criminal justice and scientific inquiry. o the study of how we know what we know o criminal justice...
TRANSCRIPT
CHAPTER 1
Criminal Justice and Scientific Inquiry
WHY STUDY RESEARCH METHODS?
o The study of how we know what we know
o Criminal Justice professionals are both consumers and producers of research
o Need to know how to competently apply scientific methods to Criminal Justice phenomena
o Understand how research is conducted, evaluated, interpreted, and presented
LOOKING FOR REALITYo Our attempts to learn about the world are only
partly linked to direct, personal inquiry or experience
o A larger part comes from agreed-on knowledge that others give us, things “everyone knows”
o This agreement reality both assists and hinders our attempts to find out for ourselves
TWO REALITIES
o Experiential reality – The things we know from direct experience (touching a stove)
o Agreement reality – Things we consider real because we have been told they are real, and everyone agrees (sun sets in the West)
o Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
o Empirical – Where knowledge is produced based on experience or observation
o Scientists have certain criteria to be met
An assertion must have both logical and empirical support
o Epistemology: The science of knowing
o Methodology: The science of finding out
PERSONAL HUMAN INQUIRY
o Future circumstances are caused or conditioned by present ones
o We use causal and probabilistic reasoning
o The goal is to understand why certain things are related, why patterns occur, to enable us to make more accurate predictions
SECONDHAND KNOWLEDGEo Tradition – Things that “everybody knows”
Ex: Driving on the left side of the road in the US is dangerous
o Authority – Trusting the judgment of someone with special expertise
Ex: You are more likely to believe a Judge regarding your driver’s license suspension than your parents
o Both provide us with a starting point for our own inquiry
Questiono How do individuals learn all they need to
know?A. personal experience
B. Discovery
C. from what others tell us
D. all of these choices
Answer: Do Individuals learn all they need to know from
personal experience, discovery and from what others tell us.
ORDINARY HUMAN INQUIRY
o Humans recognize that future circumstances are caused by present ones
o Humans learn that patterns of cause and effect are probabilistic in nature
o Humans aim to answer “what” and “why” questions, and pursue these goals by observing and figuring out
ERROS IN PERSONAL HUMAN INQUIRY
o Inaccurate observation – Use measurement devices
o Overgeneralization - Replication
o Selective observation – Prespecify the number and types of observations
o Illogical reasoning – Use systems of logic, consciously and explicitly
o Ideology & politics – Guard against its influence
Scientific research offers protection against such mistakes
ERROS IN PERSONAL HUMAN INQUIRY:INACCURATE OBSERVATION
o Q. do you recall, what you were wearing on the first day of this week?
o Solution for inaccurate observation? Research
Scientific observation - conscious activity)
If you had gone for the first day with a conscious plan to observe & record what you were wearing, you’d have been more accurate.
ERROS IN PERSONAL HUMAN INQUIRY:OVERGENERALIZATION
Assumption: A few similar events around us are evidence of a general pattern.
Ex. How did you perceive people from Muslim culture just after 9/11?
Solution for overgeneralization? Research
By a sufficiently large sample of observations
By being attentive to how representative those observations are
The replication of inquiry
ERROS IN PERSONAL HUMAN INQUIRY:SELECTIVE OBSERVATION
o Ex: Racial & ethnic prejudices are based on selective observation
o Ex: Teachers’ bias against students
o Solution for selective observation: Make an effort to find cases that do not
fit the general pattern
Questiono You've gotten A's on the last three tests. You
have a research project due the last day of class and you’re sure you’re going to flunk because something has to break this streak of good luck. You’ve fallen prey to:
A. illogical reasoning.B. inaccurate observation.C. selective observation.D. over-emphasis on tradition.E. overgeneralization.
Answer: Ao You've gotten A's on the last three tests. You
have a research project due the last day of class and you’re sure you’re going to flunk because something has to break this streak of good luck. You’ve fallen prey to illogical reasoning.
o The foundations of social science are logic (Rationality) and observation.
o Both are essential to science and relate to the three major aspects of social scientific enterprise: theory, data collection, and data analysis.
o Social Science Theory: Discovering what is, not what should be.
o A scientific understanding of the world must make sense and correspond to what we observe.
o However, problematic with evaluators Ex: What constitutes a good police officer?
FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
o Theory - Systematic explanation for the observations that relate to a particular aspect of life.
o Data Collection - observation
o Data Analysis - the comparison of what is logically expected with what is actually observed
SOCIAL REGULARITIES AND EXCEPTIONS
o Social Science aims to find patterns of regularity in social life
o Norms and rules and observations in society create regularity
Ex: A person is not eligible for a driver’s license until a certain age
Ex: A person is not eligible for voting until a certain age
o Social regularities represent probabilistic patterns
A general pattern does not have to be reflected in 100% of the observable cases to be a pattern
AGGREGATES, NOT INDIVIDUALS
o Social scientists study social patterns (collective actions and situations of many individuals), not individual ones
o Aggregates are more often the subject of social science research Focus of social science is to explain why aggregated patterns of behavior are regular even when individual change over time
o Distinguishes the activities of criminal justice researchers from the daily routines of most criminal justice practitioners
o Ex: Processing and classifying new inmates
BIRTHRATES, UNITED STATES: : 1980– 2002
o 1982 15.9o 1983 15.6o 1984 15.6o 1985 15.8o 1986 15.6o 1987 15.7o 1988 16.0o 1989 16.4o 1990 16.7o 1991 16.2o 1992 15.8
o 1993 15.4o 1994 15.0o 1995 14.6o 1996 14.4o 1997 14.2o 1998 14.3o 1999 14.2o 2000 14.4o 2001 14.1o 2002 13.9
Questiono Social research aims to find __________ in
social life.A. answers
B. knowledge
C. practicality
D. regularity
E. truth
Answer: Do Social research aims to find regularity in
social life.
ATTRIBUTES AND VARIABLES
o Theory is written in a variable language; people are the carriers of those variables
o Social science involves the study of these two concepts:
Attributes - Characteristics or qualities that describe some object such as a person
• Ex: married
Variables - Logical groupings of attributes
• Ex: occupations
VARIABLES AND RELATIONSHIPSo Theories describe the relationships that might be logically
expected among variables
o Causation: A person's attributes on one variable are expected to cause or encourage a particular attribute on another variable
o Independent Variable: A variable that is presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable
“cause”, “influencer”
o Dependent Variable: A variable that is assumed to depend on or is caused by another variable
“effect”, “depends”
o Ex: Type of defense attorney prison or probation
VARIABLE LANGUAGE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TWO VARIABLES
PRACTICE WITH IV AND DV
o The number of violent crime increases as outdoor temperature increases
o Men are more likely to commit homicide than women
o Offenders with high school education are less likely to recidivate than those without high school education
Questiono Professor Fremler examined the following
categories of marital status: married, never married, widowed, separated, and divorced. These categories are known as ________.
A. variables.B. attributes.C. variable categories.D. units of analysis.E. theoretical elements.
Answer: Bo Professor Fremler examined the following
categories of marital status: married, never married, widowed, separated, and divorced. These categories are known as attributes.
FOUR PURPOSES OF RESEARCH
o Explorationo Descriptiono Explanationo Application
PURPOSES OF RESEARCH: EXPLORATION
o Explore the nature or frequency of a problem or policy
Studies on social experience about which we know little
In order to piece together a preliminary understanding about a subject
o Might also collect data on some measure to serve as a baseline for later comparisons
Gathering large amount of relatively unstructured information.
o Also appropriate when some type of policy change is being considered
o May be simple or complex
o Ex. in the 1980s, social scientists knew very little about gangs.
Who joined them? Why? In what types of activities were they involved? Did people ever leave gangs? If so, how? What was the social hierarchy within the gangs? How did one earn respect and power?
PURPOSES OF RESEARCH:EXPLORATION
PURPOSES OF RESEARCH: DESCRIPTION
o Describe the scope of a problem or policy response
o Make more accurate and formal observations
o Often concerned with counting or documenting observations; exploratory studies focus more on developing a preliminary understanding
Ex: US Census, UCR
Ex: What percentage of American Married?
Ex: What percentage of drug users are from single-parent households?
o Following exploration, we want to know the problem’s frequency/prevalence/degree/scope
o Ex. U.S. Census Every 10 years by the U.S. government Cataloging such issues as race, gender, marital
status, employment experiences, income, & housing among residents in the U.S.
PURPOSES OF RESEARCH:DESCRIPTION
PURPOSES OF RESEARCH: EXPLANATION
o Establishing a casual connection between events
Explain things – answers “why? ” and “how?”
o Why have we seen a certain change in scope?
o Why does a certain problem exist?
Ex: Why do some people write computer viruses?, Why do some people assault their spouses?, Why does family structure affect drug use?, Why are children from single-parent homes more vulnerable to drug use than are children from two-parent homes?
