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The Need for Flexible and Adaptive Research in an Environment of Diverse Barriers to Accessing Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

Claire Spivakovsky
Claire Spivakovsky
Affiliation:
Research and Evaluation Unit, Australian Community Support Organisation, 1 Hoddle Street, Richmond, VIC 3121 (P.O. Box 14278, Melbourne 8001), Australia, cspivakovsky@acso.org.au
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Extract

There is concern among socio-legal scholars about the relationship that has formed between scholarly research and public policy. Pat Carlen contends that in the case of criminology, this relationship sees scholars increasingly struggle to maintain their critical capacity. The problem, according to Carlen, is that scholars trying to increase research output through partnership with policy makers often find this partnership hinges on an agreement that any research produced will conform to the parameters of the policy makers' needs. Furthermore, when scholars do not seek partnership with policy makers, they may face political hurdles in gaining access to institutional data. Scholars may be required to demonstrate the direct policy relevance of their research before policy makers will consider the type and extent of access granted. These kinds of barriers to data access have the potential to adversely impact the critical merit of socio-legal scholarship.

This paper employs my own research as a case study to explore some of the foundations for socio-legal scholars' concerns about the appearance and impact of barriers to institutional data. My research aimed to explore how correctional agencies approach the offender rehabilitation principle of responsivity in relation to Indigenous offenders. Contemporary correctional literature states that to be responsive, correctional agencies must identify variances among offenders that may affect the delivery and reception of programs. Significantly, however, it is unclear what, if anything, correctional agencies should do to accommodate variances once identified. Accordingly, I sought access to correctional agencies to interview staff working in the areas of Indigenous offender rehabilitation policy and service who could elaborate on their agencies' approach to Indigenous offender responsivity. Agencies in four jurisdictions were approached. In seeking access to this institutional data, I encountered two main barriers that impacted the scope and direction of the project in unexpected ways.

Type
Problems in Accessing Information: A Collection of Essays
Information
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / La Revue Canadienne Droit et Société , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , December 2011 , pp. 607 - 612
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Law and Society Association 2011

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References

1 Carlen, Pat, “In Praise of Critical Criminology,” Outlines 7 (2005), 84Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., 86.

3 Andrews, Don and Bonta, James, The Psychology of Criminal Conduct (Cincinnati: Anderson Publications, 1994)Google Scholar.

4 Lu, Yang, “The Human in Human Information Acquisition: Understanding Gatekeeping and Proposing New Directions in Scholarship,” Library & Information Science Research 29 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Australian Government Australian Research Council, http://www.arc.gov.au/ (2011).

6 Australian Government Australian Research Council, Consultation Paper: ARC Discovery Program (Barton: Commonwealth of Australia, 2010)Google Scholar.

7 See, e.g., Broadhead, Robert and Rist, Ray, “Gatekeepers and the Social Control of Social Research,” Social Problems 23 (1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 The practice of adapting one's research to presenting issues is not new and can be seen in other articles within this volume as well as Moore, Dawn, Criminal Artifacts: Governing Drugs and Users (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007)Google Scholar and Roberts, Albert and Yeager, Kenneth, eds., Foundations of Evidence-Based Social Work Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar.

9 See, e.g., Spivakovsky, Claire, “Approaching Responsivity: The Victorian Department of Justice and Indigenous Offenders,” Flinders Journal of Law Reform 10 (2008)Google Scholar.

10 Carlen, “In Praise of Critical Criminology.”