About the project
The research project “Private knowledge, public issues: Digitalization and private economies of knowledge in criminal justice” (CRIMKNOW) addresses a fundamental issue of modern science, namely the boundaries between public and private knowledge. This project asks: What happens to matters of public interest when their knowledge foundations are shaped by private actors?
Criminal justice agencies, in Norway as in most European countries, have in recent years undergone an intense process of digitalization as well as restructuring and reform. Digital technologies, often promoted by management- and IT-consultancies, are redefining the meaning of knowledge and expertise, thereby, redefining and shaping the nature of criminal justice and crime policy. In addition to consultancies, we have also seen a growing prominence of other types of private actors, such as NGOs and think tanks, who are actively using digital technologies in the promotion and dissemination of their expertise.
CRIMKNOW brings focus on the connections between digitalization and privatization and aims to develop an understanding of the role of private expertise in contemporary criminal justice policy development and implementation.
Method
CRIMKNOW is an interdisciplinary project combining criminological and socio-legal perspectives with the sociology and history of knowledge, and science and technology studies (STS). Through empirical research on, among other, crime indexes, police reforms and court reform in Norway, the project examines how commercial and private knowledge regimes become encoded into state practices, affecting the understanding of expertise, as well as the nature and quality of decision-making, particularly its transparency and public nature.
Objectives
Privatization of crime control and security has been one of the most salient and intensely debated issues within criminal justice in the last three decades. However, despite this we know quite little about the privatization of knowledge production. CRIMKNOW fills this gap. It is the first systematic attempt to develop an understanding of the role of private expertise in contemporary criminal justice policy development and implementation.
Sub-projects
Project period
The project runs for five years starting June 2023.
Financing
The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council. Project number: 334953.
Cooperation
- University of Essex
- Norwegian Police University College
- NTNU