ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the role of emotions in the processes of doing research on crime, deviance, and/or the agencies of their control. Emotions impact upon us as people continually throughout our lives and as such, the claim that they will impact upon the ways in which we do research, and the ways in which we learn from it, should not be considered too controversial. However, very few criminologists ever take the time to reflect upon their emotional processes and how they have shaped what they do and what they know. The present chapter is predicated upon the claim that more criminologists ought to do this. In order to support this argument, the chapter uses examples from an (auto)ethnographic exploration of heroin addiction to work towards three distinct yet interlinked aims. Firstly, it outlines the ways in which emotions can be harnessed as intellectual tools within research to help criminologists reach alternative conclusions around their findings that can help challenge some of the field’s dominant theories. Secondly, it considers the ways in which the benefits of working with emotions are offset by their sometimes painful experiential realities. And then finally, some preliminary guidelines for undertaking ‘criminology with feeling’ are mapped out with a view to better establishing the role of emotions – their potentials, pitfalls, and the management of both – in the future of criminological research.
