Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to challenge the rules of being an objective researcher and need for space within academic research for the emotions (ideological and material) of the researcher. It discusses how ethical boundaries set by ethics boards challenge researchers to make compromises with (emotional) field

Paper long abstract:

The central theme of this paper explores the question, of how Scientific Objectivity in academic research has reduced researchers to “machines” for knowledge production. I reflect on this question through my own experience as an ethnographer as well as a person who grew up in a conflict zone (Indian-Occupied Kashmir). Informal conversations with researchers working in conflict zones will be used as methodological tools to unpack this question. This paper discusses the challenges of ethnographers in violent conflict zones in maintaining objectivity in their research. The neutrality of ethnographic research in conflict zones is questionable in that the epistemological and ontological assumptions may be linked with particular political and ethical stands. The commitment and accountability of a researcher working in a conflict zone do not end with research process and publication. Equally important is their responsibility to anticipate and understand the impact of their research on the conflict, their interlocutors, respondents, researchers themselves.

Being an insider and spending a long time in the field, I developed emotional bonds with the (non)human ‘field’ irrespective of my choices. These emotions became a ‘burden’ when they didn’t find any space in process of knowledge production and therefore the entire process became extractive and exploitative. The ethical and moral obligations of the researcher over their own emotions with the field become the intellectual grounds of contestation between epistemology and dis-epistemology. This paper makes a case for human ethics over the ethical standards set by various anthropological and sociological associations and publishers across the world.

Paper short abstract:

My fieldwork explores both the identities supporting and opposing crime. This elicits new methodological opportunities and mitigates concerns around reinforcing criminalisation. Yet, it also complicates positionality and raises questions on the intersection of empathy and legal/moral questions.

Paper long abstract:

Those participating in (Northern) European Street Culture have multiple, sometimes opposing, identities. The most intimate and tense of these is between illicit behaviour and religion, frequently expressed through music. A focus on this tripartite relationship opens the door to new methodologies from religious and music (hip-hop) studies, such as musical elicitation and material/lived religion.

This broadened methodological palette mitigates the risk of ‘othering’ the studied subject by highlighting the different, diverging, and developing identities of those often reduced to ‘criminals’. However, this also raises new ethical questions. For instance, probing the tension and co-existence of said identities can be confrontational, eliciting strong emotions. This asks for careful and continued engagement, which supports instead of exploits the subject.

Navigating this successfully taps into questions of positionality as the attention for multiple identities complicates the in/outsider constellation between researcher, researched and their different identities. Whereas a multidisciplinary background including knowledge of crime and religion is necessary for this approach, striking the right balance is complex. For instance, during preliminary fieldwork, participants have tried to convert me or regarded me as a potential spiritual leader, complicating my role as a researcher.

Lastly, an approach aimed at disturbing the ‘othering’ of those involved in crime could create moral and legal difficulties. An emphatic approach of the inner conflict around criminal behaviour risks affecting the legal and moral obligations of the researcher. Guarding this and navigating the relationship between trust, empathy and (legal) morality remains a primary challenge of this type of research.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on an ethnography conducted within a probation supervision program for young offenders in Chile, this article explores the challenges that anthropological research on crime faces when penal institutions exclude the neighborhoods and local settings of crime from their interventions

Paper long abstract:

In contrast to the system designed to protect the rights of children and young people, programs within the Chilean juvenile justice system lack a local approach centered on territories. This kind of "exclusion" of neighborhoods and local settings is expressed in the placement of programs, their norms, institutional regulations, and intervention strategies aimed at the social reintegration of juvenile offenders. As the anthropology of crime and criminalization aims to explore local crime scenarios for a reflective and in-depth understanding of phenomena, this article examines the epistemic, ethical, and political complexities encountered in ethnographic research within a program 'without territory'—a deterritorialized program. Based on the findings of an ethnographic study conducted in a probation supervision program for young people in conflict with the law in Santiago, Chile, this article illustrates how the exclusion of neighborhoods and local settings gives rise to a third space, distinct from both neighborhoods and penal institutions: the intervention. This new situated and time-bounded space reshapes the self-representation and social relations of youngsters, introducing new explanations about crime and promoting a set of moral norms and values, and behavioral requirements. In conclusion, the intervention not only redefines the crime and the experiences of youngsters, their relatives, and the professional and institutional actors involved in the process but also reshapes the ethnographic process itself. By illustrating the evolving dilemmas, negotiations, and frictions in the fieldwork, this article seeks to raise new challenges and questions for anthropological and ethnographic research on crime and criminalization.

