ABSTRACT
An ethnographic approach to criminological research involves in-depth detailed descriptions of criminal behaviour and lifestyles as well as of the processes involved in responding to crime. There are two main types of in-depth or 'ethnographic' interview: guided and unstructured. Structured observations may be used in combination with in-depth interviews and non-structured observations, especially by critical criminologists who may wish to use quantitative strategies as a way of explaining the relationship between structure and meaning. Ethnographic researchers will often use a combination of in-depth interviews and observation. Criminologists who have embraced the merits of ethnographic research have often had a hard time justifying their epistemological position. Ethnographic research is concerned with gaining 'thick' description of aspects of the social world. In criminology knowledge about the lives of those involved in crime has been important to the task of understanding criminal behaviour and challenging some of the social conditions that may contribute to that behaviour.
