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Greg Philo and David Miller raise important concerns about the politics and direction of research ("While talk might be cheap, silence is deadly", THES , November 3).

Critical research is controlled by non-access to funding and also by the threat or use of libel laws. This can make critical academics censor themselves as the uncritical might not. A number of academics working in criminology and criminal justice have been involved in interventionist, critical and influential work around rape crisis centres, deaths in custody or at work, prisoners' rights and police accountability. Much of their research has not had large corporate or state grants allowing these academics to challenge the insidious gatekeeping strategies employed to regulate findings that the powerful find disagreeable.

Joe Sim
School of law and applied social studies
Liverpool John Moores University