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Necessary connections: “Feelings photographs” in criminal justice research
Rogers, Chrissie
Rogers, Chrissie
Publication Date
2020
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© 2020 SAGE. Open Access, published under licence: Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Peer-Reviewed
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Accepted for publication
2019-02-04
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Abstract
Visual representations of prisons and their inmates are common in the
news and social media, with stories about riots, squalor, drugs, selfharm
and suicide hitting the headlines. Prisoners’ families are left to
worry about the implications of such events on their kin, while those
incarcerated and less able to understand social cues, norms and rules,
are vulnerable to deteriorating mental health at best, to death at worst.
As part of the life-story method in my research with offenders who are
on the autism spectrum, have mental health problems and/or have
learning difficulties, and prisoner’s mothers, I asked participants to take
photographs, reflecting upon their experiences. Photographs in this case,
were primarily used to help respondents consider and articulate their
feelings in follow-up interviews. Notably, seeing (and imagining) is often
how we make a connection to something (object or feeling), or someone
(relationships), such that images in fiction, news/social media, drama,
art, film and photographs can shape the way people think and behave –
indeed feel about things and people. Images and representations ought
to be taken seriously in researching social life, as how we interpret
photographs, paintings, stories and television shows is based on our own
imaginings, biography, culture and history. Therefore, we look at and
process an image before words escape, by ‘seeing’ and imagining. How
my participants and I ‘collaborate’ in doing visual methods and then how
we make meaning of the photographs in storying their feelings, is
insightful. As it is, I wanted to enable my participants to make and
create their own stories via their photographs and narratives, whilst
connecting to them, along with my own interpretation and subjectivities.
Version
Accepted manuscript
Citation
Rogers C (2020) Necessary connections: “Feelings photographs” in criminal justice research. Methodological Innovations. 13(2).
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Article