Research and the Voluntary Sector
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Guest post by Philippa Tomczak, doctoral student in criminology, University of Manchester.



Julia also questions what the role of academics researching these organisations is and ought to be. She rightly points out that there is work to do in terms of scoping the activities of charitable work in carceral settings and acknowledges the need to consider detainees' views and experiences. I suggest that the most pressing task for academics is to attempt to represent those who are most directly affected by both these detention regimes and the work of charitable organisations: the detainees themselves. Their voices are almost always absent from debates in this topic, however they are the only means of properly determining the value (or otherwise) of charitable work in detention settings. A small amount of evidence is available through some voluntary organisations (see here and here). But, there is hardly any independent information or research about whether detainees engage with charitable programmes voluntarily, whether they consider such programmes to be beneficial and what their experience of being in contact with these organisations is.
Although research that focuses directly on the experiences of detainees is not a value-free exercise in itself, it seems to me that this is where the energy of academics ought to be focussed. Statutory bodies and charitable organisations already have voice through their own publications, websites and media statements. Detainees have very few such outlets.
For more on Philippa’s work see her forthcoming article "The penal voluntary sector in England and Wales: Beyond neoliberalism?" in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2014). She also tweets @PhilippaTomczak.
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How to cite this blog post (Harvard style):
Tomczak, P. (2013) Research and the Voluntary Sector. Available at: http://bordercriminologies.law.ox.ac.uk/research-and-the-voluntary-sector/ (Accessed [date]).
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