Research Methods in Criminology

What is Research?

For a lot of people, “research” is what you do when you spend a few hours sitting in library or at home looking things up on the Internet.  You open your favorite web browser, like Google, and that’s when the research magic happens. Well, sort of.But not really.

This post aims to introduce students to the process that professional researchers engage when they study something. We undertake a systematic process that you will find differs dramatically from simply looking up information and statistics on the Internet. What follows here is a very simple general overview of the research process.

Newsflash: if you think you have a research question/problem you want to study and you can find the answer/solve the problem by simply retrieving and reading a few articles in the library, you really haven’t conducted research.

So what exactly is research? How do academics and criminologists actually go about conducting research?  The slides that follow depict important steps that researchers take to ensure that their research is systematically conducted in such a way as to respect the rules of rational inquiry. If you are using a textbook in the social sciences (i.e. sociology or criminology) there is typically an entire early chapter devoted to the study of research methods. Because it’s that important!

Most researchers start with a basic problem and pose a question that they have about that problem. For example, they may be interested in the problem of juvenile crime. In light of this, a researcher might start with a simple questions like:

Is juvenile crime increasing?

Why is juvenile crime increasing?

Do immigrants commit more crime?

Are juvenile boys more violent than juvenile girls?

Do police body cameras reduce the police use of force?

Why are so many black people incarcerated?

The point here is, there is a mystery to be solved and the investigator is going to undertake a systematic inquiry to see if they can collect data that will allow them to solve the question/problem.

But first, let’s talk about things that will present you with difficulty. A common problem among students is that they tend to want to study problems that are too broadly conceived, not well defined, which are likewise difficult to count/quantify. For example, some might ask:

How does crime impact society?

Is there a “War on Cops?”

Why is capitalism the best (or worst) form of social organization?

We will address this common problem of being “too general” as we continue our work together. For now, simply be assured that there different types of research that help facilitate the study of social problems. All research, furthermore, starts with a specific problem and question.

Institutional Ethnography

One other form of important research not listed on these slides is referred to as institutional ethnography (IE). First developed by the sociologist, Dorothy Smith, IE is less about a particular set of research methods than it is an approach to research.

IE centers the everyday work problems of people in institutions, which become the starting point for an exploration of what are often-invisible social relations that underlie human experience.

People’s everyday lives are treated as a site of interface between individuals and a network of institutional relations, discourses, and work processes. Put another way, the research object is the relational point of interface between individuals and institutions.

Summary

To conduct research, the researcher has to formulate a strategy/plan with defined research objectives. They must, furthermore, employ systematic methods as they design a plan of study, where they first spend a lot of time taking into account previous research before they collect data. The research design outlines the structure of the research plan; it’s the “glue” that holds the study together. Without this basic plan, the research will be unfocused and wander, which defeats the purpose of the study, as it tends to leave the reader (and your professor) confused.

Once researchers collect their data, they will conduct an interpretive analysis and report findings. In short, they are going to employ the scientific method.

Steps in the Research Cycle/Process

Step 1: Define a problem

Step 2: Formulate Objectives & Strategy (formulate a hypothesis)

Step 3: Conduct a Literature Review

Step 4: Design a Research Question, Define Concepts, and Operationalize a Research Plan

Step 5: Conduct Observations & Gather Data

Step 6: Analyze Data

Step 7: Report Findings

Characteristics of the Scientific Method

Sometimes it is hard to not inject your personal bias when studying a problem. Keep in mind now, most of us choose problems to study based on our personal interests and background to some extent, so there is a lot of debate about whether or not it is possible to be truly objective.  We all have issues and problems that we care about and so we naturally have something to say about it!

But you must resist these impulses to the best of your ability; try (to the extent that this is possible) to set them aside and design a plan to gather data. It is good to be curious, just try to keep an open mind and resist being judgemental at every step in the process. Note the following are characteristics of the scientific method:

• Systematic, Step by Step Procedure
• Relies on Evidence
• Uses Concepts
• Uses Reasoning
• Subscribes to Ethics – Neutrality, “Do No Harm”
• Verifiable and Replicatable

Research Methods in Criminology

Thus far, what I have presented here is a basic architecture for social science research methods. This is not to be understood as doctrine, however, as there are numerous nuances and different approaches that characterize the process, which this short posting simply cannot address. Nonetheless, by using this basic outline you can begin to get a sense for how social science research and research in Criminology is conducted.

What is a Hypothesis?

Not all research formally states a hypothesis (and so it follows not all research engages in formal hypothesis testing). But even if one is not formally stated, researchers will still have a “hunch” and speculate out loud about what they expect to find.

Summary

People who are great observers of life around them make great researchers. You might be doing some of these things without noticing that you are practicing the life skills that will enable you to become a great researcher one day!

How Can You Use This Information to Write a Research Paper?

In a class like ours, we don’t have the luxury of time (or the funding) for everyone to conduct their own research projects. What we can do, however, is focus on problems, then undertake a formal process of investigation to learn about that problem in the way a researcher would approach it.

I am going to suggest that you choose a problem/topic and that conduct a brief literature review to learn about how previous professional researchers have conducted studies to investigate the problem. In conducting your review, you should (ideally) plan on reading at least 3-4 studies in-depth – studies that took different approaches and used different research methods and subjects, this way you will acquire a more fully developed appreciation for how complex problems are and how difficult they are sometimes to solve!

Assignments

Working in groups and independently, you will complete assignments that address the different major sub-sections of research papers. Assignments will cover the following:

• Abstract/Annotated Bibliography
• Literature Review
• Research Methods Section
• Surveys
• Conducting Observations
• Visual Ethnographies
• Interviews

Data Collection Fallacies

Of course, you knew this process would have a few curveballs, right? Even if you are not working on a project right now that requires you to collect data, you should be aware of some common data collection pitfalls which can have a major impact on study results and findings. Keep these fallacies in mind as you evaluate sources of information and think about how you might collect data. This applies not only to your coursework; it can help you in your future occupations, as you might be asked to lead an initiative that requires you to conduct research to solve a problem.

Discussion questions (you don’t have to answer these, but you should know the answers)

What are the steps in the research process?

What are the characteristics of the scientific method?

What is a hypothesis?

At what point do you formulate your research question – before or after the literature review?