Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of applying for a PhD studentship in Criminology. The topic is female offenders in the criminal justice system. I'm not sure why I''m having so much trouble with it - I'm either completely overthinking it or it could be because I left the field and did psychology at postgraduate level. Either way, I am seriously struggling getting my ideas in order and getting a foothold. I've alighted on a narrative theory based approach to female offending as I feel this has largely been overlooked in the literature - ideally I'd like to take what I learnt during my psychology masters about narrative theory, interview female offenders and produce a smallest space analysis to confirm whether or not female offending narratives are similar to male ones (as per a study conducted with male offenders by Canter and Youngs in 2003). The only thing that worries me with this approach is that I'm afraid that the criminology department will tell me my proposal only benefits psychology as opposed to criminology. I would hugely appreciate any advice that could be given - I've emailed an old supervisor but she hasn't come back to me and I'm so desperate to do a PhD.

Thanks

Lula

Not a criminologist or psychologist, but it seems OK to me. You should find a potential supervisor and email them with your ideas. However, might be tricky to get hold of them at the moment.

Hi Lula - I hear the passion in your voice about the topic and this is what PhD supervisors look for in the admissions process. My PhD is almost finished, and I recall that my research question aim and scope was fine-tuned numerous times over the years even though my original question is in the same area. Senior academics and other PhD graduates over the years told me this ongoing fine-tuning of the research question was normal. A supervisor is only keen to learn prior to admission that you they are qualified to study the general area e.g. Feminist criminology, prison reform and the Western literature. They will mostly go by issues such as what are your previous grades, publications, evidence of motivation and the supervisor/s best suited to that topic are currently available. Shop around as the universities are keen to attract PhD students as they receive funding for it. Hope that helps. Hannah :-) I love the sound of your topic. And yes, old supervisors are good contact as they know about your work ethic and nature.