Visual Methods

Images shape how we understand harm, crime and control, and they can also be used to research them. This book is a practical guide to both. Developed from within criminology but built for the social sciences at large, it shows researchers and students how to read images critically and how to put a camera to work as a research tool.
The first part teaches a clear framework for analysing images across context, form and meaning. It is illustrated through two worked readings, a 1955 magazine cover and Kendrick Lamar's music video Alright, and can be applied to material as varied as historical photographs, films, protest posters, CCTV, Social Media material and online memes. The second part focuses on how to generate visual data through established qualitative approaches, walking through visual elicitation, photo and video voice, visual ethnography, and the production of documentaries, fiction films, ethnofictions and photo-essays, as well as how to circulate them through exhibitions, journals, festivals and QR-linked video appendices. Each method comes with guiding prompts and real examples, including new projects developed within criminology and Oscar-winning documentaries. Ethics runs through every chapter, from consent and privacy to copyright, harmful material, and the question of where and how to publish.
Reusable templates and checklists close the book, so readers can start working straight away. No prior training in visual methods required, just a willingness to look closer.