This article draws on the sociology of knowledge literature to bring to light several social mechanisms used to police the production and circulation of criminological knowledge. The discussion draws from actor-network theory and feminist analyses in science and technology studies to make visible mechanisms of construction, filtering, negotiation and appropriation. By way of illustration, the article draws on an actual case of scientific, political and media marginalization of disquieting research findings on prison conditions in Canada. Taking these reactions as a starting point, the analysis discusses, among other things, the hierarchy of paradigms and the gendered structures that affect researchers’ admission into a scientific community and their access to discursive resources.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Albert, Mathieu and Paul Bernard (2000) ‘Faire Utile ou Faire Savant? La “Nouvelle Production de Connaissances” et la Sociologie Universitaire Qu¥eb¥ecoise’ , Sociologie et Soci¥et¥es32(1): 71–92 .
2.
Amann, Klaus and Karin Knorr-Cetina (1990) ‘The Fixation of (Visual) Evidence’, in Michael Lynch and Steven Woolgar (eds) Representation in Scientific Practice, pp. 85–122. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .
3.
Arrigo, Bruce A. (1999) ‘Critical Criminology’s Discontent: The Perils of Publishing and the Call to Action’ , The Critical Criminologist(newsletter)10(1): 10–13 .
4.
Baro, Agnes and Helen Eigenberg (1993) ‘Images of Gender: A Content Analysis of Photographs in Introductory Criminology and Criminal Justice Textbooks’ , Women and Criminal Justice5(1): 3–36 .
5.
Baron, Stephen W. (1989) ‘The Canadian West Coast Punk Subculture: A Field Study’ , Canadian Journal of Sociology14(1): 289–316 .
6.
Baudrillard, Jean (1981) Simulacres et Simulation. Paris: ¥Editions Galil¥ee .
7.
Baudrillard, Jean (1993) The Transparency of Evil. Essays on Extreme Phenomena. London: Verso .
8.
Bosworth, Mary (1999) Engendering Resistance: Agency and Power in Women’s Prisons. Aldershot: Ashgate Press .
9.
Bosworth, Mary (2001) ‘The Past as a Foreign Country? Some Methodological Implications of Doing Historical Criminology’ , British Journal of Criminology41(3): 431–442 .
10.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1969) ‘Intellectual Field and Creative Project’ , Social Science Information8(9): 89–119 . First published in French in 1966.
11.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of Taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press .
12.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1992) R¥eponses. Pour une Anthropologie R¥eflexive.Paris: Seuil.
13.
Bourdieu, Pierre and Jean-Claude Passeron (1990) Reproduction in Education, Society, and Culture. London: Sage Publications .
14.
Bourgois, Philippe (1995) In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press .
15.
Bowker, Lee H., Michelle Arbitell and J. Richard McFerron (1988) ‘On the Relationship between Wife Beating and Child Abuse’, in Kersti Yll ®o and Michele Bograd (eds) Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse, pp. 158–174. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications .
16.
Bruckert, Chris (2002) Taking It Off, Putting It On: Women in the Strip Trade. Toronto, Ontario: Women’s Press .
17.
Callon, Michel (1986) ‘Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay’, in John Law (ed.) Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge?, pp. 196–233. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul .
18.
Callon, Michel and John Law (1989) ‘On the Construction of Sociotechnical Networks’ , Knowledge and Society: Studies in the Sociology of Science Past and Present8: 57–83 .
19.
Canada (1997) Administrative Segregation: Commitment to Legal Compliance, Fair Decisions, and Effective Results. Report of the Task Force to Review Administrative Segregation. Ottawa, Ontario: Correctional Service of Canada .
20.
Carlen, Pat (1983) Women’s Imprisonment: A Study in Social Control. London & Boston, MA: Routledge & Kegan Paul .
21.
Christie, Nils (1994) Crime Control as Industry. Towards Gulags, Western Style, 2nd edn. London: Routledge .
22.
Code, Lorraine (1991) What Can She Know? Feminist Theory and the Construction of Knowledge. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press .
23.
Comack, Elizabeth (1993) Women Offenders’ Experiences of Physical and Sexual Abuse: A Preliminary Report. Manitoba: Criminology Research Centre, University of Manitoba .
24.
Comack, Elizabeth (1996) Women in Trouble: Connecting Women’s Law Violation to Their History of Abuse. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishers .
25.
Comack, Elizabeth (1999) ‘Producing Feminist Knowledge. Lessons from Women in Trouble’ , Theoretical Criminology3(3): 287–306 .
26.
Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston(1996) The Honourable Madam Justice Louise Arbour, Commissioner. Ottawa, Ontario: Public Works and Government Services, Canada .
27.
Crossen, Cynthia (1994) Tainted Truth: The Manipulation of Fact in America. New York: Simon & Schuster .
28.
Eigenberg, Helen and Agnes Baro (1992) ‘Women and the Publication Process: A Content Analysis of Criminal Justice Journals’ , Journal of Criminal Justice Education3(2): 293–314 .
