Special Issue on Ethnography, Crime and Criminal Justice

There was a period in the US and Britain between the late 1960s and 1980s when many ethnographies were published in criminology, socio-legal studies and the sociology of deviance about different criminal subcultures and the criminal justice process. Today, the main criminology journals mostly publish quantitative studies, with the exception of evaluations that tend to portray programs in a positive light, and do not normally describe the work of practitioners in much depth. There are exceptions, such as Philippe Bourgois' (2003) In Search of Respect, which was based on spending a year, as a covert observer, participating in the daily activities of a crack house, although without taking drugs or engaging in acts of violence. This ethnography by a critical anthropologist received a great deal of praise from criminologists, and is often recommended to undergraduates. This is the exception to a neglect of ethnography and, perhaps more importantly, a lack of interest among mainstream criminologists in the methodological issues that arise when employing this research method and in qualitative research more generally.