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The article discusses judicial activism in the light of research into the attitudes of English judges, and a comparator group of US judges, towards judicial selection, judicial training and sentencing practice. Noting commonalities and shared perspectives, it is argued that the findings indicate enduring features of occupational culture that originate in relations within the legal workgroup and the practical craft of judging. Against the context of highly conventional attitudes, a conservative form of judicial activism is found in respect of resistance to legislative and policy innovation.

The article examines the conduct of videotaped interviews between suspected victims of child sexual abuse and police officers and social workers investigating the allegation. It assesses the present conduct of the interviews and the place of children's testimony in contemporary law, and is illustrated by several extracts from transcripts of interviews with suspected child victims. In a field dominated by psychological approaches to interview design and analysis, it is argued that sociology has a worthwhile contribution to make, with clear consequences for investigators' understandings of children's evidence.

'Qualitative Daten bieten reichhaltige Einsichten in die soziale Welt, sei es in alleiniger Anwendung oder im Tandem mit statistischer Analyse. Allerdings ist die Erhebung und Auswertung qualitativer Daten mit hohen Kosten verbunden. Ferner ist allgemein bekannt, dass nur ein Teil der so aufwändig erhobenen Daten letztlich Gegenstand der Auswertung und Veröffentlichung wird. Die Sekundäranalyse ist in der quantitativen Forschung bereits eine gut etablierte Methode und gewinnt auch für die Anwendung auf qualitative Daten an Wertschätzung. Eine besondere Rolle spielt sie im Zusammenhang mit Forschung zu sensiblen Themen und/oder schwer zugänglichen Populationen, wie in dem vorliegenden Beispiel erläutert wird. Dieser Artikel leistet einen Beitrag zur Diskussion des Potenzials und der Grenzen der Sekundäranalyse qualitativer Daten, indem er die Ergebnisse einer Sekundäranalyse einer klassischen Studie zur Soziologie des Gefängnislebens - Cohen und Taylors Forschung zu Langzeit-Inhaftierung von Männern in Hochsicherheitsverwahrung - berichtet. Auf der Grundlage der Nutzung archivierter Daten der Originalstudie betrachtet der Beitrag Cohen und Taylors Originalanalyse erneut und zeigt Unterstützung für eine alternative Konzeptionalisierung. Unter den diskutierten methodologischen Aspekten befinden sich die Wiederherstellung des Kontextes der originären Feldarbeit sowie die Rolle der Sekundäranalyse innerhalb eines kumulativen Ansatzes von Wissensproduktion.' (Autorenreferat)

Qualitative data offer rich insights into the social world, whether alone or in tandem with statistical analysis. However, qualitative data are costly to collect and analyse. Moreover, it is a commonplace that only a portion of the data so labouriously collected is the subject of final analysis and publication. Secondary analysis is a well-established method in quantitative research and is raising its profile in application to qualitative data. It has a particular part to play when research is on sensitive topics and/or hard-to-reach populations, as in the example considered here. This article contributes to discussion of the potential and constraints of secondary analysis of qualitative data by reporting the outcome of the secondary analysis of a key study in the sociology of prison life, Cohen and Taylor's research on the long-term imprisonment of men in maximum security. The article re-visits Cohen and Taylor's original analysis and demonstrates support for an alternative, if complementary, conceptualisation, using archived data from the original study. Among the methodological issues discussed are the recovery of the context of the original fieldwork and the role of secondary analysis in an incremental approach to knowledge production.

Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Tables -- List of Figures -- Notes on the Contributors -- An Introduction to the Economic Dimensions of Crime and Punishment -- PART I THE ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT -- 1 Crime and Punishment: an Economic Approach -- 2 The Economics of Crime -- 3 Economists, Crime and Punishment -- 4 Conspiracy among the Many: the Mafia in Legitimate Industries -- S Towards an Economic Approach to Crime and Prevention -- PART II CRIME AND THE LABOUR MARKET: ECONOMIC AND STRUCTURAL FACTORS -- 6 Crime and Consumption -- 7 Crime and the Labour Market -- 8 Work and Crime: an Exploration Using Panel Data -- 9 'The Devil Finds Work for Idle Hands to Do': the Relationship between Unemployment and Delinquency -- 10 Crime, Unemployment and Deprivation -- PART III MODELLING THE SYSTEM-WIDE COSTS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES -- 11 Modelling the Cost of Crime -- 12 Auditing Criminal Justice -- Annotated Further Readings -- Index.