Transcript Research Methods in Criminology. Theory Construction and

Research Methods in
Criminology
1.Assignment # 1
2.Research
3.Research methods
Why conduct research?
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Some want to answer practical questions (“Will a
reduction in average class size from 25 to 20
increase student writing skills?”)
Others want to make informed decision (“Should
our school introduce extracurricular activities to
reduce deviant behavior of students?”)
Still others want to change society (“What can be
done to reduce rape?”)
Critics of scientific research in criminology view it
as a detailed elaboration of what any person with
common sense know
Sense and Nonsense about crime (Walker, 1989)
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Females and the elderly fear
crime because they are the
most heavily victimized of all
groups
Victims of crime seldom
know their offenders
The typical criminal offender
is either unemployed or on
welfare
The larger the city, the
greater the likelihood its
residents will be victims of
crime.
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Rates of victimization are
higher for males than females
and for younger people
In a large proportion of violent
crimes, victims know their
offenders
Knowledge of imprisoned
criminals indicates that most
criminals have jobs and very
few are welfare dependent
The residents of smaller cities
have higher rates for certain
crimes: assault, personal
larceny, and residential burglary
Demographic characteristics (victims
and offenders, 1976-2002)
Rate per 100,000 population
Victims
Offenders
Population
Victims
Offenders
Under 14
4.7%
.5%
20.6%
1.8
.2
14-17
5.1%
10.6%
6.1%
6.7
15.6
18-24
23.7%
36.2%
11.0%
14.5
29.7
25-34
29.0%
28.7%
16.0%
17.2
16.1
35-49
22.7%
17.2%
20.2%
9.0
7.7
50-64
9.3%
5.2%
13.9%
5.4
3.3
65+
5.4%
1.7%
12.2%
3.5
1.3
Demographic characteristics (victims
and offenders, 1976-2002)
Rate per 100,000 population
Victims
Offenders
Population
Victims
Offenders
Male
76.4%
88.6%
48.8%
12.7
16.4
Female
23.6%
11.4%
51.2%
3.7
2.0
White
51.1%
45.9%
84.0%
4.9
4.9
Black
46.8%
52.1%
12.2%
30.9
38.5
Other
2.1%
2.0%
3.8%
4.4
4.7
Sense and Nonsense about crime (Walker, 1989)
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Females and the elderly fear
crime because they are the
most heavily victimized of all
groups
Victims of crime seldom
know their offenders
The typical criminal offender
is either unemployed or on
welfare
The larger the city, the
greater the likelihood its
residents will be victims of
crime.
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Rates of victimization are
higher for males than females
and for younger people
In a large proportion of violent
crimes, victims know their
offenders
Knowledge of imprisoned
criminals indicates that most
criminals have jobs and very
few are welfare dependent
The residents of smaller cities
have higher rates for certain
crimes: assault, personal
larceny, and residential burglary
The Victim-Offender Relationship
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A.
B.
C.
Three types of relationships are often identified:
Familial (especially spouses and siblings)
Acquaintances (including friends, girlfriends,
boyfriends, neighbors, and coworkers)
Strangers
UCR data
The majority of homicides known to police
involve acquaintances (57%)
 Relatives (22%)
 Strangers (21%)
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Homicides committed
by women
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Female-perpetrated homicides account for 1012% of the overall homicides
Who do women kill?
The answer is those closest to them, with whom
they live (intimate partners, or ex-partners and
family members)
Over the period 1995-2001, intimate partners
accounted for 32% of female-perpetrated
homicides
Offender characteristics
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Typical intimate partner killer is one aged
b/w 25 and 40, with below-average level
of educational attainment, who is likely to
unemployed and from lower-class
background (Mann, 1996, Goetting, 1987)
Method of killing
Women usually kill their partner with a
knife or sharp instrument (78%)
 Poisoning (6.2%)
 Blunt instrument (2.6%)
 Arson (2.2%)
 Shooting (2.0%)
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Weapon use in Murder
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A firearm (handgun) is used in about two-thirds
of all homicides (predominantly males)
Knives or other cutting instruments
(predominantly females)
Personal weapons (hands, fists, and feet)
Blunt objects
Strangulation
Contrary to media images, poison and explosives
are rarely used as murder weapons
Sense and Nonsense about crime (Walker, 1989)
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


Females and the elderly fear
crime because they are the
most heavily victimized of all
groups
Victims of crime seldom
know their offenders
The typical criminal offender
is either unemployed or on
welfare
The larger the city, the
greater the likelihood its
residents will be victims of
crime.




