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A Level Playing Field: Conceptualizing an Empowering Research Framework for Criminologists Who Engage with Marginalized Communities

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Abstract

Some criminologists use empowering research approaches but fail to deliver on their promise to empower marginalized populations. This article explores the origins of such failures, identifies deficit perspectives as the main culprit, and explains how deficit narratives in participatory research advance marginalization processes. Distinguishing key channels of power in research—power of knowledge, power to self-direct, and power of socio-political influence—reveals that (contrary to deficit discourses) marginalized social groups are not powerless, criminologists wield less socio-political influence than frequently suggested, and power in research relationships distributes inconsistently, incongruently, and heterogeneously. To counteract deficit thinking, empowerment is defined from a counter-imperialist perspective. Given that the opposite of imperialism is self-determination and that the concept of empowerment origins in self-determination theory, the latter is used to conceptualize an empowering research framework, which is designed to enhance knowledge of all research parties and meet their need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

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  1. School of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Faculty of Culture and Society, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, D-78, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Antje Deckert

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  1. Antje Deckert
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Correspondence to Antje Deckert.

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I would like to thank Michael Roguski, Brent Stone, and Murray Wilson for our frank and inspiring discussions. This article would not have been written without them.

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Deckert, A. A Level Playing Field: Conceptualizing an Empowering Research Framework for Criminologists Who Engage with Marginalized Communities. Crit Crim 25, 559–575 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-017-9367-6

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