social, institutional, economic, cultural and political contexts. Many of these factors, often in differ- ent combinations, can be constraints and can have a profound effect on the outcome of research. Feminist scholars have long argued that ‘methodology mat- ters’ (Stanley, 1993), yet it remains usual for the messiness of research to be sanitized, de-emotionalized and glossed over in published reports. Following Stanley and Wise (1993), Letherby (2003: 79) reminds us of the ‘“dirtiness” of so-called “hygienic” research’. The untold hours of personal, ethical and reflex- ive pondering that goes on in preparing for and planning criminological research, around research design and operationalization, entry to the field, during field- work, on exiting the field and in the analysis, writing up, dissemination, conclusion and impact of research, are rarely acknowledged. This is often hard and challenging emotional toil and labour which researchers do and experience,

yet often they are encouraged to pretend they do not. Contributors to this volume dwell on some of these details and reflect, where possible, on how they might have overcome them.

The fourth and final golden thread that runs throughout the book and its chap- ters is the importance of reflexivity. In the main, social and criminological researchers are concerned with individuals – although not always at first hand – and these are people with feelings, opinions, motives, likes and dislikes. What is more, typically, criminological research is a form of interaction and what comes to pass as ‘knowledge’ can be the result of interactions in the research process. We have already noted that decision making is a theme that we see as key to conduct- ing criminological research from start to finish. Reflecting on the decisions which have been taken in research and on the problems which have been encountered is an essential element of doing research. In fact, it is often the case that a reflexive account is published as part of a research report or a book; indeed, whole articles, chapters and even books have been written on this very topic. Typically, such an account covers all phases and aspects of the research process. For example, it will outline and discuss how a research problem came to take the shape that it did, how and why certain cases were selected for study and not others, the difficulties faced in data collection, and the various influences on the formulation of conclusions and their publication. Reflexive accounts should not be solely descriptive but should also be analytical and evaluative. Reflexivity is not a self-indulgent exercise akin to showing photographs to others to illustrate the ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ of a recent holi- day. Rather, it is a vital part of demonstrating the factors which have contributed to the social production of knowledge. The contributors to this book reflect on, and offer transparent accounts of, the various constraints and impediments to research, the decisions they made, the operational rules they followed and the methodological choices they often had to continuously ‘make up’ during the research process, in order to ensure their research stands up to ethical scrutiny and is valid.