The Criminological Imagination Imagined

The Problem of Procrastination Perverts and Lawyers in Criminology Today.

I am reading Jock Young’s new book “The Criminological Imagination” – and thoroughly enjoying his rhetorical take on the subject. That is, apart from his usual obsession with accepting as real the obscure and, anyway, contested notion of post modernism and despite his occasional recidivist's tendency towards pompous verstehen nomenclature seeding – tempered thankfully by a transparent attempt to detoxify his usual translucent sociological style in this book so as not to fall fowl of his own criticisms against quantitative criminology relying upon obscure language to obscure its weaknesses.

The point of this blog post is to pick up on what Young laments on pages 22 and 23 of his – so far highly enjoyable – book. Amongst other things, here Young is pointing out that ethics committees, combined with the Codes of Ethics of the American Sociological Association - have all but destroyed the most edgy and useful ethnographic work in criminology. He is right.

In my own experience, at my current university, we now have a policy that undergraduate students simply are not allowed out into the field to study active offenders. The reasons for this, however, are not just due to ethical concerns regarding their subjects – and the fear of being sued by legal aid, or no win no fee lawyers, they are largely driven with health and safety concerns for students and fear of their bogey-man lawyers. These same concerns are now stultifying post-graduate and staff research. Many have been thwarted at the first hurdle. Many now don’t bother trying. Academics all over the western industrialised world, that I've spoken with, are saying the same thing.

In my own experience – due to the time my ethics committee took to approve my ethnography with a career criminal (six months!) my previously very willing subject got cold feet because (I learned from one of their relatives) they thought things were taking so long because the university must have informed the police and that I must be part of a carefully planned undercover investigative team. Successful offenders are rationally paranoid.

The bean counters have taken over academia

These ethics committees, which thrive in the current university meetings culture, are characteristically staffed with administration loving unimaginative procrastination perverts who are sitting around jaw, jawing about other people’s research ideas and intentions because they have none of their own.

Here is my answer to ethics committees. Screw them. Just go around them. Go Gonzo. Do and publish your research anonymously. Then cite it in your own published work! Let’s see how they will deal with that. If enough of us do it then we’ll all know whose research it is but we’ll be protected from the lawyers and procrastination perverts.

Screw Ethics: Go Gonzo and Do Your Research Anonymously

I’d like to hear your own stories about how ethics committees have wrecked your own research. That’s what the comments section here is for.

Anonymous George