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to problematize the ethical and epistemological dimensions that have emerged over more than four decades of ethnographic research on the criminal justice and public safety systems in contemporary Brazil, presenting some results of the studies carried out by our research network

Paper long abstract:

Anthropological research about justice and public safety, and the respective ethnography of the practices and representations of their agents, confronts us with a group of ethical questions and methodological choices. In this sense, false problems often arise in the field of anthropology when we are dedicated to studying groups with whom we don't have a relationship of empathy, solidarity or shared ideologies and conceptions of the world: the undesired Other. This issue becomes even more pressing when the aim is to describe differences in values and moral orientations that are foreign, but no less internal to the social universe of the researchers. The issue also becomes more complex when the subjects studied are in the upper echelons of society, they are likely to criticize and even reject anthropologists' interpretations, which may have unpredictable consequences from a judicial point of view. We will describe some of the main results of the research we have carried out since the 1980s, in an effort to problematize the ethical and epistemological dimensions that have emerged over more than four decades of ethnographic research carried out by our research network. After all, if anthropology consists of knowledge about the Other, what are the challenges imposed on anthropological research with this Other that is equidistant, but marked by enormous differences in terms of assumptions, practices and worldviews? How do we deal with the undesired Other? We believe that studying what (and who) challenges and disturbs us is a great challenge for anthropological thinking

Paper short abstract:

The paper seeks to understand the Madari community and their historical tryst with criminalization which has continued to affect their social-cultural mode of life through the colonial and post-colonial period. I use my ethnographic study in the state of Uttar Pradesh to discuss their social stigma.

Paper long abstract:

India in the colonial period came under British mode of social-cultural existence. These included the fact that many communities were criminalized because of their way of life, living by traveling in a nomadic mode of life. In other cases, some practices such as street performances-dance, street theatre or magic, especially with involvement of animals was banned. Amongst the performing groups is a community who are known as Fakirs or Faqeer. Fakir is an Arabic term which refers to those who have accepted an austere life of poverty. In the state of Uttar Pradesh the Fakirs are referred to as Madari Faqirs. The Madari Fakirs have been traditional street magicians who used bears as a part of their act. Although the British put an end to most of these street performances, the bear acts were allowed and even patronized. However, in the post-independence period with the ban on use of forest animals for such acts the Madaris were left without a means livelihood, many turned to adopt monkeys while others continued performing in the streets without any animal companions. Interviews I conducted with the Madaris in the state of Uttar Pradesh reveal that many within the community continue to be picked on by Indian police. They are often forced into testifying for petty cases of theft or highway robbery and even custodial cases at the whims of the law enforcers. The paper seeks to understand this facet of historical criminalization and how it directed my ethnographic narratives of understanding the community.

Paper short abstract:

This paper approaches power relations among trans brazilian women, focusing on “cafetinas” and their “houses of prostitution. From a specific ethnographic case I discuss the forms that the anthropological writing can be carried out in contexts and relationships that are criminalized.

Paper long abstract:

Working with sex workers in the Brazilian context since 2013, I present an analysis of power relations in a specific neighborhood (Jardim Itatinga), where sex work is the main economic activity. Relations with "cafetinas" present an intersectional specificity in the Brazilian context, not really explained by the word "pimping". Also in dialogue with a solid Brazilian bibliography, I argue that these kind of relations can be of support, affective and effective for sex workers to face violence and vulnerability, especially among trans women. Therefore, I propose a political discussion about how ethnography can contribute to decriminalize, aiming to discuss possibilities of ethnographic writing and its political impacts in such cases. In this paper a propose to discuss the following questions: how can anthropological attention and disposition capture the relationship known as pimping, with its nuances? Is it enough to listen and reproduce what is being said? Can the owners of prostitution houses be heard? Which speeches should be selected? More than that, how can they be reproduced facing power inequalities and the criminalization of the interlocutors? How can we explore ethnographic details when the subject is itself criminalized? Finally I propose the discussion about the possibilities of ethnography writing in order to contribute for the decriminalization of the relations that are being studied.