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Chapter contents. Pamela Davies and Peter Francis. Introduction
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CHAPTER CONTENTS
· Introduction 2
¡ Golden threads and cross-cutting themes 3
¡ Reading and using Doing Criminological Research 5
· Thinking Critically about Doing Criminological Research 7
¡ Defining the topic, cases, context and time 7
¡ End purpose of research 7
¡ International, cross-cultural and comparative research 8
¡ Anticipating conclusions 9
¡ Audiences of research 10
¡ The research literature 11
· Methodological Approaches to Doing Criminological Research 12
¡ Validity 13
¡ Existing resources as data 14
¡ Primary data collection 18
· Visual Methodologies 22
¡ Methodological choices 23
¡ Research proposals 23
· Reflecting on Doing Criminological Research 25
¡ The importance of reflexivity 25
¡ Research as a social activity 26
¡ Research and emotion 26
¡ Research and politics 27
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¡ Research and ethics 28
¡ The case for reflexivity 29
· Summary and Review 29
· Study Questions and Activities for Students 30
· Suggestions for Further Reading 31
· References 31
GLOSSARY TERMS
decision making research questions reflexivity generalizability research design validity
research proposal
primary data secondary data interview
participant observation ethnography
case study
DECISION MAKING AND REFLEXIVITY IN DOING CRIMINOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Pamela DavIes and Peter FrancIs
INTRODUCTION
Criminology as a subject of study is diverse, wide-ranging, international and frag- mented. It is carried out by a variety of researchers (for example, students, academics, policy analysts and practitioners) who study and work within a variety of institutions (for example, universities, central and local government, criminal justice agencies, voluntary and third-sector bodies), working with a variety of dif- ferent discipline bases (for example, sociology, politics, psychology, geography, economics, history, law and business). Criminologists are likely to ask questions about the following: the nature of crime and its extent; the perpetrators of crime; victims of crime; institutions of the criminal justice system and their workings; and how each of these interacts with wider social structural dimensions such as power, inequality, age, social class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity. Typical research questions might include ‘How much crime is there and how is it geo- graphically and socially distributed? ’; ‘What kinds of people commit crimes? ’; ‘Are there any patterns to victimization in society? ’; ‘In what ways does the crim- inal justice system discriminate against categories of people? ’. Such research questions are broad but are an essential element in decisions about what to study and what to research.
Your criminological imagination can be stimulated in all manner of ways and
yet, for some of us, turning ideas into research projects can be quite daunting, and difficult. Starting to do criminological research may be individualized, but, more likely than not, it often starts as a collaborative effort, whether working alongside a supervisor, with co-investigators as part of a wider research team, or with research partners, sometimes stretching across geographical boundaries and sometimes across strategic corporate organizations and businesses. Doing crimi- nological research is something we can all do, but it does require particular disciplinary knowledge, abilities and skills, and we all need to engage in critical reflection and continue to grow and develop our own thinking and approach to doing it. Often, that can be done by learning from the mistakes and errors that we make in doing research – it does not always go as planned. We can also learn from what our peers – supervisors, colleagues, reviewers, markers, etc. – say about it. You may find yourself taking risks that pay off or that lead to disappointing results. Your criminological imagination may sometimes need to be reined in and tempered as you realize the practical considerations, and ethical and professional standards that are demanded and expected by your supervisors, peers and pro- fessional bodies.
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In putting together this book, we have been keen to address the needs of those of you who are fairly new to doing criminological research, but whose criminological imagination is flourishing. You may well be an undergraduate criminology student or a postgraduate researcher. However, you may also be an academic lecturer who is teaching doing criminological research or supervising masters or postgraduate
researchers. And we have also been keen to acknowledge that much criminological research is now conducted within organizations, third-sector bodies and public and private institutions. We have therefore attempted to acknowledge that there are a variety of researchers who would find a book on doing criminological research help- ful and useful. With that in mind, we have not only tried to bring together the end-to-end cycle of doing criminological research within a single volume, we have also been keen to build on the real strengths of earlier editions of this book – that is, bringing together some of the best researchers doing criminology and letting them tell it like it is – warts and all. For us, this is the best way to learn – from the best there are, and from honest and reflective accounts of doing criminological research in the field. There is no better way – apart from doing it yourself. In delivering our vision for the book, we kept in mind a number of golden threads – or cross-cutting themes – that we wanted the book and its contributors to address. These are dis- cussed below.
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