PURPOSES OF RESEARCH: APPLICATION
o Applied research is often used to evaluate the effects of specific criminal justice programs
o Two major types of applied research:
Evaluation research – Comparing program goals to results
• Do drug treatment courts reduce recidivism for drug abuse cases over the traditional policy of incarceration?
• Does community-oriented policing reduce residents’ fear of crime?
Policy analysis – Prospective – Anticipate future consequences of alternative actions
• What would happen if we put more police on foot patrol?
DIFFERING AVENUES FOR INQUIRY
o Idiographic Explanation - When we attempt to explain a single situation exhaustively
Fully understand the causes of what happened in this particular instance; comprehensively explain one case
Ex: In-depth investigation of a serial killer
o Nomothetic Explanation – Seeks to explain a class of situations or events rather than a single one
Explains efficiently; settles for partial explanation
Ex: Common patterns of serial killers
IDIOGRAPHIC AND NOMOTHETIC REASONING IN EVERYDAY LIFE
o Idiographic: “He’s like that because his father and mother kept giving him mixed signals. The fact that his family moved seven times by the time he was 12 years old didn’t help. Moreover, his older brother is exactly the same and probably served as a role model.”
o Nomothetic: “Teenage boys are like that.”
APROACHES TO SOCIAL SCIENCE
o Induction – From specific observations to the discovery of a pattern among all the given events
o Deduction - From a pattern that might be logically expected to observations that test whether the pattern occurs
THE WHEEL OF SCIENCE
DEDUCTIVE REASONING
o Moves from the general to the specific
o From a logically or theoretically-expected pattern to
observations that test the presence of the pattern
o “Why something happens” “whether it actually
does”
INDUCTIVE REASONING
o Inductive – moves from the specific to the
general
o From a set of observations to the discovery of a
pattern among them
o “Why something happens” “whether it actually
does”
QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE DATA
o All observations are qualitative at the outset
o Qualitative: Non-numerical
Greater richness of meaning
o Quantitative: Numerical
Makes observations more explicit and make it easier to aggregate, compare, and summarize data
Carries a focusing of attention and specification of meaning
o Both are useful and legitimate – choose based on topic or combine aspects of both
KNOWING THROUGH EXPERIENCE
o Empirical research involves measurement and interpretation
o Measurement: Researchers measure aspects of reality and then draw conclusions about the meaning of what they have measured
o Interpretation: Very much dependent on how observations are structured
CHAPTER 2
Ethics and Criminal Justice Research
ETHICAL ISSUES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESEARCH
o Ethical concerns – Typically associated with morality; both deal with matters of right & wrong
o Ethical - May be defined as behavior conforming to the standards of conduct of a given group
o Matter of agreement among professionals
o We need to know of this general shared conception among CJ researchers
o No harm to participantso Voluntary participationo Anonymity and confidentialityo Analysis and reportingo Legal liabilityo Special problems
ETHICAL ISSUES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE RESEARCH
NO HARM TO PARTICIPANTS
o Dilemma – Balancing potential benefits against possibility of harm Collecting info from active criminals presents possibility
of violence against them
Psychological harm via remembrance of unpleasant/traumatic experience
Subjects can be harmed by the analysis & reporting of data
o Possible harm may be justified by potential benefit of study (still arbitrary)
o Perrone – Drug use in N.Y. dance clubs
VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION
o CJ research often intrudes into people’s lives
o Asks them to reveal what is generally unknown
o Therefore, participation must be voluntary
o Obtaining “Informed Consent to participate in research”
o However, this threatens generalizability
VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION
o Issues in obtaining “Informed Consent to participate in Research”
Results of study based on voluntary participation may not generalize to other populations
Subjects cannot be asked for consent in “field research setting”
Consent to participate may alter subjects’ behavior
ANONYMITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY
o Anonymity – When researcher cannot identify a given piece of information with a given person
o Confidentiality – A researcher can link information with a subject, but promises not to do so publicly
o Techniques: Replace names/addresses with IDs, specify when survey is C rather than A, specify that info will not be disclosed to 3rd parties
Questions: Anonymous? or Confidential?
o A mail survey in which no identification numbers are put on the questionnaires before their return to the research office.
