
Fiona BrookmanUniversity of South Wales · Department of Criminology
Fiona Brookman
Doctor of Philosophy
Currently analysing ethnographic data on homicide investigation and writing research papers"
About
72
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Introduction
Fiona Brookman is Professor of Criminology and Chair of the Criminal Investigation Research Network (CIRN) that she established in 2014.
Her research interests include homicide, violence, homicide and major crime investigation, the role of science and technology in major crime investigation, offender accounts, narrative criminology, policing.
Her research generally involves qualitative research methods, including ethnography.
CIRN: https://criminology.research.southwales.ac.uk/cirn/
Additional affiliations
September 2012 - November 2012
Education
October 1996 - June 2000
Publications
Publications (72)
Despite concerns having been voiced internationally about the validity and reliability of mobile phone evidence, there remain large gaps in our understanding of how police acquire and process mobile phone data, and the risks associated with this work. This paper fills some of these gaps by drawing upon qualitative data gathered during an ethnograph...
Socio-legal ethnographies have focused largely on the dramaturgical themes present in the competing performances seen in adversarial trials. Drawing on ethnographic observations of British homicide investigations, we illuminate the hidden “backstage” space of prosecution barristers’ case conferences. Using Goffman’s dramaturgical framework, we anal...
https://theconversation.com/stephen-lawrence-how-family-liaison-officers-became-an-integral-part-of-policing-in-the-wake-of-his-murder-200203
The role of family liaison officers in UK policing in the aftermath of the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
As a victim or suspect of a crime, or witness to an offence, you may find your actions, behaviour and character scrutinised by the police or a barrister using CCTV footage. You may assume all the relevant footage has been gathered and viewed. You may sit on a jury and be expected to evaluate CCTV footage to help determine whether you find a defenda...
https://theconversation.com/when-hes-not-on-drugs-hes-a-good-person-one-communitys-story-of-meth-use-and-domestic-violence-176069
Fiona Brookman draws upon several decades of her own research on homicide and violence, including ethnographic research on homicide investigation in the UK and USA and interviews with violent offenders, in order to unravel the characteristics and causes of homicide, how police and forensic scientists investigate it and how it can be prevented.
Syn...
Drawing upon qualitative data gathered during a four-year ethnographic study of homicide investigation in Britain, this paper explores how detectives, scientists, and other experts use findings from forensic sciences and technologies (FSTs) when constructing and modifying pre-trial homicide narratives. We consider how these narratives unfold from t...
Drawing upon quantitative and qualitative data gathered during a four-year ethnographic study of 44 British homicide investigations, this paper advances the sparse literature on how closed-circuit television (CCTV) contributes to criminal investigations and the risks associated with its use. Based on insights gleaned from interviews with homicide d...
While many of the motives people provide for using drugs transcend gender, there are also notable gendered differences. These differences in motive talk aid in stigma management, shape gender performances, and can encourage or constrain behavior. Using data from a photoethnography with 52 people who use methamphetamine in rural Alabama, we find tha...
Photovoice is a participatory research method that entails collaboration between researchers and participants where participants take photographs to reflect issues that are of interest or concern to them. Photovoice combines photography and interviews as primary sources of data. The methodology has three primary goals. First, it provides participan...
Drawing on findings from the Homicide Investigation and Forensic Science (HIFS) Project, Jones and Brookman were commissioned by the Home Office Data and Identity Directorate to examine how forensic science contributes to homicide. Findings are detailed in this report and will be of value to policy-makers, operational policing and the forensic comm...
Purpose
This article explores how homicide detectives make sense of and manipulate multiple physical, digital and informational artefacts when assembling case narratives. The authors introduce the concept of mosaicking to illuminate how different modes of information, deriving from different investigative methods, are used in concert at key moments...
In this paper, we explore the importance of dialogue for collaborative sensemaking during homicide investigation, focusing upon interactions between detectives, forensic scientists and other experts involved in managing and undertaking forensic work. Drawing on data from a 4-year ethnographic study of British homicide investigations, we provide ins...
This is one of a series of Briefing Papers based on research findings from the Homicide Investigation and Forensic Science (HIFS) Project
Drawing upon data gathered during a four-year ethnographic study of homicide investigation in Britain, we document the movement of 44 (suspected) homicide cases through the criminal justice process before drawing upon two case studies to unravel in detail how a homicide is determined and how suspects are identified, eliminated, or charged. We sugge...
Drawing upon qualitative data gathered during fieldwork at
homicide units in the USA and UK, this paper explores how detec-
tives in both settings have responded to legal reforms intended to
protect suspects’ rights. Our analyses reveal that homicide detec-
tives in the USA routinely engage in procedures intended to
circumvent these rights, typical...
