Partisanship and positionality in qualitative research: Exploring the influences of the researcher’s experiences of serious crime on the research process

Debates on positionality and partisanship in the research process are long-standing, complex often highly contentious. Engaging with, contributing to, both these key debates, this paper introduces concept of victim-as-researcher. This draws from author’s experiences undertaking Trinidad Tobago with a group offenders who had committed similar offences to that which researcher was herself victim. There is paucity literature speaks victims serious, violent crime subsequently engage qualitative have been convicted ones experienced by which, therefore, can elicit trauma whilst field through analysis. aims extend methodological victimology foregrounding victim-as-researcher as an important category reflexive sociological criminological research.