Criminal justice research in an era of mass mobility: Concluding remarks

This chapter offers a better understanding of the often-messy process of criminal justice research and honest reflections about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ research practices. It offers examples of the multiple ways in which knowledge is produced in collaboration with and respect of the researched and how researchers negotiate their relationship with the field. The chapter explores how a researcher’s background and location, as well as conceptualisations of the field, can affect the access, interpretation and presentation of prescient criminological questions and answers. Sarah Turnbull shares her reflections about the dangers of burnout after doing community-based and remote follow-up research with women and men that she first met at immigration removal centres in the UK, and later when they were living their ‘post-detention lives’. She describes her experience of participants who looked to her for help out of their predicaments.