Job Market, Qualitative Research, and Publications

[A.Buscariolli]

Sorry in advance for the long post!

I'm a Ph.D. student in a Sociology department with a solid qualitative research tradition. My research draws from a qualitative/interactionist approach to analyze officer-citizen interactions. I noticed in the job market that there are a lot of jobs in criminology/criminal justice, a few in soc departments, but most in crim departments. My question is how I could use my publications to make myself more competitive for jobs in criminology departments.

I have two publications in crim journals: Critical Criminology (which has good-not-great IF, but at least is an official journal of the ASC) and The British Journal of Criminology. I wonder how much publishing in crim journals may mitigate the fact that I come from a soc department.

More importantly, I'm working on a third manuscript, possibly my best work. I originally planned to go for another crim journal (given the many jobs out there), but I could go for more respected sociology journals that regularly publish qualitative stuff (Social Problems, Social Forces, or the American Journal of Sociology). I think that more traditional criminology journals would not be open to more qualitative/interactionist approaches. That puts me at a crossroads: Should I go for a very respected sociology journal that would make me more competitive in positions in sociology departments (even though these seem more scarce)? Or should I stick to a less prestigious criminology journal and go for one of the many criminology jobs available?

My concern is that regardless of where I publish stuff, coming from a sociology department would close down opportunities in criminology departments. Because of that, I'm more inclined to stick to positions in Sociology departments since, albeit more scarce, I'd be more competitive. As a final note, my department has two very well-known urban ethnographers who write on policing and crime--one is on my dissertation committee and will write me a recommendation letter. It's not that I'm entirely alien to the field of criminology.

Let me know what you think! Thanks!