Trinidad and Tobago is a two-island nation in the Eastern Caribbean about seven miles off the northeast coast of Venezuela. As of June 2018, its estimated population was approximately 1.36 million people. Despite its small size and idyllic location, Trinidad and Tobago is also among the world’s most violent nations, with increasingly high levels of...
This is one of a series of Insight Briefing Papers based on research findings from the Homicide Investigation and Forensic Science (HIFS) Project.
This is one of a series of Briefing Papers based on research findings from the Homicide Investigation and Forensic Science (HIFS) Project.
This chapter contains an edited transcript of a conversation between the two authors that took place in November of 2017. It provides first person insights into the trials and tribulations that we faced while conducting ethnographic fieldwork within the homicide units of two police organizations. We focus specific attention on topics such as prepar...
A growing body of research examines factors that influence the likelihood of solving homicide cases. Much of this research emanates from North America and is based on quantitative analysis of police data. This article explores the views of homicide detectives, complemented by observations of investigations, in both Great Britain and the United Stat...
Photo-elicitation is a qualitative interview technique where researchers solicit responses, reactions, and insights from participants by using photographs or other images as stimuli. Images can be researcher-generated or participant-generated and each has particular benefits and challenges. Though not new, the use of images within criminology is an...
In 2003, Julia Pemberton and her son, William, were murdered by her estranged husband. This crime revealed a disturbing lack of preparedness on the part of the police and resulted in sustained campaigning for accountability on the part of Julia’s family. This case, which will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter, formed the main stimul...
Whilst the homicide rate in Britain is amongst the lowest in the world it is nonetheless challenging to understand or tackle, not least due to its diverse nature. Moreover, as in many other parts of the world, certain sections of society are disproportionately vulnerable to becoming victims of homicide, notably young males, infants under one year a...
There is a growing belief among medical practitioners and researchers that mephedrone use and violence are in some way connected. However, there has been little research conducted on either the association or the causal connection between mephedrone use and violence. Drawing upon in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 12 mephedrone users and ope...
This chapter examines the cognitive, affective, and situational factors that influence the decision-making processes of those who kill. With little existing research that specifically focuses on homicide offender decision making, this chapter brings together criminological and psychological research on violence-related cognition, affect, and the si...
Aim: There is no shortage of information on the potential consequences of consuming mephedrone. However, these assessments relate primarily to the physical and psychological effects of the drug. Less attention is paid to the social harms to the user or broader society. The aim of this paper is to investigate the physical, psychological and social h...
This chapter demonstrates self-imaging in the creation of narratives, and addresses how narratives shift between different discourses during interviews. It presents the investigation on a suspect named Jermaine, a young black man who had shot and killed a young white man during a robbery in Washington, DC. Through trickery and deceit—which involved...
Whilst recognised policies and structures are in place for reviews of homicide and other serious crime investigations, little guidance exists in relation to debriefs. Reviews tend to focus upon the failings of investigations, whilst debriefs are broader in remit, designed to capture a more holistic set of messages, both positive and negative, aroun...
Today I am going to talk about what we know about the decision-making processes of people who kill, paying particular attention to the role of situational, interactional and emotional factors. I ask what killers were thinking and feeling immediately prior to and during the moments of homicide, what situational and emotional factors influence their...
Aims: The aim of the paper is to investigate the extent to which university students misuse prescription drugs, using techniques of neutralization to understand and explain their behaviour.Methods: The study was based on an email survey of students currently registered at a university in north Wales which supports widening access and has one of the...
Until recently, the dominant approach to the analysis of life-stories and offenders’ narratives has been inspired by narrative psychology and has involved the search for “a unified and coherent self-narrative” (Sandberg 2013:72). There is mounting evidence that such an approach may be at best, restrictive and, at worst, misleading; narratives are n...
During this presentation I will be discussing my ethnographic research in both the UK and USA (mainly focusing upon the latter) on homicide investigation. I will spend some time talking about the methods – in particular the observational aspect of the research, before moving on to look at some of the emerging findings around the differences in inve...
The successful investigation of homicide has traditionally been characterised as involving a suspect being identified, charged and ultimately convicted. However, it is increasingly being recognised, not least by police officers themselves, that definitions of success can be more complex. Drawing upon the findings from ethnographic research of polic...
In this chapter the author analyses the excuses and justifications employed by men and women when discussing acts of lethal and sub-lethal violence. The themes discussed in this chapter draw upon data elicited from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 30 violent offenders (24 men and 6 women). Just under a third of these individuals had been co...
