This book explores the ways in which criminological methods can be imaginatively deployed and developed in a world increasingly characterized by the blurred nature of social reality. Whilst recognizing the importance of positivist approaches and research techniques, it advocates a commitment to understanding the ways in which those techniques can be used imaginatively, at times in combination with less conventional methods, discussing the questions concerning risk, ethics and access that arise as a result. Giving voice to cutting edge research practices both in terms of concepts and methods that shift the criminological focus towards the kind of imaginative work that comprised the foundations of the discipline, it calls into question the utility and credentials of mainstream work that fails to serve the discipline itself or the policy questions allied to it. A call not to 'give up on numbers' but also not to be defined by statistics and the methods that produce them, Liquid Criminology sheds light on a way of doing research for criminology that is not only creative but also critical. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, criminology and social policy with interests in research methods and design.
Preface and Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
Introduction: Introducing 'Liquid Criminology', (Sandra Walklate and Michael Hviid Jacobsen)
Part I Using Conventional Methods Imaginatively
1. Doing Imaginative Criminology, (Pat Carlen)
2. Using Crime Surveys as Tools of Critical Insight and Progressive Change, (Walter S. DeKeseredy)
3. 'Snitches Get Stitches'? Telling Tales on Homicide Detectives, (Louise Westmarland)
4. Forensic Criminology as Research Problem: Using Traditional Processes in a Forensic Context, (Wayne Petherick and Claire Ferguson)
Part II Developing Imaginative Methods
5. Studying the Marginalized with Mixed Methods, (Maggie O'Neill)
6. The 'Typical Victim': No Story to Tell and No One to Tell it To, (Ross McGarry)
7. Doing Visual Criminology: Learning from Documentary, Journalism and Sociology, (Eamonn Carrabine)
8. Liquid Crime History: Digital Entrepreneurs and the Industrial Production of 'Ruined Lives', (Barry Godfrey)
Part III The Craft and Challenges of Imaginative Liquid Criminology9. 'Risky' Research and Discretion in Pursuing the Criminological Imagination, (Matthew Bacon and Teela Sanders)
10. Gaining Access and Managing Gatekeepers: Undertaking Criminological Research with Those 'Within' the System, (Kate Fitz-Gibbon)
11. The Politics of Doing Imaginative Criminological Research, (Kerry Carrington and Ashleigh Larkin)
Conclusion: Revisiting 'Liquid Criminology': Politics, Poetics, Pitfalls and Promises, (Michael Hviid Jacobsen and Sandra Walklate)
Postscript: Under the Slab, (Jeff Ferrell)
Index
