Convict criminology from here to there: a content analysis of scholarship in a growing subfield

ABSTRACT

The academic field of Convict Criminology (CC) started in the mid-1990s. In general, CC argues that the insights and experiences of currently and formerly incarcerated men and women are typically ignored in scholarly research and policy making circles. Since its founding a considerable amount of scholarly activity connected to this school, movement, and network occurred. Although CC scholars have reviewed the CC literature and activities, none have performed a rigorous content analysis of the scholarship in this field. This approach is important to understand who has written this work, their background, the venues where this academic writing has been published, the content of this work, and the impact of this literature. More importantly this type of analysis may provide a better sense of what kinds of future research on CC, or using the CC approach, should be conducted. Specifically, this study presents the results of a content analysis of 79 pieces of scholarship on CC published between 2001 and August 2022. The conclusion points out areas where continued scholarship using the Convict Criminology framework may be conducted.

KEYWORDS:

• Convict criminology
• critical criminology
• corrections
• prisons
• prisoner experience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Although one of the first scholarly articles that mentions Convict Criminology is Arrigo (2000), it is primarily a passing reference to the forthcoming book Convict Criminology (Ross & Richards, 2003). Also, to be included in the content analysis, the article or chapter needed to be at a minimum listed in Google Scholar (e.g. publicly available), but not necessarily assigned to a specific issue.

2. All books that were not edited collections were excluded. Thus Earle (2016) was not subject to content analysis.

3. We located a single article published after this cutoff. We use the citation score after this 30 May 2022, date only for it.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey Ian Ross

Jeffrey Ian Ross, Ph.D. is a Professor in the School of Criminal Justice, at the University of Baltimore. He has conducted research primarily on corrections, policing, crimes of the powerful, street culture, graffiti and street art. In 2020, he received the John Howard Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ Division of Corrections. Also in 2020, Ross was honored with the John Keith Irwin Distinguished Professor Award from the ASC Division of Convict Criminology. During the early 1980s, Ross worked for almost four years in a correctional institution.

Heith Copes

Heith Copes, Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His primary interest is in understanding how narratives aid in identity construction and behaviors among people who engage in crime and drug use.