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Identifying a research topic or idea
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Identifying a research topic or idea
All research projects start with a topic and a research problem – an area for study and an initial statement of the overall territory to be studied – not least because both are a major influence on the subsequent decisions that you will make about the ways in which the dissertation is to be accomplished (Davies, 2010). Some of the best research projects derive from some of the simplest topic areas and so don’t get caught up in trying to be different, or the most original or unique. For example, at this stage, broader areas will do, such as drug use in prison, or policing domestic violence, or age-related criminality, so long as you are suitably interested in them to focus your thinking at subsequent stages, and to carry out and write up your research. Simply put, you have to be interested in what it is you wish to study for your dissertation.
As a consequence, it is best if the topic area you choose derives from a subject area that has captured your imagination over the course of your studies and which lends itself to being researched (Davies, 2007). One of the best ways to begin to capture your thoughts is to look back at what you have studied in specific modules, or read in particular textbooks or journal articles, that has excited you or caught your imagination. Ask yourself, which essay did you really enjoy completing? Talk to your
guidance tutor or module tutors for inspiration, along with friends and family. If they are available in your library or online, read the dissertations of previous graduates on your course to get a feel for the work that other students have carried out. During this stage, you may actually identify more than one topic and, if you do, you will need to work systematically through each one to decide the most appropriate one to research. In doing so, talk to your supervisor, as s/he will help. Davies (2007: 26) suggests that you should approach defining the topic logically by thinking about:
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FIgure 2. 1 Defining your topic
Bryman (2015) suggests the topic usually arises because it is of interest to you, and comes from many interrelated sources:
· personal interest or experience
· the research literature that you have read as part of another module
· a wish to test or explore the validity of a particular theoretical perspective or model
· an ambition to ‘solve’ a puzzle
· new developments in policy, legislation or practice
· specific social problems.
In addition, your choice of topic may be informed by your career aspirations and employment/placement experiences to date; and/or specific issues that have received significant media interest.
In most cases, the source of a topic derives from a combination of factors, as Robert Reiner (1991: 39–40) makes clear in his classic research study on Chief Constables of England and Wales:
A number of factors … made it an attractive and interesting project. Above all, there was the growing prominence of some Chief Constables as vocal and controversial
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public figures … At the same time, a study of Chief Constables seemed a logical pro- gression to plug a gap in the burgeoning field of police studies … Having previously published a study of the backgrounds, careers and occupational perspectives of the federated ranks of the police (Reiner 1978), it seemed a logical step to attempt to conduct similar research on the elite levels.
Reiner’s quote identifies how the choice of topic does not emerge in a vacuum. Criminological research is social research and by its very nature it is constructed in a context where a variety of elements can influence what is proposed, by whom and with what intention (Hughes, 2010; Morgan, 2000). In addition, think carefully about the way in which your own values, ethics and politics influ- ence your own decision-making processes. Acknowledgement of this for May (1997: 45–6) ‘enables an understanding of the context in which research takes place and the influences upon it, as well as countering the tendency to see the production and design of research as a technical issue uncontaminated by politi- cal and ethical questions’.
Formulating a research question
Once you have identified the broad topic area you wish to study, and have reflected on the factors that have influenced your choice, the next step is to bring focus to it. While, for example, ‘drug use in prison’, ‘mental illness and crime’, ‘policing domes- tic violence’, ‘violence in the media’, ‘globalization of criminal justice’, ‘transnational crime’, ‘age-related criminality’ and ‘youth crime’ are good initial topic ideas, they are too broad. The criminological research that you end up proposing must be achievable in the time constraints available, and able to produce valid conclusions. If it does not, then I would hazard a guess that it will only serve to confirm that your question(s) was too broad, lacked depth or was too hard to manage within the con- fines of time and resources. So now is the time to focus in on what it is you wish to research.
The formulation of a research question(s) involves narrowing the focus of the initial topic idea so that it is ‘researchable’ (Green, 2008: 47), achievable, feasible and manageable (Bryman, 2008; Davies, 2014; Davies, 2010) within the time frame given. You should be looking to develop a question that is answerable, and that also provides a clear signpost as to what you are looking for from the research (Davies and Francis, 2011). The formulation of the question(s) should be articulated in such a way that conclusions can be drawn from it/them. As Jupp (2000: 14–15) notes:
The conclusions of research will be credible and plausible only to the extent to which the questions and problems they address are clearly formulated and expressed and followed through in a consistent manner during the inquiry. Above all, research prob- lems and questions should be capable of being answered by some form of social inquiry.
Formulating research questions involves bring clarity to your initial ideas, and focus to the planning of your research.
Good research questions set the scope; articulate the specificity and complex- ity; define the direction; and provide the frame of reference for any assessment of your work (O’Leary, 2005). They can involve questions about topic (what is it about the topic that I am really interested in? ), cases (who is the focus of the research? ), contexts (what is the context of the research – geography, people, groupings, etc.? ) and time periods (what period of time will the research cover? ) (Davies, 2010). They can involve sub-questions and subsidiary problems. They can be framed as questions, as propositions or as hypotheses. And they differ from one to another:
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Some research questions can be very narrow and explicit in terms of units of analy- sis and contexts, perhaps grounding questions in particular contexts and in relation to particular kinds of people. Other social research questions are broad, merely acting as ‘signposts’ to the direction in which an inquiry might proceed. Such research questions – as signposts – tend to typify qualitative, ethnographic-type research. (Davies, 2010: 38)
Green (2008: 47–50) details six properties that a research question or problem should have, and these are detailed in Box 2. 3.
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