Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Security, Essay Example

Which topics/disciplines do you feel would be better suited to a quantitative research design as opposed to a qualitative research design? Why so? Feel free to provide examples to support your choice(s).

As the emergence of criminology as a true science is recently new, so is the concept of separating qualitative and quantitative data contributing to its individual development. This is very much needed in order to distinguish criminology as a true and definitive society. Qualitative research is more crime specific whereas, qualitative data is generally broad in the sense of acquisition of information such as public information, social status and view, etc. Qualitative research goes to the heart of criminology and historically speaking the true nature and source of crime statistics and has been defined as a science for many years whereas qualitative research has had to struggle for its status as part of research. “Qualitative research searches for new methods to develop informative avenues to develop information to assist criminologists with their research.” (Davers, 2009, 157.). Both are very important though in the role they play in this new science that has emerged over the past three to four centuries since the most infamous studies by Robert Hare.

Explain the differences among the four researcher roles discussed in the text. Discuss the ethical issues associated with each type of role.

As an active participant, as a role observation analyzer, as a direct researcher or as a forensic scientist they all are essential roles to helping the science of criminology work together to case the minds of criminals, try to prevent and deter future crime and to investigate current criminal acts. “Overwhelmingly, criminologists have a huge role in attempting to bring nations together to act in a peaceful and united manner without the attachment of criminal convictions.” (Walsh, 2008, 245). In laymen terms, they attempt to deter crime by understanding the key motivators of crime. Researchers have to possess high integrity with the data they deliver because police forces, law companies, government and the people rely on their information to be accurate, to no avail. They represent the core of the symbolic criminal mural. They should possess consequential, humanist and deontological philosophies and ethical values with all work accomplished in order to ensure they are making decisions based on the law, ethics, God/spirituality and for the betterment of mankind as a whole society.

Maxfield and Babbie explain that criminal justice recordkeeping management is a social process. Explain what they mean by this. How does this influence the production of agency records? How might this influence research that uses agency records? Illustrate your answer with a criminal justice example.

We must access the role of the case manager to answer this question properly. As the number of offenders increases so does the role of the case manager become ever so increasingly complicated. Social workers must ensure those that are incarcerated are safe to return to society. Case management is set up to reduce recidivism or relapse of past criminal patterns. “This process also encourages the re-introduction into society and helps to enhance the safety of the public as a whole.” (APA, 2009, 234, 267). When accessing a criminal mind, the psychological mindset must be factored. The case manager is responsible for accessing the client’s needs, sending he/she to the appropriate service after developing a service plan, monitoring the progress of his/her client and advocating the client on an individual need basis. This cannot be accomplished without proper record keeping and without proper organization. This is why this process is called a social process. The criminal justice answer lies in the importance of the criminologists working together with the social workers so that they can re-evaluated those that commit crimes, rehabilitate them and put them back into society as productive and normal citizens. The scope of the case record keeping program is to show the social workers play a role in the process of helping make this happen. These are theories based on criminology developments such as the choice theory and why people commit crime in the first place.

References

Cresswell, CMRJ 505 – Research Design 3d Edition – Implementing the New York Crime Model, Sage Publication, Inc.

Maxfield, CMRJ 505 – Basics of Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology, Wadsworth, Inc.

American Psychological Association, CMRJ 505 – Concise Rules of APA Style-2009 Edition, American Psychological Association

Davers, A. Qualitative and Quantitative Research Emerges in Criminology New York: NY Junderson Publishing, 2009.

Walsh, L. (2008) Introduction and Overview of Crime and Criminology Retrieved June 08, 2010 from, www.sagepub.com/upm-data/23879_Page_1_19.pdf.