Snapshots of Research

Readings in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Richard D. Hartley

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781412989190
• eBook ISBN:
  9781452238517
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Higher Education

Immerse your students in contemporary and classic scholarly research and readings from the major branches of the criminal justice system

This text/reader is a comprehensive, cutting-edge overview of the main research methods used in the fields of criminology and criminal justice. Snapshots of Research offers a wide range of modern research examples, as well as several classic articles, including a broad range of readings from the four major branches of the criminal justice system—policing, courts/law, juvenile justice, and corrections—that are relevant to career paths students may be interested in pursuing.

1

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
AND THE RESEARCH PROCESS
IN CRIMINOLOGY AND
CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

—Will Durant

PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE OF CRIME AND CRIMINALS

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Each day, persons all over the world are bombarded by information and statistics about crime and justice. Unfortunately, this information is all too often inaccurate. Many times, it is reported to the general public before the appropriate legal authorities have had the opportunity to conduct their investigations. Television reporters and news anchors as well as journalists and newspaper columnists often report stories about crime that offer up the motives for certain criminal acts or knee-jerk responses regarding what should be done with an accused offender without taking the time to conduct in-depth examinations of all of the relevant factors that may have contributed to the crime or what the most effective crime prevention measures might be for guarding against victimization.

They often also conduct interviews with, or surveys of, a few persons in a neighborhood regarding their opinions of certain types of criminal activity or personal fears about crime without really ensuring that these opinions and attitudes are reflective of everyone in the neighborhood. This daily reporting of inaccurate information and failure to obtain a true understanding of criminal events or motivations for criminal behavior gives the public a distorted view of crime and criminals. This misinformation may make us unnecessarily fearful or, worse, dangerously unaware of whom or what will actually harm or injure us. In essence, these reports of crime and criminals give us a skewed sense of the effectiveness of our criminal justice system and of our relative risk of criminal victimization.

Criminologists and other social scientists, on the other hand, have conducted a great deal of research over time regarding the causes of criminal behavior. They have undertaken studies exploring which factors are often associated with criminal behavior and have administered surveys examining public fear of crime, all in attempts to better understand criminal behavior as well as come up with best practices for crime prevention. The findings from these scientific research studies often reach conclusions that are different from media reporting of crime. So, why is it that most of the general public does not bother to read the results of research studies conducted by criminologists? Further, why is it that a majority of the public does not question the accuracy or reliability of crime information gleaned from the news?

There are probably multiple reasons, but most often the answer has to do with ease of access and comprehension. To find media-reported crime information, all people have to do is pick up a newspaper or magazine or turn on a television and they will receive short, easy to understand sound bites about crime and justice. To find scientific crime information, people have to have access to the journals that publish this research and have the skills to understand and interpret the findings, which are often written in scientific research-oriented jargon. It is not very difficult, therefore, to see why most of the public choose the former source for information on crime and criminals over the latter.

The material contained in this book is thus an effort to help students become more comfortable with reading and understanding scientific research and, ultimately, making them better consumers of information on crime and justice. Great effort is often necessary in order to encourage the students as consumers of media information to be skeptical and critical of crime statistics and crime reporting that they hear or read in the news. It is an attempt to get students to question the sources of these crime statistics as well as to think more broadly about whether this information reflects the true reality of crime and criminal behavior. For example, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), an annual survey of victimization (Rand, 2008), 64% of all reported rape and sexual assault victimizations against females in 2007 were committed by relatives, friends, or other acquaintances of the victim. Regardless of whether these incidents were reported to the police, local news outlets do not often disseminate this information. Rather, news reports of rape and sexual assault often report that the incidents were predatory, stranger-committed acts, the predator most often being someone who previously received prison time for similar offenses. Do these news reports of rape and sexual assault make females unnecessarily fearful of strangers yet dangerously trustworthy of those whom they know? According to the NCVS, yes!

The goal of this reader is to get you to think more critically about sources of crime information. You will be better able to do this if you are familiar with how social science researchers examine crime and justice issues. Examining scientific research will reveal how and why these research efforts are valuable as well as why you as a consumer of crime and justice information should pay more attention to research. It aims to accomplish this by discussing the fundamental ways in which social scientists, specifically criminologists and criminal justice researchers, obtain knowledge about crime and criminal justice behavior and how they go about seeking answers to important questions on these topics.

