Pragmatics of Crime Ethnographies

This chapter lays out some of the “how to” of crime ethnographies, from its early planning stages to securing funding and institutional approval, going through ethics review, and arriving at the field site. It also provides an overview of the difficulties establishing and maintaining a presence in different criminological field sites, the ethical dilemmas involved in carrying out a crime ethnography, and questions about positionality that researchers have to contemplate. It further provides an insight into how ethnographic knowledge is produced in practice, from writing field notes to questions about if, when, and how to record to analyzing data and discusses questions of staying safe and when to leave the field.