Abstract
It is understood in the research methods literature that rapport building is an essential component of the interviewer–interviewee relationship, and thus it needs to be carefully built up and maintained throughout the research encounter. In this chapter, I suggest that when researching sensitive topics or working in tense environments, rapport building is contingent on proximity, openness and a non-judgemental approach. I argue that my ideas, meanings and understandings were greatly facilitated by utilising my personal history of being an ex-prisoner, which enabled me to build up a rapport with the individual respondents through reciprocal information sharing of personal experiences. This was achieved through taking the time to have a pre-interview discussion with each respondent, during which research ethics and informed consent were covered. Here I was able to discuss my past and the reasons behind my research; this allowed the respondents to view me as closer to their status rather than being a member of the establishment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Further reading
Carrabine, E. (2004) Power, Discourse and Resistance: A Genealogy of the Strangeways Prison Riot (Aldershot: Ashgate).
Sykes, G. (1958) Society of Captives (New Jersey: Princeton University Press).
References
Adler, P. and Adler, P. (1998) ‘Foreword: Moving Backward’, in J. Ferrell and M. Hamm (eds) Ethnography at the Edge: Crime, Deviance, and Field Research (Boston: Northeastern University Press).
Archer, J. (2002) Hell: A Prison Diary, Volume 1 (London: Macmillan).
Arnold, H. (2005) ‘The Effects of Prison Work’, in A. Liebling and S. Maruna (eds) The Effects of Imprisonment (Cullompton: Willan Publishing).
Arnold, H. (2008) ‘The Experience of Prison Officer Training’, in J. Bennett, B. Crewe and A. Wahidin (eds) Understanding Prison Staff (Cullompton: Willan Publishing).
Arnold, H., Liebling, A. and Tait, S. (2007) ‘Prison Officers and Prison Culture’, in Y. Jewkes (ed) Handbook on Prisons (Cullompton: Willan Publishing).
Becker, H. (1967) ‘Whose Side Are We On?’ Social Problems, 14, 239–47.
Bulmer, M. (1982) ‘The Merits and Demerits of Covert Participant Observation’, in M. Bulmer (ed) Social Research Ethics (London: Macmillan).
Carrabine, E. (2004) Power, Discourse and Resistance: A Genealogy of the Strangeways Prison Riot (Aldershot: Ashgate).
Clemmer, D. (1940) ‘The Prison Community’, Social Forces, 19, 3, 442–43.
Crawley, E. (2004) ‘Emotion and Performance: Prison Officers and the Presentation of Self in Prisons’, Punishment and Society, 6, 4, 411–27.
Crewe, B. (2007) ‘Power, Adaptation and Resistance in a Late-Modern Men’s Prison’, British Journal of Criminology, 47, 2, 256–75.
Crewe, B. (2009) The Prisoner Society: Power, Adaptation, and Social Life in an English Prison (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Drake, D. and Harvey, J. (2013) ‘Performing the Role of Ethnographer: Processing and Managing the Emotional Dimensions of Prison Research’, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 15, 5, 489–501.
Earle, R. (2014) ‘Insider and Out: Reflections on a Prison Experience and Research Experience’, Qualitative Inquiry, 20, 429–38.
Ferrell, J. (1998) ‘Criminological Verstehen: Inside the Immediacy of Crime’, in J. Ferrell and M. Hamm (eds) Ethnography at the Edge: Crime, Deviance, and Field Research (Boston: Northeastern University Press).
Fleisher, M. (1998) ‘Ethnographers, Pimps and the Company Store’, in J. Ferrell and M. Hamm (eds) Ethnography at the Edge: Crime, Deviance, and Field Research (Boston: Northeastern University Press).
Finch, J. (1984) ‘It’s Great to Have Someone to Talk to: Ethics and Politics of Interviewing Women’, in C. Bell and Roberts, H. (eds) Social Researching: Politics, Problems, Practice (London: Routledge) reprinted in M. Hammersley (ed) Social Research Philosophy, Politics and Practice (London: Sage).
Goffman, E. (1990) The Presentation of Life in Everyday Life (Harmondsworth: Penguin).
Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (1995) Ethnography: Principles in Practice, Second edition (London: Routledge).
Hudson, K. (2005) Offending Identities: Sex offenders’ Perspectives on Their Treatment and Management (Cullompton: Willan).
Humphreys, L. (1975) Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (New Jersey: Aldine Transaction).
Johnson, R. and Toch, H. (eds) (1982) The Pains of Imprisonment (California: Sage).
Liebling, A. (1999) ‘Doing Research in Prisons: Breaking the Silence?’ Theoretical Criminology, 3, 2, 147–73.
Liebling, A. (2007) ‘Prison Suicide and Its Prevention’, in Y. Jewkes (ed) Handbook on Prisons (Cullompton: Willan).
Liebling, A. (assisted by Arnold, H.) (2004) Prisons and Their Moral Performance: A Study of Values, Quality, and Prison Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Martin, C. (2002) ‘Doing Research in a Prison Setting’, in V. Jupp, P. Davies and P. Francis (eds) Doing Criminological Research (London: Sage).
Merton, R. (1972) ‘Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge’, American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1, 9–47.
Oakley, A. (1981) ‘Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in Terms’, in H. Roberts (ed) Doing Feminist Research (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul).
Polsky, N. (1998) Hustlers, Beats and Others (New York: The Lyons Press).
Quraishi, M. (2008) ‘Researching Muslim Prisoners’, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 11, 5, 453–67.
Sim, J. (2003) Book review of Y. Jewkes (2002) ‘Captive Audience: Media, Masculinity and Power in Prisons’, Theoretical Criminology, 7, 239–42.
Sykes, G. (1958) Society of Captives (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Tedlock, B. (1991) ‘From Participant Observation to the Observation of Participation: The Emergence of Narrative Ethnography’, Journal of Anthropological Research, 47, 1, Spring, 69–94.
Tedlock, B. (2000) ‘Ethnography and Ethnographic Representation’, in N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, Second edition (London: Sage Publications).
Whyte, W. (1943) Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Palgrave
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Davies, W. (2015). Unique Position: Dual Identities as Prison Researcher and Ex-prisoner. In: Drake, D.H., Earle, R., Sloan, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Ethnography. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137403889_25
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137403889_25
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-68058-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40388-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)