Exploring the Queer Criminological Archive: Ethics, Politics, and Affects

• In Event: Queer Criminological Sensitivity to Ethics and Intersectional Identity in Research, Practice and Policy

Abstract

LGBTQ community archives provide a rich source of material for queer criminologists, which can shed new light on the impacts of criminal justice systems and agents in the lives of LGBTQ people. This paper explores the author’s own engagement with such archival material, specifically a collection of correspondence from incarcerated LGBTQ people, and outlines some of the key issues that have arisen in the use of these materials. It will focus in particular on the ethics, politics, and affects involved in engaging with LGBTQ archival materials in criminological research. The paper will discuss the ethics of the use of private and personal materials held in public archives, and concerns around disclosure and outing that may arise. It will consider the politics surrounding whose lives ought to be represented in LGBTQ community archives and consequently in queer criminological research. And it will discuss the affective experience of researching in LGBTQ archives, and how this shapes the research process. The reflections offered in this paper intend to contribute to the development of new sources and pathways in queer criminological research, and to equip researchers so that they can respond to the challenges that they may encounter.

Author

• Matthew Ball, Queensland University of Technology