ABSTRACT
Legal scholars researching the significance of citizenship and migration status for criminalisation often rely on legal categories to identify research participants. In doing so, they neglect how ideas, images and assumptions about ‘foreignness’ by the researcher and research participants, which are often racialised, may influence findings. So too they overlook how these processes of identification may affect the research relationship and the legitimacy of the researcher. Drawing on a study I conducted at Birmingham criminal courts, I explore the methodological implications of the identification processes in research on criminal justice and border controls. I argue that by being more reflexive on how social hierarchies and norms shape our research we can uncover the mechanisms leading to social injustice and inequality rather than helping reproduce them.
