Convenors
Fabio Quassoli, University of Milano-Bicocca
fabio.quassoli@unimib.it
Eleonora Di Molfetta, University of Milano-Bicocca
eleonora.dimolfetta@unimib.it
The criminal justice system is often described in terms of the rules, procedures, and formal structures that govern its operation. However, what the criminal justice system is and what it actually produces cannot be understood by looking solely at its formal dimension. Rather than treating the gap between formal rules and actual practices as a simple implementation deficit, the panel is interested in the situated processes through which criminal justice is practically accomplished, interpreted, and made consequential. Courts, public prosecutors’ offices, police forces, prisons, probation services, and border and migration control agencies also constitute social and organisational worlds in which institutional rules and objectives acquire meaning through the everyday practices and interactions of those involved. From this perspective, the panel proposes to conceptualise criminal justice as something that is continually produced “in action” (Pound, 1910).
Ethnography offers a privileged lens through which to observe these processes, enabling researchers to explore how norms, procedures, categories, and objectives are interpreted, negotiated, and translated into everyday practices; how decision-making takes shape through organisational routines, professional cultures, practical knowledge, and forms of discretion; and how formal and informal practices coexist and interact within the daily activities of formal control institutions.
The panel invites contributions based on ethnographic research conducted in various settings within the criminal justice system – such as courts, public prosecutors’ offices, police forces, prisons, probation services, and border and migration control agencies – including studies that cross the boundaries between these institutions. Particular interest is directed towards research exploring everyday practices, discretionary powers, professional cultures, processes of classification and categorisation, the production and reproduction of inequalities, as well as power relations between institutional actors and individuals subject to criminal justice control.
Alongside these fundamental questions, the panel seeks to encourage reflection on the specific possibilities and challenges of ethnography in the field of criminal justice. In Italy, as elsewhere – albeit with variations – these contexts are often characterised by hierarchies, restrictions on access, sensitive information, significant power imbalances, and the presence of individuals in vulnerable positions. Access to the field, the building of trust, the researcher’s positionality and ethical dilemmas become an integral part of the process of knowledge production. The panel thus invites participants to consider what ethnography can reveal about the everyday activities of the criminal justice system, as well as the limits and conditions of this knowledge.
Open questions
- How is criminal justice practically produced through the everyday routines, interactions, and forms of discretion?
- How do organisational routines, professional cultures, and practical knowledge shape the decision-making process?
- How are categories such as risk, dangerousness, and deservingness constructed, translated, and mobilised in practice?
- How are inequalities related to class, gender, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and migration status produced, reproduced, or contested in the everyday practices of criminal justice institutions?
- What methodological, ethical, and relational challenges arise when conducting ethnography within hierarchical, sensitive, or hard-to-access institutions?
Keywords
Criminal justice; everyday practices; institutions; actors; discretion; professional cultures; inequalities
Sub-disciplines / cross-disciplinary areas
Sociology; criminology; socio-legal studies; anthropology; migration and border studies
References
Aliverti, A.
2021 Policing the Borders Within. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bucerius, S. M., Haggerty, K. D., & Berardi, L. (eds.)
2022 The Oxford Handbook of Ethnographies of Crime and Criminal Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Di Molfetta, E.
2024 Delivering Justice to Non-Citizens: How Criminal Courts Create Borders and Boundaries. Abingdon: Routledge.
Fassin, D.
2016 Prison Worlds: An Ethnography of the Carceral Condition. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Feeley, M. M.
1992 [1979] The Process Is the Punishment: Handling Cases in a Lower Criminal Court. New York: Russell Sage Foundation
Gray, G. C., & Salole, A. T.
2006 “The Local Culture of Punishment: An Ethnography of Criminal Justice Worker Discourse”, The British Journal of Criminology, 46(4), pp. 661–679.
Pound, R.
1910 “Law in Books and Law in Action”, American Law Review, 44, pp. 12–36.
Rice, S. K., & Maltz, M. D. (eds.)
2018 Doing Ethnography in Criminology: Discovery through Fieldwork. Cham: Springer International Publishing.
Skolnick, J. H.
1966 Justice Without Trial: Law Enforcement in Democratic Society. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Sudnow, D.
1965 “Normal Crimes: Sociological Features of the Penal Code in a Public Defender Office”, Social Problems, 12(3), pp. 255–276.
Convenors’ bio
Fabio Quassoli, PhD, is professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Milan-Bicocca, where he chairs the Master’s degree course in Analysis of Social Processes. His research interests are multiculturalism, immigration policies, ethno-racial discrimination, urban safety and security policies. On these topics, he has published some books and several articles in national and international journals. Among his recent publications, Clandestino, il governo delle migrazioni nell’Italia contemporanea (Meltemi).
Eleonora Di Molfetta, PhD, is a Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Milano-Bicocca. Her research focuses on security policies, migration control, and judicial practices, with a broader interest in issue of citizenship and belonging, particularly in relation to markers of discrimination such as race, ethnicity, and language. On these topics, she has published several articles in academic journals, as well as the book Delivering Justice to Non-Citizens (Routledge, 2024).