This reader has also been constructed with the belief that these goals can best be accomplished by exposing students to examples of real research. In other words, students can best learn research methods in criminology and criminal justice by reading research that has been published by scholars in the field. The compilation of research examples that are included in the following chapters provides recent and excellent examples of research that has been published in academic journals. These articles are illustrative of research that uses sound and principled research methodologies and that has explored the causes of criminal offending or examined justice issues involving the three major branches of the criminal justice system. Hopefully, as you become immersed in these examples of research, you will discover that reading and understanding scientific research in criminology and criminal justice is not as difficult as it may initially seem and that for those who will become future researchers or employees of the criminal justice system, it is indeed a very worthwhile task.

WHY CRIMINOLOGISTS CONDUCT RESEARCH USING THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

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There are other important reasons beyond information gathering that lead those who take a scientific approach to studying crime to expend a great deal of time, resources, and effort in doing so. Most of these important reasons have to do with acquiring accurate knowledge and strict adherence to the scientific method. The following pages have been written to provide a fundamental basis for understanding the procedures involved in conducting research of a scientific nature. This reader also provides discussions of some of the major limitations of the research methods used to study crime and justice.

Each year, thousands of researchers seek answers to thousands of questions about crime and justice. For example, is the death penalty an effective deterrent to homicide? Does the gender or race of defendants have an effect on the length of sentence a judge will impose on them? Is there a relationship between age and crime? Are newspaper reports of homicide victims different dependent on the gender of the victim? Is fear of crime affected by the amount of education or annual income one has? Do delinquent friends cause an individual to be more delinquent? These questions are just a few of the thousands of questions that researchers might be interested in finding answers to in order to gain increased knowledge about crime and criminal behavior and its broader relationship to society.

What counts as research? You may have asked yourself this question if a professor assigned you a term paper and stated that you may only use empirical research as sources. You may have overheard people state that they are going to do some research on which neighborhoods are the safest in a particular city or the doctors with the best reputation in an area. Your parents may have even done some research on which colleges provide the best education at the most reasonable tuition costs. Is this research? The quick answer would be yes—anyone who investigates or employs some type of effort to seek answers to their questions or to increase their knowledge of something is doing research. But is this research scientific? Can these people be certain that their research has provided them with accurate answers? The quick answer to that question is no.

So, what is the difference? Well, primarily, the research in the above examples is probably conducted via the Internet or by asking someone who has lived in the city for a while. This research could probably also be accomplished in a few hours. The difference, therefore, is that those who conduct scientific research employ much more rigorous methods to gather the information they are seeking. Criminologists and other social scientists use systematic, well-established research practices to seek answers to their questions. This is what makes their research empirical. Scientific researchers also restrict their questions and explanations in more tangible ways than the everyday researcher (Ellis, Hartley, & Walsh, 2010). Social scientists follow what is referred to as the scientific method in order to get objective answers to their questions and to ensure that the answers they get are valid and reliable.

The problem with the answers that everyday citizens obtain or that are provided by local television reporters on the street is that there is a high likelihood that they may not reflect the true nature of reality. In other words, the answers are most likely erroneous. This is why researchers in criminology and criminal justice also utilize theory (both probability and criminological) and statistics (both mathematical and inferential) in their research endeavors. Theory and statistics help scientific researchers limit the amount of error associated with research results. After reading the rest of this chapter, you will be more familiar with the reasoning behind the use of the scientific method for research in criminology and criminal justice.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

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The scientific method is a tool that helps criminology and criminal justice researchers systematically study crime and justice using methods that are logical (that make sense), that reduce the likelihood of error (that ensure answers are accurate and reliable), and that make results open to scrutiny by other researchers (that enables others in the field to examine and question the findings). Bachman and Schutt (2008) point out some of the ways in which the scientific method is superior to methods that the average person might use to seek answers to their questions: (1) The scientific method uses procedures for selecting persons or groups for study that are representative of the population the researcher wants to study, (2) the scientific method relies on systematic measurement to reduce inaccuracies in observation, (3) the scientific method makes use of certain criteria to establish cause, and (4) the scientific method resists change and ensures objectivity by allowing others to examine and be critical of findings and results.

Figure 1.1 represents an illustration of the scientific research process. As shown in this figure, there are several important steps involved in the scientific method that must be followed to be sure that all the characteristics listed above are true for a particular research study. The steps involved in the scientific method are also referred to as the wheel of science (Wallace, 1971) and include theory, hypotheses, data collection, and empirical generalization. Although research can begin at different stages in the process (deductive versus inductive approaches), there is some debate about the appropriate starting point and the proper way to conduct research. Pure researchers (those concerned with advancing knowledge) believe that all research should begin with theory. Researchers who take a more applied approach, on the other hand, may start by collecting and analyzing data and then looking for theoretically appropriate explanations for what they have observed. Chapter 2 will provide a further discussion of deductive and inductive research, but for now, the importance of theory in the research process cannot be understated.

