ABSTRACT
In criminology even studies that involve extensive fieldworks rely a great deal on research participants own accounts. The main question raised in the paper is: how do we know if research participants are telling the truth, and does it matter? It argues that criminological ethnographers have been too preoccupied with a positivist notion of truth, and the related question of whether research participants are telling the truth. For narrative analyses, this is not really important. The paper will present interview data from offenders to illustrate the fruitfulness of a narrative approach in criminology. Whether true or false, the multitude of stories people tell reflect, and help us understand, the complex nature of values, identities, cultures, and communities. The emphasis will be on offenders’ shifts between subcultural and more conventional narratives. The argument expands upon Presser's notion of narrative criminology. The result is a framework that further challenges positivism and individualism in contemporary criminology.
It was a bitterly cold winter's night at the street drug market. Not many people where around and I was tired and looking forward to a dry room and something hot to drink. I was together with a social worker and we had been walking around for hours. She was used to it, I was not. Suddenly we spotted the light of a fire under a bridge. The street drug dealers often sought sanctuary there in bad weather. They were burning planks found in the vicinity. Three young men stood around the fire, talking and keeping the fire going. I knew one of them— the others were new to me. I tried to convince them to do an interview with me, now or later. Ali, whom I was on speaking terms with, told me “I don't sell drugs anymore.” I doubted it, but said nothing. They soon lost interest. Their attention was caught by a quarrel about how the fire should be tended. (From the author's fieldwork in Oslo; Sandberg and Pedersen 2009)
