New Criminological Perspectives: The Observational Method

Abstract

AbstractThis contribution will present the observational method, whose main goal is the in-depth analysis of the criminal situation concerning both the dynamics that are triggered within the relationship – therefore interpreting them through the eyes of the individuals involved – and the dynamics faced by those who observe the relationship from the outside and then have to represent or judge it. The method is the result of the encounter between two approaches, narrative criminology and visual criminology, from which it borrows the concepts of narrative and image. Narrative, in this case, means the stories produced by individuals, who describe the events through their point of observation, and the arguments produced by criminologists and operators based on the perspective they adopted in observing the story; therefore, the narrative plays a central role. The observational method defines the relationship metaphorically as if it were a room within which the protagonists act and perceive themselves according to where they are placed and what they see subjectively. Those who observe the room from the outside will describe it as if it were a photograph. Here the concept of image borrowed from visual criminology returns. Starting with the first activities that are carried out talking about criminal acts (fact-crimes) and then the inspection activities (technical–judicial and psycho-criminological), we will highlight the role of the criminologist and the narrative approach that distinguishes his or her work.