When access is denied
Conducting an interview through letter writing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2404069 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Emma Burtt (0000-0003-4622-7932, University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 813-828 |
| Publication date | 2021-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Qualitative Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1468-7941 • E-ISSN: 1741-3109 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1468794120936123 |
| OpenAlex | W3037017108 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 20 |
Access to prisons in England and Wales is becoming ever more restricted to researchers and all projects must have sufficient links to Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) priorities to be considered. What are the alternatives when there is no such link or when access has otherwise been denied? This article focuses on one possible solution - conducting a qualitative interview via letter. Drawing on my own experience of conducting such interviews with prisoners maintaining innocence, I document how the method can work in practice. Although not without difficulty, written interviews are capable of producing rich, qualitative data and provide benefits to both the researcher and researched when compared to traditional face-to-face interviews. I ultimately demonstrate how interviews via letter offer a valuable alternative when interacting with people, not only in prison but across all secure estates
Criminology · Ethnography · Innocence · Interview · Majesty · Political science · Prison · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Data Analysis and Archiving · Engineering · Law · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
Research with formerly incarcerated mothers
Navigating the dynamics of trust, rapport and power while conducting social health research with people in prison
Progression and parole
Writing the worlds of genomic medicine
Mobile sociality and the use of the network of personal technologies
Reconstruction of a pre-service teacher reflection through objective hermeneutics
From Access Challenges (as Data) to Methodological Insights
Reflecting on and Managing the Emotional and Ethical Challenges of Letter Writing as a Method of Data Collection With Prisoners
Qualitative interviewing
Interpreting Interviews
Criminological Research
Qualitative Social Research
Self-narration, Autobiography and Identity Construction
Narrative’s Virtues
Chronic Illness
The Peculiarities of Oral History
An Invitation of Reflexive Sociology
Letters to those who Dare Feel
Doing Prison Research
Memory-Work
Families, Secrets and Memories
The Ideologically Driven Critique
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |