Interviewing Elites, Experts and the Powerful in Criminology

This book offers practical advice on designing, conducting and analyzing interviews with 'elite' and 'expert' persons (or 'socially prominent actors'), with a focus on criminology and criminal justice. It offers dilemmas and examples of 'good' and 'bad' practices in order to encourage readers to critically asses their own work. It also addresses methodological issues which include: access, power imbalances, getting past 'corporate answers', considerations of whether or not it is at times acceptable to ask leading questions and whether to enter a discussion with a respondent at all. This book will be valuable to students and scholars conducting qualitative research.

Speaks practically to those in the field of criminology and the wider social sciences Includes vivid examples from the authors' research practice Explains the practical do's and don'ts of interviewing in an accessible way Builds on the current interest in elite and expert interviewing in Criminology in particular

Autorentext

Olga Petintseva is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Her expertise is located at the intersection of criminology, migration studies and socio-linguistics.

Julie Tieberghien is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Ghent, Belgium.
Rita Faria is Assistant Professor at the School of Criminology, University of Porto, Portugal. Rita does research in white-collar crime, research misconduct and the use of qualitative methods in Criminology.
Yarin Eski is Assistant Professor at the Knowledge Hub Security and Social Resilience of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in 2015 from the University of Glasgow.

Zusammenfassung

"The handbook provides exceptional strategies, recommendations, and guidelines for researchers who seek to conduct interviews with the powerful. ... This handbook is appropriate for a large audience including graduate students and all researchers/professors who seek to conduct quality qualitative analysis with powerful actors in a variety of disciplines. Overall, this book is exceptional, and I highly recommend it to those in the criminal justice field." (Megan J. Parker, Crime Law and Social Change, June 23, 2020)

"The book is particularly useful for those preparing for fieldwork who are not planning to study the kind of people the penal system is designed to detect, judge and lock up - the kind of people criminology is designed to study." (Ignacio González-Sánchez, European Journal of Probation, May 13, 2020)

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Interviewing 'The Powerful' In Crime And Crime Control.- 3. Interview Models And Researcher's Self-Positioning.- 4. Their Reign, Their Game? Accessing The Powerful.- 5. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare.- 6. Conducting The Interview.- 7. Making Sense Of The Data.