Criminology and Prison: methods and challenges of empirical research in prison field

• Autor(a) principal: Braga, Ana Gabriela Mendes
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Estudos Empíricos em Direito
• Texto Completo: https://reedrevista.org/reed/article/view/4
• topic: Criminologia; Prisão; Pesquisa empírica; Metodologia; Criminology; Prison; Empirical research; Methodology

This article is about the outcomes of our doctoral research "Social reintegration: discourses and practices in prison - a comparative study", in which we analyzed some projects developed by civil society organizations in prisons in São Paulo and in Catalonia (Spain). To this end, we used a qualitative research methodology. Through interviews with people involved, directly and indirectly, with the projects (volunteers, inmates, prison’ officials), documentary research (projects, memorials, manuals) and some ethnographical accounts of the work of the selected entities in prisons. In this paper, the question of method in Criminology is highlighted, as are reflections on empirical research in a prison environment. In a research performed in such a restrictive space as a prison, explaining the ways of inserting oneself in the field is an exercise that reveals the mechanisms of power in operation and eventually leads the researcher back to the subject of the thesis itself. After all, many of the obstacles and barriers that a researcher faces to enter a prison are the same ones faced by organizations and individuals from civil society. This article is about the paths and challenges experienced by these people in order to reduce segregation and isolation imposed by prison walls.