ABSTRACT
Race and ethnicity have been considered among the “least understood and underexplored correlates of offending” (Piquero, 2015, p. 21) in Developmental and Life-Course Criminology (DLC). This chapter examines how scholars need to adapt and adopt culturally appropriate methodologies and methods to address this deficit of DLC. Methodologies need to be suitable for the population researchers engage with. We provide an example of this by examining the suitability of life event calendars (the subject of Chapter 6 in this volume) when engaging with First Peoples of Australia and propose significant amendments to this methodology to ensure cultural appropriateness. We outline the lived experiences of First Peoples in Australia, focusing on the divergent experiences that inform DLC, including the role of systemic racism and intergenerational trauma in shaping Indigenous developmental models and offending trajectories. We critique the use of life event calendars with culturally diverse populations and demonstrate how embedding Indigenous methods and methodologies with life event calendars can improve developmental research, leading to a better understanding of how the lives and experiences of racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse groups should be represented in DLC research. Importantly, these methodological innovations are critical for informing ongoing social justice challenges.
