Towards hope, solidarity and re-humanisation

Abstract

In the UK, as elsewhere, researchers of criminal justice policy and practice are enmeshed in a web of neoliberal political dogma, economic austerity and a drive towards evidence-based policy and practice. Their activities and outputs have become embroiled in a political project that promotes cost-effectiveness and cost-efficiency over all other principles, seeks to dramatically reduce public expenditure by promoting privatisation and attempts to depoliticise government decision-making through the application of scientific evidence. They are increasingly pushed towards conducting evaluative research for policy rather than carrying out critical investigations of policy. In this neoliberal ecology, it is essential that researchers practice reflexivity, which is defined here as a critical process of self-examination and contextual contemplation that enables introspective reflections on the personal biases and structural influences that shape the activities of criminal justice researchers.