Themenheft "Methoden in der Kriminologie" - Special Issue "Methods in Criminology"

Content

Quantitative Methods and their value for criminology (German)

Vom Wert quantitativer Methoden für eine kritische Kriminologie

Walter Fuchs/Veronika Hofinger/Arno Pilgram

In a first step, we explore the epistemological objections of critical and cultural criminology to the use of crime statistics and self-report or victim surveys, rejecting the mere possibility of counting and measuring criminality. As opposed to a naïve use of quantitative data and methods in criminology, we suggest the use of reflexive- quantitative research strategies beyond the positivist reification of criminalization processes. These considerations are underpinned by positive examples showing how to fruitfully use quantitative data and research methods in the critical analysis of penal policies. Finally, we examine new forms of "governing by numbers" and the role of criminology in contemporary society.

Crime Mapping as a method of critical criminology? (German)

Kriminalitätskartierung als Methode der Kritischen Kriminologie?

Bernd Belina/Mélina Germes

The aim of this paper is to discuss possibilities and limitations of crime mapping in critical criminology. Crime mapping is mostly used as a positivistic endeavor in the service of the police. Following the broad development of the theory and practice of mapping, the paper discusses this positivistic version of crime mapping, the constructivist critique directed against it, and praxeological alternatives.

Qualitative research as a method and technique of reification. Some critical comments on the success of the Grounded Theory. (German)

Qualitative Forschung als verdinglichende Methode und Technik. Einige kritische Anmerkungen zur Karriere der Grounded Theory

Johannes Stehr

Grounded Theory has distanced itself from its reflexive grounding in Symbolic Interactionism and has become a textbook methodology, with which authority for one´s own research can be claimed. This transformation has led to processes of reification of knowledge. With textbook grounded theory the application of coding processes has become the core activity of data analysis and the relevance of reflexive concepts like interaction, narration and interpretation is undermined. As a consequence of using textbook grounded theory the understanding of social phenomenons is made impossible and social conflicts and social contradictions are rather covered up than uncovered. Traditional criminology is using grounded theory to affirm the existing order and dominant concepts of normality and to create knowledge about problems and offenders.

Drug-testing in Germany. A qualitative inquiry (German)

Drogentestanwendungen in Deutschland

Katja Thane/Simon Egbert/Monika Urban/Henning Schmidt-Semisch

Although drug tests have been in use in Germany since the early/middle 1990s, there are still no systematic inquiries about the scope and distribution of the corresponding contexts of application. In this research report, we present the first results of the research project ´Rationalities of Drug Testing and their Social Consequences´, financed by the DFG. This specific contribution aims primarily at a qualitative survey of those social contexts in Germany.

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