The Significance of Language, Culture, and Communication in Researching Post-Soviet Crime and Policing

Abstract

This article considers some of the problems associated with studying crime and criminal justice in countries where the lingua franca is not the native language of the main researchers involved. It reviews some of the more salient difficulties facing nonnative researchers in conducting cross-national research and the various approaches used to mitigate any adverse implications for the research outcomes. In doing so, the article draws on existing literature and the author's own expertise as a translator and interpreter and experiences as a member of a research team conducting both primary and secondary criminological research in Russia. The intention is not to produce a technical how-to guide that deals exclusively with translation because translation is only one aspect of the linguistic problems facing international researchers. As the title of the article suggests, the focus is much broader than translation and encompasses notions of communication and culture.