Answer: Anonymouso A mail survey in which no identification
numbers are put on the questionnaires before their return to the research office
A research subject is considered anonymous when the researcher cannot associate a given piece of information with a given person
Questions: Anonymous? or Confidential?
o In field interviews with gang members, research confirm that information will not be disclosed to the police or other officials
Answer: Confidential
o In field interviews with gang members, research confirm that information will not be disclosed to the police or other officials
A research subject is considered confidential when a researcher is able to link information with a given person’s identity but essentially promises not to do so publicly
WHY THE ANONYMITY IN THE RESEARCH IS IMPORTANT?
o The accuracy of responses will be enhanced by guaranteeing anonymity
o Ex: in survey of drug use
ANALYSIS AND REPORTINGo Researchers have ethical obligations to scientific
community
o Must report shortcomings and/or negative findings known
o Tell the truth about pitfalls and problems you’ve experienced
o Should avoid describing findings as if the product of a carefully planned analytic strategy when this is not the case
o Plagiarism
LEGAL LIABILITYo Researchers may expose themselves to criminal liability
by:
Failing to report observed criminal activity to the police
Engaging in participant observation studies where crimes are committed
o Legal immunity (42 U.S. Code §22.28a) – This federal law protect research information for being subpoenaed or used in legal action without researcher’s consent
o Subpoenas violate confidentiality – If you disclose the subject’s criminal information, you may violate the ethical principle of confidentiality
SPECIAL PROBLEMS
o Becoming aware of staff misbehavior in agencies
o Research may produce crime or influence its location or target
Crime may be displaced
o Withholding desirable treatments from control group
o Mandatory Reporting: the Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974
PROMOTING COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
o The National Research Act (1974): signed into law after a few highly publicized examples of unethical practices in medical and social science research
o The Belmont Report (1979): a brief, but comprehensive set of ethical principles for protecting human subjects
Respect for Persons
Beneficence
Justice
PROMOTING COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL PRINCIPLES:CODE OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
o The American Psychological Association (2002) code of ethics is quite detailed, reflecting the different professional roles of psychologists in research, clinical treatment, and educational contexts Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Ethical
Standards American Society of Criminology Code of Ethics US Department of Health & Human Services American Bar Association Code of Professional
Responsibility
PROMOTING COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL PRINCIPLES:INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARDS
o Gov. agencies and non-gov. organizations must establish Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)
Set up in university/government & non-government organizations that conduct research involving human subjects
Research screening committee makes judgments about overall risks, and their acceptability
Whether research procedures includes safeguards to protect safety, confidentiality, and general welfare of human subjects
PROMOTING COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL PRINCIPLES:INFORMED CONSENT AND SPECIAL POPULATIONS
o Informed consent – Requires that subjects both have the capacity to understand and do understand the research, risks, side effects, benefits to subjects, and procedures used
New Jersey State Troopers and Racial Profiling
o Special populations – Specific regulations exist for juveniles and prisoners
PROMOTING COMPLIANCE WITH ETHICAL PRINCIPLES: INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD REQUIREMENTS AND
RESEARCHER RIGHTS
o Many social research study designs are regarded as exempt from IRB review under federal guidelines
o Exempt means that research proposals do not have to be subject to full IRB review
ETHICAL CONTROVERSY:TROUBLE IN THE TEAROOM
o Laud Humphreys (1975) – Studied homosexual acts between strangers who meet in public restrooms in parks (“tearooms”)
o Served as “watchqueen”
o Noted plate numbers of participants, tracked down names and addresses through police, conducted a survey to obtain personal info at their homes
ETHICAL CONTROVERSY:STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT
o Dispositional hypothesis – Prisons are brutal and dehumanizing because of people in them
o Situational hypothesis – Prison environment creates brutal and dehumanizing conditions independent of the people in them
o Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo – Sought to test situational hypothesis by simulating a prison in 1971
o “Prison” constructed in basement of psychology building
o 24 healthy/psychologically normal subjects selected, offered $15 a day for their participation
o Asked to sign a contract that they would be confined, put under constant surveillance, and have their civil rights suspended – but would not be subject to physical abuse
ETHICAL CONTROVERSY:STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT
o Terminated after six days (planned for 2 weeks)
o Subjects displayed “unexpectedly intense reactions”
o Five had to be released b/c they showed signs of acute depression or anxiety
o Guards became aggressive, prisoners became passive
ETHICAL CONTROVERSY:STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT
RESEARCHERS SENSITIVE TO ETHICAL ISSUES?
o Obtained consent via signed contracts
o Those who developed signs of acute distress were released early
o Study was terminated prematurely
o Group therapy debriefing sessions were conducted, along with follow-ups, to ensure negative experiences were temporary