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Edge Ethnography

Edge ethnography is a rare but growing form of qualitative social science research primarily utilized in the study of crime and deviance. This fieldwork orientation involves the use of traditional observational and interactive methods in the inquiry of topics wherein established normative research conduct boundaries are compromised for the sake of realizing scientific objectives. Edge ethnographers spend considerable time with criminals, deviants, and those on the fringes of legal society and strive for full immersion into research settings with the goal of capturing data as close as possible to their spatial and temporal occurrence. Accordingly, edge ethnographers voluntarily assume risks regarding personal safety, legal threat, and, in the opinion of some, research subjects, thus testing the tolerances of the scientific community in exploring marginalized and dangerous populations.

Axioms of Edge Ethnography

The use of edge ethnography in the study of clandestine and illicit topics is driven by both pragmatic and philosophic reasons. There is a fundamental desire to transcend the limited utility of traditional research approaches and techniques for examining crime and deviance owing to the vested interest in nondisclosure by research subjects facing cultural, legal, and even physical threats. The size and demographic composition of many clandestine and secretive deviant populations are simply unknown, and effective sampling necessary for meaningful quantitative analysis of related research questions often is not possible. Whereas traditional qualitative research approaches have explored and contextualized various research areas, issues of selective memory, self-reported behavior limitations, and altered behavior due to researcher presence have slowed knowledge development. Edge ethnography offers a solution to these methodological challenges through the conduct of research within the context of the immediacy of social action.

To witness crime or deviance at or near the time of its occurrence, researchers must assume a natural role in closed subcultural settings by either gaining the trust and acceptance of native actors or keeping research goals unknown so as to not alter the natural occurrence of events. It is this disguise versus the “going native” issue that most distinguishes between the two leading strains of edge ethnography as described below. All edge ethnographers, however, believe that empiricism requires data collection within the context of the immediacy of crime. Last, and although counterintuitive given the fluid mind-set regarding human subjects, edge ethnographers typically believe that their research should not raise the level of harm or danger natural to research settings. As per these axioms, edge ethnographers generally study crime in real time or during its direct aftermath, placing researchers in potentially dangerous settings through their physical presence at criminal events or the keeping of company with recent offenders.

Leading Forms of Edge Ethnography

Despite a healthy literature on managing dangerous settings and assessing risk, it is easy to understand why very few social scientists practice edge ethnography. In fact, there is more of a literature on inseparable ethical propriety issues than empirical examples of the style per se. While edge ethnography is practiced more broadly across the social sciences in Europe, applications in the United States are infrequent and most pronounced in criminology and in the criminal justice sciences. On one hand, it is somewhat ironic that edge ethnography is flourishing in North America where iterations involving deception have long been considered ethically questionable and even outright banned in the code of ethics by some national professional societies such as the American Sociological Association (as compared with the British Sociological Association, which conditionally upholds its use). On the other hand, it is in the United States where the two most dominant strains of edge ethnography have developed and continue to evolve.

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