This book is designed to help undergraduate and graduate students begin a discussion about the technicalities, politics, and ethics surrounding qualitative research, focusing on research in the interest of social justice. It offers a view of how two researchers have conceptualized their own research process and renders problematic many of the steps they have taken along the way. Input from student researchers at two New York colleges is also included. Chapter 1, "Cops, Crime, and Violence," offers a concrete example of the two researchers' urban ethnographic work in relation to the product, drawing on research involving 154 in-depth interviews with white, African-American, and Hispanic-American young adults about their experiences since leaving high school. Chapter 2, "A Note on Methods," describes their research methodology. Chapter 3, "Qualitative Research, Representations, and Social Responsibilities," and Chapter 4, "Reflections on the Politics and Methods of Qualitative Work," reflect back on the researchers' work, problematizing the apparently seamless process and offering a variety of methodological and ethical concerns as they and their students experienced them. (Contains 130 references.) (SM)