Book Review: The Pains of Doing Criminological Research
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| Author | Finola Farrant |
| DOI | 10.1177/206622031300500309 |
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
93
European Journal of Probation
University of Bucharest
www.ejprob.ro
Vol. 5, No.3, 2013, pp 93 – 94
ISSN: 2006 – 2203
Book Review
Beyens, K., Christiaens, J., Claes, B., De Ridder, S. Tournel, H. and Tubex, H. (Eds.)
(2013) The Pains of Doing Criminological Research. Brussels: Brussels University Press.
There are two things that make an immediate impact on picking up this book. Firstly, the
eloquence of the title, neatly encapsulating the reality of the process of undertaking
criminological research whilst also, rather wittingly, evoking Sykes (1958) often referred to
pains of imprisonment. The second feature is the apparent collectivism involved in drawing
the text together. Edited by no less than six individuals, many of the chapters are multi-
authored as well. On closer inspection however, the diversity that I had expected disappeared.
All of the 22 people who have contributed to The Pains of Doing Criminological Research
are associated with the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and are members of the research group
Crime and Society (CRiS) based there. This realisation concerned me. Based on the
experiences of people drawn from such a small pool this could make the text too restricted in
focus. Such specificity also however piqued my interest. Working on this book must have
been an intensive endeavour, what learning was included within its pages?
In the introductory chapter, Beyens, outlines the premise of the text, who it is targeted at and
its inspiration. Interestingly, and in keeping with the focus of the book, the pains of writing
are elaborated. In Belgium, as elsewhere, there are pressures to produce certain types of
outputs. This, Beyens argues, is detrimental to the scholarly efforts most researchers are
involved in. The new managerialism that has crept into academia is critiqued and instead a
‘slow science movement’ is called for. Although I am unconvinced by such a nomenclature
in terms of resisting the constraints that relate to writing up research and getting published;
the argument that the Web of Knowledge citation system has become all important, while
being simultaneously, detrimental to new knowledge, is a compelling one. This is a system
riven with bias; towards older, more established journals, towards North America (and
English-language outputs more generally), while books, one of the core means by which
disciplines have advanced, are side-lined. Such concerns regarding the underlying politics of
knowledge production and the commodification of intellectual work remains relevant across
locations and disciplines and reminded me of the question posed by Lyotard over 30 years
ago: ‘who decides what knowledge is, and who knows what needs to be decided?’ (1984: 9).
The opening chapter therefore did much to diminish my initial worry that this book might be
too parochial.
The format of the book is somewhat unique. Set out alphabetically by author, no themes are
drawn out to create sections, instead, following the introduction there are 11 chapters
covering an array of topics. It is explained that such decisions were based on the editing
process, which also included decisions to allow different writing styles and little streamlining
of chapters. Such free choice is admirable and contests expectations of what an academic text
should be like, in addition, it made for a variety in presentation. Excerpts from field notes,
research diaries, the use of individual case-studies and autoethnographic writing are all
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