Abstract
This chapter considers the relationships between criminology and the worlds of penal policy, practice, and activism. It focuses, in particular, on the day-to-day interactions the authors of the chapter forge in their research lives and on their effects and failures as engaged criminologists. The chapter supports forms of criminological engagement that are subtle, long term, and relational rather than occasional, mechanical, linear, or instrumental, and proposes that these forms of engagement improve understanding but require constant reflection and negotiation. This chapter argues that knowledge-generation is slow and cumulative; it takes time to ‘read a situation’ in complex human and social environments and it should be an iterative process with those in research, in practice, or with lived experience teaching and learning from each other every step of the way. For knowledge to ‘do good’, it needs to be (qualitatively) ‘good’. It should be produced through patient, honest, rigorous, and disciplined, but also deeply engaged, forms of enquiry. This chapter suggests that our institutional structures often fail to support this model of research.