Rates of victimization are
higher for males than females
and for younger people
In a large proportion of violent
crimes, victims know their
offenders
Knowledge of imprisoned
criminals indicates that most
criminals have jobs and very
few are welfare dependent
The residents of smaller cities
have higher rates for certain
crimes: assault, personal
larceny, and residential burglary
Homicide rates
The proportion of intimate homicides differs by type
of area
Intimate homicides (spouses, ex-spouses, boyfriends, and girlfriends) made
up a larger percentage of murders in rural areas than in suburban or urban
areas
Research as an attack on common sense
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Hirshi and Stark (1969) in “Hellfire and
Delinquency” have found a weak relationship b/w
church attendance and nondeliquency
“damned if you do and damned if you don’t”
Study was attacked as false, stupid, or an
illustration of inadequate methods
Had they found a strong relationship, they would
have been accused of wasting time on the
common sense knowledge
Research as the use of standardized systematic
procedures in the search of knowledge
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Pure research
for the sake of scientific
knowledge
Construction of theories
of models that allow for
a better understanding
of criminal behavior
No immediate direct
relevance
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Applied research
Practical goal in mind
Development of
strategies intended to
address the problem
of crime
Purposes of Research
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A.
B.
C.
Exploration, Description, and Explanation
(Earl Babbie, 1999)
Exploration provides beginning familiarity
with a topic
To satisfy the researcher’s curiosity
To test the feasibility of undertaking a
more extensive study
To develop the methods to be employed
in any subsequent study
Description
Describe situation or events
 U.S. Census, UCR
 Computation of crime rates for different
cities
 Many qualitative studies aim primarily at
description
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Explanation
Explain things
 Reporting why some cities have higher
crime rates than others involve
explanation
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Quantitative and Qualitative
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Hypothesis
Data are in the form
of numbers from
precise measurement
Theory is largely
causal and deductive
Replication is possible
Analysis proceeds by
using statistics,
tables, or charts
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No hypothesis
Data are in the form of
words and images from
documents, observations,
and transcripts
Theory noncausal and
inductive
Replication is rare
Analysis proceeds by
extracting themes or
generalizations (although
numbers are possible)
Quantitative and Qualitative
Two logical systems
 Deductive logic-(hypothesis,
observations, empirical generalizations,
theory)
 Inductive logic (observations, empirical
generalizations, theory)
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A model of the Research Process
Induction
THEORY
Deduction
FINDINGS
HYPOTHESIS
Analysis
Operationalization
DATA
GATHERING
RESEARCH
DESIGN
Measurement
Qualitative Research on Diversity
Educational system
 Manners and everyday interactions
 Friendship and social activity
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Manners and everyday interactions
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“Americans ask routinely ”How are you doing”
but they are not interested in how I am doing”
“American smile” has a different meaning than
smile in my culture. Here it is a polite greeting,
nothing more…”
“I feel that people who smile at me are
insincere because their smile appears suddenly
and then disappears also suddenly”
Manners and everyday interactions
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“Americans are obsessed with cleaning of their
bodies, but they routinely put their feet on a
chair or even small coffee table….this does not go
along with hygiene”
“All my Americans friends do not take off their
shoes at home. It seems to me that they can
bring a lot of bacteria and viruses into their
homes”
Friendship and social activity
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“If I cook my real national food, no one from
my department will try it…I need to
Americanize my native food to make it
attractive to my American class-mates”.
“It is to difficult for us to make American friends.
