Case study, comparative case research and comparative criminology

How does case study research relate to comparative case research and comparative criminology? Table 21. 1 is a template, drawn from Gerring (2007: 28), which arrays case study research and cross-case research along two dimensions of spatial variabil- ity and temporal variability. Spatial variation normally refers to geographical or political units (such as groups, neighbourhoods, cities, regions, countries) and tem- poral variation refers to observations over an extended period of time. The term

synchronic means at one point in time, whereas diachronic means over time, with a specific focus on historical change. The grey-shaded areas are types of case study research.

TaBle 21. 1  Research design template

Source: Gerring (2007: 28), reprinted with permission of the author and Cambridge University Press

One point of confusion is whether a case study has one or several cases. For exam- ple, in our study of student plagiarism, we identified three students from a university for intensive case study. Is this one case of plagiarism or three student cases? I believe Gerring would say it is one case of student orientations to plagiarism, with the aim of understanding typicality or diversity in students’ behaviours and experiences. When he uses the term several cases, he has in mind the field of comparative politics and research on two or more ‘large territorial units’ such as nation-states (Gerring, 2007: 27). If we were to apply this logic to our plagiarism study, a comparative study might examine students in two different universities. In general, comparative case research examines large social units such as organisations, cities, states, regions, nation-states, or cultures, not individuals, although there can be exceptions such as in-depth psychoanalytical studies of ‘specific individuals’ (Gerring, 2017: 4).

When is a case study considered to be ‘diachronic’? Virtually all social phenomena travel in time; however, to be diachronic, the research question should be concerned explicitly with the substance and quality of change over time.

Comparative social science can be carried out with case study and cross-case meth- ods, and, by definition, it compares two or more cases. Thus, it falls into cells 5–10. In reviewing Table 21. 1, comparative criminology may statistically analyse rates of crime in ten countries at one point in time (cell 7), over time (cell 8), or by using other cross-case methods (cells 9 and 10); or it may focus on one or two countries in depth, using case study methods (cells 3 and 5) or over time (cells 4 and 6). Karstedt’s (2012: 373) review of comparative criminology stretches its conventional emphasis on comparing nation-states to comparing cultures, which range from ‘sub- cultures to regional and national cultures and to legal cultures’. Her argument suggests a need to re-define spatial boundaries in comparative case study research to include not only political units but also socio-cultural units.