Negotiating a Way In: A Special Collection of Essays on Accessing Information and Socio-legal Research

Introduction

For most scholars, what we choose to research is largely determined by personal interest and a desire to produce new knowledge that will meaningfully contribute to the advancement of our chosen field of study. For those of us who do work in the areas of criminology and socio-legal studies, this pursuit of knowledge often requires that we gain access to public officials, state institutions, or government documents to collect necessary data. Regardless of whether we engage in quantitative or qualitative research, the findings we produce are highly dependent upon the information we are able to gather. Access therefore emerges as a key topic for researchers, raising important methodological concerns as well as broader political questions regarding the availability of information in liberal democracies.

However, although gaining access to data is a crucial step in the research process, it is one that seems to garner little scholarly attention within criminological and socio-legal circles. Indeed, although there are a countless number of textbooks on the market (many of which are used every year as required reading in undergraduate and graduate research methods classes) that discuss the various ways researchers can go about collecting and analysing data, very little is said about the processes involved in negotiating entry with the gate-keepers of these data.¹ Much of what is discussed in most methods textbooks and classrooms is often limited to questions of ethics and the moral duties and obligations of researchers to their participants, rather than critical considerations related to the actual practice of gaining access.

Not surprisingly, then, students and scholars new to this type of research often have naïve views regarding accessing information, and tend to operate on the assumption that, as long as the study does not involve subjects from vulnerable populations, access will typically be granted.² It is only when researchers are denied interviews or informed they cannot see or obtain certain data that the issue comes to the fore. Unfortunately, this is often after spending a significant amount of time and energy filling out lengthy request forms, writing letters, going back and forth to data gate-keepers (e.g., bureaucrats and state officials), and waiting idly for a final decision to be made.

Being denied access can be extremely frustrating for the researcher who may have spent several months carefully crafting a research proposal and must now look for alternative sources of available data and redesign the study accordingly or ultimately decide to simply abandon the project.³ The denial of access and the subsequent delays that it can cause to one’s research agenda can be particularly troubling for graduate students, who face growing financial and institutional pressures to complete their programmes in a timely manner, as well as for faculty members with time-sensitive research grants.

Although it has always been a major challenge for criminologists and socio-legal scholars, gaining access to state institutions appears to have become progressively more difficult. Despite the claims of greater transparency, openness, and public accountability, government agencies—from prisons to school boards—remain highly averse to opening their doors to university researchers, particularly those whose research projects are perceived as “critical” or employ methods that these institutions view as “risky” or illegitimate.⁴ The reasons for denying us access are plenty. We are told by institutions that they either cannot or will not help us answer our research questions or that a similar study has already been conducted in house. In some instances, no justification is provided; in others, once a negative decision has been made, there are no mechanisms of appeal. Researchers may also try to obtain copies of government documents through federal, provincial/territorial, and/or municipal access to information legislation, but even this does not always guarantee that we will be able to get the desired materials. When access is granted, we are often confronted with an entirely different set of concerns regarding the information being gathered. Not only do we face the looming threat of having our study halted at any time, but...