Reflecting on researcher practice relationships in prison research : A contact hypothesis lens
Hean, Sarah Catherine Patricia Duff; Skippervik, Liv Jorunn Baggegård; Heslop, Richard; Stevens, Caroline
Original version
Hean, S., Skippervik, L. J., Heslop, R., & Stevens, C. (2021). Reflecting on Researcher/Practice Relationships in Prison Research: A Contact Hypothesis Lens. In Improving Interagency Collaboration, Innovation and Learning in Criminal Justice Systems: Supporting Offender Rehabilitation (pp. 401-438). Cham: Springer International Publishing. 10.1007/978-3-030-70661-6_16Abstract
Interactions between researchers and professionals need to be carefully managed in the criminal justice context. This chapter explores the utility of the theoretical lens of the contact hypothesis as a means to understand and improve these relations. The COLAB consortium is used as a case study of a typical partnership between professionals in practice and researchers in academia to illustrate this. We use the reflections of four of its members from both professional and researcher European institutions to explore how the conditions of contact proposed by the contact hypothesis may have impacted on the experiences of participants. Strategies through which these relations can be optimised in the interest of prison research, but also the care and management of people in contact with the criminal justice system, are proposed.