Doing Research in Prison:

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Abstract
This article reflects on some of the tensions experienced in doing prison research. Both qualitative and quantitative `styles of research'—in so far as they can be characterized as discrete styles—have their dangers and rewards. The `truths' of sociology's concern with humanistic method and its discoveries of the painfulness of prison are valid, and yet need to be reconciled with quantitative findings about the apparent ordinariness of prison for generalized groups of prisoners, about differences between prisoners and individual instances of violence/suicide/disorder, whose origins may have individual-psychological as well as situational-sociological components, and about the distinctions which may be drawn between prisons—some having more legitimate regimes than others. The absence of `pain' from quantitative research accounts of prison life is surprising. The author argues that research in any human environment without subjective feeling is almost impossible—particularly in a prison. These feelings—belonging to staff, prisoners and researchers—can be a significant guide to or even source of valuable data. Recent accounts of the role of emotion in criminology and in research have been helpful in making sense of some of the turbulence discovered and experienced by members of the research team involved in a recent project.

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