Research over the past several decades shows that those who act in ways inconsistent with desired identities often account for (i.e., excuse or justify) their actions to save face and maintain social identities. While the bulk of research on the use of accounts examines how people make sense of behaviors that go against conventional values, recent...
Police detectives traditionally defined a successful homicide investigation as involving a suspect being identified, charged and ultimately convicted – preferably for murder. However, it is increasingly being recognised, not least by police officers themselves, that definitions of success can be more complex. Informed by empirical data drawn from f...
Recent developments in the study of narratives suggest that people can construct identity by referencing acculturated stories (i.e., formula stories) and often do so when explaining untoward behavior. Formula stories connect one’s personal identity with generally accepted subcultural identities and the narratives associated with them. In light of t...
The paper investigates the extent to which street violence in the United Kingdom can be explained by a ‘code of the street’ of the kind described by Anderson in his classic study of crime in the inner-city suburbs of Philadelphia. It draws on research conducted by the authors as part of an ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) project on viol...
Just over 10 years ago, Anderson (1999) published Code of the Street, which described a behavioural code that both generated and regulated street violence in the inner-city suburbs of Philadelphia. Since then, there has been some research conducted in the United States that has tested further the concept of a street code, but little similar work in...
The current policy climate in Britain requires that agencies work together to improve their performance and provide a better service to clients. This is especially apparent in recent initiatives designed to improve the services afforded to victims of crime. Whilst there is an established literature dealing with both the potential benefits of, and c...
Studies on the motivation for violent street crime, such as robbery and assault, have tended to draw on either the rational choice or the subcultural perspective. This study explores the extent to which violence on the street can be explained by rational factors associated with the successful commission of the offence or social factors related to s...
This paper explores the extent to which street crime can be explained by rational factors associated with the successful commission of the offence or social factors related to street culture. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 55 violent street offenders who were serving sentences for street robbery and assault in six prisons in the...
In an influential study of gender and the accomplishment of street robbery in the United States, Miller (1998) demonstrated that whereas there were few gender differences in the motivations for such crimes, men and women typically committed them in strikingly different ways. Other recent work has similarly established both convergence within and di...
Infants aged younger than 12 months have the highest homicide victimization rate of any single age group in England and Wales. In addition, there are good grounds for believing that the official homicide statistics for this particular age group are an underestimate and subject to distortion. At the same time there is evidence mounting in the United...
Research into the situational dynamics of street robbery in the United States has identified a commitment to street culture, and participation in the self-indulgent activities promoted by that culture, as primary etiological mechanisms operating in the phenomenological foreground of such offences. Little research, however, has been undertaken on th...
Understanding Homicide is a comprehensive and challenging text unravelling the phenomenon of homicide. The author combines original analysis with a lucid overview of the key theories and debates in the study of homicide and violence. In introducing the broad spectrum of different features, aspects and forms of homicide, Fiona Brookman examines its...
This report explores the potential for reducing homicide in the UK. It draws upon data from the Homicide Index, international research on homicide, and the general crime reduction literature. Homicide is highly diverse in its characteristics, causes and dynamics, so effective strategies to reduce it are likely to require tailoring to specific forms...
This article argues that legal advice is particularly important for young suspects and pre-trial remand prisoners. We explore the experience of these two groups in accessing legal advice and consider whether it breaches Article 6(3)(c) of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), which guarantees the right to consult a lawyer when charged with a criminal of...
This article examines the nature of two predominant forms of masculine (male-on-male) homicide identified in England and Wales — “confrontational” homicide and “revenge” homicide. Based on analysis of police murder investigation files, the article explores the distinct nature of these two forms of masculine homicide as well as some important shared...
This article examines the nature of two predominant forms of masculine (male-on-male) homicide identified in England and Wales - "confrontational" homicide and "revenge" homicide. Based on analysis of police murder investigation files, the article explores the distinct nature of these two forms of masculine homicide as well as some important shared...
In order to test the hypothesis that monolinguals differ from bilinguals in their pattern of language lateralisation and to examine the relative merits of language-acquisitional versus language-specific factors, two experiments involving divided screen presentation of two languages were conducted using Welsh/English speaking participants. In the fi...
Jeff Hearn, The Violences of Men: How Men Talk About and How Agencies Respond to Men's Violence to Known Women, London: Sage, 1998, £45.00 (£14.99 paperback), x+258 pp. (ISBN 0-8039-7940-1) - - Volume 34 Issue 2 - Fiona Brookman
The central concern of this paper is to unravel the links between men's use of violence and their perceptions and understandings of the functions that violence serves. To these ends, the accounts of twenty violent men, convicted of either killing or violently assaulting other men are examined. The interview data suggest that regardless of the speci...