Critical Criminological Research

THE CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY COMPANION, T. Anthony, C. Cunneen, eds., Federation Press, 2008

Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 08/19

12 Pages Posted: 17 Jan 2008

See all articles by Julie Stubbs

Julie Stubbs

University of New South Wales (UNSW, Australia) - Faculty of Law

Abstract

Detailed engagement with research is commonly consigned to methods courses, often treated with suspicion or disdain as technocratic and resisted or avoided by students. It is typically divided off from courses on theory as if the two are easily separable. Yet research and the critical analysis of the construction of knowledge are fundamental to what we do as criminologists and especially to the perspectives described as critical criminology. For instance, the recognition of crime as a moral and political construct that is not fixed in time or place, that there is 'no ontological reality of crime', has profound theoretical and methodological implications that challenge the very notion that there might be a discipline of criminology (Young 2002: 254; Barton et al 2007:207). While this is acknowledged and given weight in some criminological traditions it is ignored by others.

This chapter can provide only a limited account of the large, diverse and fluid field of critical criminological research. In doing so it risks suggesting greater consistency and uniformity than the field contains and will necessarily gloss over key debates, tensions and controversies in what is a continually unfolding area.

Keywords: Critical criminology, research, theory, methodology, pedagogy

JEL Classification: K10, K14, I20

Suggested Citation

Stubbs, Julie, Critical Criminological Research. THE CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY COMPANION, T. Anthony, C. Cunneen, eds., Federation Press, 2008, Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 08/19, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1084684

Julie Stubbs (Contact Author)

University of New South Wales (UNSW, Australia) - Faculty of Law ( email )

Kensington
High St
Sydney, NSW 2052
Australia

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