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Malin Åkerström

Malin Åkerström

Professor emerita

Malin Åkerström

Sensitive Stuff and Expressive Caution: Notes on the Research Process in Studies of Ethnicities Associated with Crime

Author

  • Malin Åkerström
  • Veronika Burcar Alm

Summary, in Swedish

Questions related to crime and migration are delicate matters, potentially because of associations with ethnicity, racism and oppressive politics and ideology in both the past and the present. The delicate nature of issues of crime and deviance may result in expressive caution exercised by both researchers and those studied. In this article, we discuss these dynamics in the research process in terms of access, data collection, writing and discussions of findings. We base our discussion on examples from our ethnographic studies dealing with youth, crime and ethnicity. Through our empirical examples, we show that researchers in this field need to deal with subtle markers and signals of sensitivity. However, getting all caught up in sensitivity could lead to avoidance of doing this type of research at all. Instead, we argue, sensitivity can be included as an important, as well as rewarding, part of the research.

Department/s

  • Sociology

Publishing year

2021

Language

Swedish

Pages

265-283

Publication/Series

Nordic Journal of Migration Research

Volume

11

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

De Gruyter Open

Topic

  • Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)

Keywords

  • ethnicity
  • crime victims
  • research sensitivity
  • research process
  • expressive caution

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1799-649X