From comparative criminal justice research to observations of itinerant cultures

This workshop, presented by Anna Sergi, will take place on Wednesday, 12 April 2017, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, at the University of Montreal, Pavillon Lionel-Groulx, Local C-4104.

Anna Sergi holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Essex, UK, an LLM in Criminal Law, Criminology and Criminal Justice from King’s College, London and a specialist law degree from the University of Bologna, Italy. As a lecturer in Criminology at the University of Essex, she specialises in organised crime and mafia studies, from different perspectives, privileging comparative research approaches in policing and criminal justice methods.

 

This workshop will start by reflecting and discussing on the challenges and methods to conduct qualitative comparative research in criminal justice. It will approach the topic firstly from a socio-legal perspective, aimed both at evaluation of policy transfers and at the analysis of osmosis of criminal questions across different legal systems.Throughout the workshops, examples of comparative research conducted across four countries (Italy, USA, Australia, UK) to assess convergences and divergences in policies and policing strategies against organised crime and mafias will be presented and discussed.

With a view to dig deeper into sociological perspectives, the workshop will also present an ulterior approach to comparative research, which follows desk-baed and policy analysis and includes visual observations and further comparison of different places. By looking at concepts and methods such as the “itinerant/walking soliloquy”, this workshop will consider the possibility to combine socio-legal approaches of comparative research with visual and sensor approaches in urban-cultural criminology.