ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the dynamics of conducting interviews in a penitentiary environment. The issues discussed mainly concentrate on the conditions of the research, how to motivate offenders to participate in the research and concerns regarding validation of data. The last part of the chapter concentrates upon the use of mental maps as a means to gain new information from the offenders which cannot be accessed from prison files, questionnaires or interviews. The use of mental maps as a research method will be put into the context of criminal mobility and aims to point out different ways to classify mental maps, issues regarding their limitations and how they can be used in specific research designs.