29.
Eigenberg, Helen, Agnes Baro and Tammy Desnoyers (1992) ‘Women and Publication Patterns in Criminal Justice Journals: A Content Analysis’ (research note), Women and Criminal Justice4(1): 165–170 .
30.
Foucault, Michel (1975) Surveiller et Punir. La Naissance de la Prison. Paris: Gallimard.
31.
Foucault, Michel (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977. Brighton, Sussex: Harvester Press .
32.
Fox, Mary Frank (1995) ‘Women and Scientific Careers’, in Sheila Jasanoff, Gerald E. Makle, James C. Petersen and Trevor Pinch (eds) Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, pp. 205–223. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications .
33.
Frigon, Sylvie (2003) L’Homicide Conjugal au F¥eminin. D’Hier `a Aujourd’hui. Montr¥eal, Qu¥ebec: Les ¥Editions du remue-m¥enage.
34.
Fuller, Steve (1997) Science. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press .
35.
Gaarder, Emily and Joanne Belknap (2002) ‘Tenuous Borders: Girls Transferred to Adult Court’ , Criminology40(3): 481–517 .
36.
Genders, Elaine and Elaine Player (1986) ‘Women’s Imprisonment: The Effects of Youth Custody’ , British Journal of Criminology26(4): 357–371 .
37.
Gibbons, Michael, Camille Limoges, Elga Nowotny, Simon Schwartzman, Peter Scott and Martin Trow (1994) The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Sciences and Research in Contemporary Societies. London: Sage Publications .
38.
Giddens, Anthony (1979) Central Problems in Social Theory: Action, Structure, and Contradiction in Social Analysis. London: Macmillan .
39.
Gieryn, Thomas F. (1983) ‘Boundary Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists’ , American Sociological Review48(6): 781–795 .
40.
Gieryn, Thomas F. (1999) Cultural Boundaries of Science. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
41.
Hackett, Robert A. and Richard Gruneau (2000) The Missing News. Filters and Blind Spots in Canada’s Press. Aurora, Ontario: Garamond Press .
42.
Hacking, Ian (1992) ‘The Self-Vindication of the Laboratory Sciences’, in Andrew Pickering (ed.) Science as Practice and Culture, pp. 29–59. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press .
43.
Hamel, Jacques (1993) ‘Quelques Remarques sur la Singularit¥e en Sciences Exactes, en Math¥ematiques et en Sciences Humaines’ , Diog`ene161: 49–72 .
44.
Hannah-Moffat, Kelly (2001) Punishment in Disguise: Penal Governance and Federal Imprisonment of Women in Canada. Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press .
45.
Harding, Sandra (1991) Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women’s Lives. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press .
46.
Hawkesworth, Mary (1989) ‘Knowers, Knowing, Known: Feminist Theory and Claims to Truth’ , Signs14(3): 533–577 .
47.
Howe, Adrian (1994) Punish and Critique: Towards a Feminist Analysis of Penality. London: Routledge .
48.
Jayaratne, Toby E. and Abigail J. Stewart (1991) ‘Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in the Social Sciences: Current Feminist Issues and Practical Strategies’, in Mary Margaret Fonow and Judith A. Cooks (eds) Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research, pp. 85–106. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press .
49.
Knorr-Cetina, Karin D. (1981) The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science. New York: Pergamon Press .
50.
Latour, Bruno (1986) ‘The Power of Association’, in John Law (ed.) Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge?, pp. 264–280. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul .
51.
Latour, Bruno (1987) Science in Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
52.
Latour, Bruno (1999) Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
53.
Law, John (1983) ‘Enr olement et Contre-Enr olement: Les Luttes pour la Publication d’un Article Scientifique’ , Social Science Information22(2): 237–251 .
54.
Lewenstein, Bruce V. (1995) ‘From Fax to Facts: Communication in the Cold Fusion Saga’ , Social Studies of Science25(2): 403–436 .
55.
Liebling, Alison (1999) ‘Doing Research in Prison: Breaking the Silence?’ , Theoretical Criminology3(2): 147–173 .
56.
Lievrouw, Leah (1990) ‘Communication and the Social Representation of Scientific Knowledge’ , Critical Studies in Mass Communication7(1): 1–10 .
57.
Lynch, Michael (2000) ‘The Power of Oppression: Understanding the History of Criminology as a Science of Oppression’ , Critical Criminology9(1/2): 144–152 .
58.
Maher, Lisa (1997) Sexed Work: Gender, Race, and Resistance in a Brooklyn Drug Market. New York: Clarendon Press .
59.
Martel, Joane (1999) Solitude and Cold Storage. Women’s Journeys of Endurance in Segregation. Edmonton, Alberta: ACI Communication .
60.
Martel, Joane (2001) ‘Telling the Story: A Study in the Segregation of Women Prisoners’ , Social Justice28(1): 196–215 .
61.
McCormick, Chris (1995) Constructing Danger. The Mis/Representation of Crime in the News. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing .
62.