Theory is important in crime research because there are many competing ideas (theories) about why persons engage in criminal behavior. For instance, some might believe that young adults are more likely to engage in criminal activity if they hang out with others (friends) who are criminal. Maybe you personally know someone who has engaged in unlawful behaviors and have observed that person hanging out with others who are also delinquents or criminals. But does having criminal friends make someone more prone to commit illegal acts? Further, how can we be sure that the delinquent friends are to blame for an individual’s criminal behavior? The answer is that we cannot be sure, and we cannot say that criminal friends cause persons to commit crime based on one or a few individuals who we know. But we could conduct scientific research to find out if this theory of criminal friends influencing criminal behavior is a plausible explanation. This theory could be tested by following the steps outlined in the scientific method. The scientific method enables researchers to test theories through hypotheses, observations, and empirical generalization.

Figure 1.1 The Research Circle

In order to test the theory that criminal activity is more likely for an individual who has friends who are criminal, several procedures must be followed. To test theories, researchers need to formulate hypotheses, make decisions about measuring or quantifying variables, make decisions about how to collect the data and from whom, undertake procedures to collect the data (observations must be made), and finally, analyze the data. Before beginning a discussion of the steps involved in the scientific method, it is necessary to define a few terms that will make the research process seem a little less complicated.

More than a few university professors have observed that students put off taking a course in research methods until they absolutely have to (their last semester before graduation). One of the main reasons that most students avoid research methods classes is the language that researchers use to describe the research process. This “research shock,” as Hagan (2010, p. 15) describes it, can be intimidating but, once learned, can greatly assist students in understanding the process of research. It is, therefore, actually important to take a research methods class as early as possible because it will ultimately help you understand materials and research presented in other required courses. Some straightforward definitions of widely used language in research methods follow:

Units of Analysis: The people, places, and things that researchers study; the objects of their research. Common units of analysis in criminology and criminal justice research include individuals, groups, and institutions.

Theory: A plausible explanation of reality. Criminological theories, for example, provide possible reasons why crime occurs or why individuals commit crime. Crime theories also allow us to understand, organize, and predict criminal events and behaviors.

Hypothesis: An educated guess or statement about relationships between variables and derived from theory. Hypotheses spell out expectations about theoretical relationships between variables and observed phenomena.

Concepts: Abstract ideas that are created to explain our reality. For example, weight is a fairly simple concept constructed to explain how heavy something is. Some concepts in social science research can be difficult to understand. For example, everyone knows the concept of religion, but have they ever thought about what makes some people religious and others not? How can we measure religion in people or in society? Similarly, crime is a fairly complex concept that different persons, at different places, and in different times, have defined differently. Depending on what behaviors are included in conceptualizing crime, it may or may not be difficult to study.

Operationalization: This is another word for measurement; a description of how the concepts in our research are going to be measured. Crime for instance may be measured as counts (number of homicides, robberies, or burglaries), or it may be measured as a rate (count per certain number of population). Religion, for example, could be operationalized by frequency of church attendance, amount of belief in a higher power, or level of dedication to prayer practices. Operationalization allows researchers to make abstract concepts more concrete, which makes them more amenable to scientific study.

Variables: Concepts that have been operationalized, or traits that can have different values. For example, different neighborhoods could have different numbers of burglaries in a specified time period. Burglary, therefore, is a trait (variable) of neighborhoods that can take on different values. Dependent variables are the traits we are attempting to predict: the caused variable. Independent variables are those we assume are influencing the traits we are studying. Independent variables that might influence the number of burglaries in a neighborhood could include: number of street lights, number of...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Brief Contents
• Detailed Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. The Scientific Method and the Research Process in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• 2. Criminological Theory and the Scientific Method
• 3. Ethics in the Research Process
• 4. Conceptualization and Measurement
• 5. Sampling Procedures
• 6. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research Designs
• 7. Survey Research and Interviews
• 8. Qualitative Research: Participant Observation, Focus Groups, and Case Studies
• 9. Unobtrusive Methods: Secondary Analysis, Content Analysis, Crime Mapping, and Meta-Analysis
• 10. Mixed Methods Research
• 11. Evaluation Research and Policy Analysis
• References
• About the Author