Although, Americans are talkative and friendly,
they are not opened to new relationships”
“Usually it takes much more time to establish a
friendship with Americans than with people of my
own culture”
Research Methods in Criminology
Experiments
 Survey research
 Field research
 Content analysis
 Existing data research
 Comparative research
 Evaluation research
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Classic Experiment
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At least two groups (control and experimental)
Randomly assign people to groups
Treat the experimental group by manipulation the
independent variable
Observe the effect of the treatment on the
dependent variable in the experimental group
Compare the dependent variable differences in the
experimental and control groups
Control is crucial (to eliminate alternative
explanations)
Experimental research
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Researchers use deception to control what the
subjects believe is occurring
Researchers intentionally mislead subjects
through verbal or written instructions
It may involve the use of confederates or stooges
–people who pretend to be subjects but who
actually work for the researcher
For realistic deception, researchers may invent
false treatment and dependent variables to keep
subjects unaware of true ones (ethical issues)
Laud Humphrey’s “Tearoom Trade” (1970)
Study of impersonal sexual activity
between male homosexuals
 “Where the average guy go just to get a
blow job” and “Who are they”
 Observational research (how men
approach each other and how they
negotiate sex)
 License plate numbers
 Health care research
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Laud Humphrey’s “Tearoom Trade” (1970)
Middle class
 High educational level
 Mostly married with children
 Only one nonconventional thing about
them-”tearoom” for anonymous sex
 Great scandal (police could demand the
names of the subjects)
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The Minneapolis Domestic
Violence Experiment (1983)
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Goal was to find the most
effective strategy
Three groups: two with different treatment and
control
Police officers volunteering to take whatever
action was dictated by a random system:
instruction in an envelope
Three different instructions: (1) arrest the
suspect; (2) separate or remove the suspect from
the scene for 8 hours; (3) advise and mediate
Minneapolis Domestic
Violence Experiment
Experimental
Arrest
group I
O1
X1
O2
19%
Experimental Separate
group II
O1
X2
O2
33%
O2
37%
Control
group
Mediate
O1
1. Victims have been interviewed every two weeks for the
next 6 months, police records have been monitored as
well
2. Most influential policy experiment
3. Arrest works more effectively in deterring domestic
violence
Experiments in Criminology
Not always possible (ethical issues)
 Long-term study
 Quasi-experiments or natural experiments
 Example: Effect of the decision to conduct
crackdown on drinking and driving by a
local police force (planned interventions)
 Occasionally, natural events (catastrophe
or tornadoes) might substitute planned
interventions
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Strengths
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the only method that
allows us to test the
causal relationships
between variables
Random assignment of
subjects to experimental
and control groups
allows us to test our
hypotheses
Weaknesses
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In real life, only rarely
one variable actually a
cause of another one
Difficult to test very
complex hypotheses
(difficult to manipulate
and control more than
one or two variables)
Ethical issues
Survey Research
Survey is a series of questions asked of a
number of people and designed to
measure the attitudes, beliefs, values, and
personality traits
 Based on sampling
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Different research designs
Cross Sectional
Design
1990
41-50
51-60
Cohort
1990
41-50
51-60
61-70
71-80
Study
2000
41-50
51-60
61-70
71-80
61-70
71-80
Denotes comparison
*
Denotes same individuals
Trend Study
1990
2000
41-50
41-50
51-60
51-60
61-70
61-70
71-80
71-80
Panel Study
1990
2000
41-50*
41-50
51-60*
51-60*
61-70*
61-70*
71-80*
71-80*
+81*
Observation
Observation is a research technique in
which a researcher directly observe the
behavior of individuals in their usual social
environments
 Observational research is often called field
research
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Different strategies
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Complete Participant –researcher goes
“undercover” and does not tell people
being observed that he/she is doing
research
Complete Observer –researcher views
things from a distance or one-way
mirror
Participant Observer – people know
that they are observed
Strengths
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Observation of
behavior in natural
context
Get information about
those individuals who
cannot fill out survey
or respond orally
(children)
Weaknesses
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Relatively small groups
can be observed at
once
Labor-intensive
Can be subjective
Hawthorne effect
(participation in
research can influence
subjects)
Life history and case studies
In-depth analysis of one or a few cases
 Qualitative research
 Sutherland’s “The Professional Thief”
(1937)
 Shaw's “The Jack-Roller” (1930)
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Unobtrusive Research
Unobtrusive methods are strategies for
studying people’s behavior in ways that
do not have an impact on the subjects
 Homicide rate
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Unobtrusive methods
Artifacts (archeologists use)
 Use of existing statistics
 Content analysis
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Strengths
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We do not need
cooperation of people
being studied
Research does not
affect the behavior of
people being studied
Weaknesses
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Study social things
only after they have
occurred and left
traces
These traces must
solid enough to last
until can be observed
If we use secondary
data we do not have
control over the
quality of these data
Triangulation
Every method has both strengths and
weaknesses
 Whenever possible researchers use more
than one method to obtain data
 Triangulation – methods are combined so
that the strengths of one method
overcome the weakness of another
method
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Example of Triangulation
Suppose you study the impact of
neighborhood problems on youth
development
 Census information (unobtrusive) about
poverty level in neighborhoods
 Survey among youth and parents
 Observations
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