MediaWatch (1993) Focus on Violence: Survey of Women in Canadian Newspapers. Toronto: MediaWatch .
63.
Messerschmidt, James (1997) Crime as Structured Action: Gender, Race, Class, and Crime in the Making. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications .
64.
Mitchell, Austin, Prem Sikka and Hugh Willmott (2000) ‘Policing Knowledge by Invoking the Law: Critical Accounting and the Politics of Dissemination’ , paper presented at the Sixth Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conference, University of Manchester, England, July.
65.
Motiuk, Larry and Kelly Blanchette (1997) Case Characteristics of Segregated Offenders in Federal Corrections. Report no. R-57. Ottawa, Ontario: Correctional Service Canada .
66.
Moyer, Imogene (1986) ‘Gatekeepers for Academic Criminology: An Exploratory Study of the Status of Women’ , paper presented at the Twelfth International Conference on Improving University Teaching, Heidelberg, Germany.
67.
O’Neill, G. Patrick and Paul N. Sachis (1994) ‘The Importance of Refereed Publications in Tenure and Promotion Decision: A Canadian Study’ , Higher Education28(4): 327–435 .
68.
Pir`es, Alvaro P. (1993) ‘Recentrer l’Analyse Causale? Visages de la Causalit¥e en Sciences Sociales et Recherche Qualitative’, Sociologie et Soci¥et¥e25(2): 191–209.
69.
Pir`es, Alvaro P. (1997) ‘ ¥Echantillonnage et Recherche Qualitative: Essai Th¥eorique et M¥ethodologique’, in Jean Poupart, Jean-Pierre Deslauriers, Lionel-Henri Groulx, Anne Laperri`ere, Robert Mayer and Alvaro P. Pir`es (eds) La Recherche Qualitative. Enjeux ¥Epist¥emologiques et M¥ ethodologiques, pp. 113–69. Montr¥eal, Qu¥ebec: Ga®etan Morin.
70.
Rosenblum, Gerald and Barbara Rubin Rosenblum (1990) ‘Segmented Labour Markets in Institutions of Higher Learning’ , Sociology of Education63(3): 151–164 .
71.
Said, Edward W. (1994) Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures. New York: Pantheon Books .
72.
Sanch`ez-Jankowski, Martin (1991) Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
73.
Shaylor, Cassandra (1998) ‘It’s Like Living in a Black Hole’: Women of Color and Solitary Confinement in the Prison Industrial Complex’ , New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement24(2): 385–416 .
74.
Solicitor General (1998) Report on the Provisions and Operations of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. CCRA five-year review, consolidated report. Ottawa, Ontario: Ministry of the Solicitor General .
75.
Spender, Dale (1981) ‘The Gatekeepers’, in Helen Roberts (ed.) Doing Feminist Research, pp. 186–220. Boston, MA: Routledge & Kegan Paul .
76.
Stebbins, Robert A. (2001) ‘The Aid to Scholarly Publication Programme: Contributions to Canadian Sociology’ , Canadian Journal of Sociology26(3): 453–468 .
77.
Strauss, Anselm L. (1987) Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
78.
Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women (1990) Report Creating Choices. Ottawa, Ontario: Correctional Service Canada .
79.
Van den Hoonaard, Will (2001) ‘Is Research-Ethics Review a Moral Panic?’ , Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology38(1): 19–36 .
80.
Voumvakis, Sophia E. and Richard Ericson (1984) News Accounts of Attacks on Women: A Comparison of Three Toronto Newspapers. Toronto, Ontario: Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto .
81.
Wacquant, Lo®ic (2001) ‘Whores, Slaves and Stallions: Languages of Exploitation and Accommodation among Boxers’ , Body and Society7(2–3): 181–194 .
82.
Walker, Alexis and Linda Thompson (1984) ‘Feminism and Family Studies’ , Journal of Family Issues5(4): 545–570 .
83.
Ward, Kathryn and Linda Grant (1985) ‘The Feminist Critique and a Decade of Sociological Publishing’ , The Sociological Quarterly26(2): 139–157 .
84.
Ward, Steven (1996) ‘Filling the World with Self-Esteem: A Social History of Truth-Making’ , Canadian Journal of Sociology21(1): 1–23 .
85.
Whelan, Emma (2001) ‘Politics by Other Means: Feminism and Mainstream Science Studies’ , Canadian Journal of Sociology26(4): 535–581 .
86.
Winch, Samuel P. (1997) Mapping the Cultural Space of Journalism: How Journalists Distinguish News from Entertainment. Westport, CT: Praeger .
87.
Windmayer, Alan and Gary Rabe (1990) ‘Publication Patterns among American Criminologists: An Analysis of Gender, Regional, and Work Differences’ , Journal of Criminal Justice Education1(1): 99–110 .
88.
Zinger, Yvan and Cheramy Wichmann (1999) The Psychological Effects of 60 Days in Administrative Segregation. Report no. R-85. Ottawa, Ontario: Correctional Service of Canada .
