Criminology posits objectivity and neutrality as the ideal standard for research methods, yet traditional definitions of objectivity and neutrality have historically been constructed by White, cisgender men and used to gauge the legitimacy of criminological research. This paper is an examination of the difficulties of studying Black women and girls’ offending and victimization as a Black woman researcher, including the “pushback” for what was seen as race exclusion in a gender violence issue. Based on my qualitative research with Black women survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation, I introduce “Black feminist liberatory ethics,” a set of guidelines and ethics of care for studying Black women and girls and their experiences criminal legal system amid the continuing struggle of liberation from oppression. I argue research can include liberatory practices for historically oppressed groups from systemic and epistemic injustice by revolutionizing traditional criminological research methods.
Crime & Delinquency invited submissions for a special issue on Qualitative Criminology and Victimology in 2021. This double special issue aimed to amplify qualitative methodologies in criminology, criminal justice, and victimology research. The diverse range of articles and commentaries draw on a variety of qualitative methods to advance the discipline.
bell hooks was a tour-de-force in feminist studies and cultural studies, two disciplines that are seemingly separate from criminal justice and criminology. That distance is what first illuminated for me a critical need, an emptiness in how to connect and understand community and scholarship as a Black woman researching race, gender, and “justice.” Love, according to hooks, is a source of transformation for individuals and for society. It is that same principal of love and transformation that should be necessary for criminologists who purport to study inequalities and the criminal legal system yet is often absent. Love is also necessary to inspire evolution of academics and of scholarship.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.