2.2 Criminal Justice

Getting Started

A qualitative research design, by way of a case study, will be your vision and mission in developing your capstone research paper.

This stage of the research entails research design and data collection strategies. Here, you will:

1. Select the sample population for your case study.

2. Create the instrument (interview questions) for your case study.

3. Explain how your qualitative research methods and design will clearly articulate how you will extract information from your sample population using this instrument.

You will need to ensure that your population and sample are well described. "Population" includes all the members of a defined group that you are studying or collecting information on. The "sample" is part of the population.

The sample population – the individual or group you have chosen to explore for your case study – is one or more persons with one common characteristic or area of common ground. As the researcher, you control who you are "sampling."

As an example, you could sample one person during a case study in a series of interviews, or get permission to survey a group of officers in a police department. In describing your population sample, you should provide a definitive explanation of who is being used in this study, how you are using them, and why you are using them.

You should provide a clear description of your sampling criteria, and be sure there are not too many disparate variables. To continue with our example, you may decide to interview ten police chiefs from ten different police departments from marginalized communities.

Your data sources should be clearly identified and allow you to answer the research questions that you identified in Workshop One.

Data collection strategies should be clearly discussed, with instrumentations (surveys, interviews, questionnaires, etc.) well described. Ensure that your data methodology and design strategies are suited to answering the research questions.

Let's review the process of qualitative research methodology and design through an example:

1. First, you created a thesis statement or research problem to be addressed: "The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of increased computer-based report writing for police officers located in large urban police departments."

2. Then, you designed a research question: "What are the effects of increased access to computer-based technology for report writing on court testimony performance for Newark, N.J., police officers with less than three years on the job?"

3. You have identified your sample population: Newark, N.J., police officers with less than three years on the job.

4. Next, you identify your data collection strategy: To collect this information, you create a survey in which the questions ask about access to technology within the police department, training in report writing, how many times per year they need to testify using a police report, how many calls for service they receive a month, etc.

By interviewing police officers with less than three years on the job, you will be able to gauge their responses based on themes and patterns. This is the process of research methodology and design.

Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:

· Discuss the qualitative research design and methodology for your case study.

Resources

· Textbook: Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology

· File: Chapter 6.ppt

· Media: Live Sources

· Website: IWU Resources

· File: Research Paper Criteria.docx

Background Information

In this discussion, you will identify the sample population for your case study and describe your sampling criteria. You will consider best practices for creating interview questions that will help you to gather the information needed for your case study, and begin to formulate the interview questions that are designed to support your research.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.

2. Download the  Research Paper Criteria.docx   file. Use this document to review and evaluate your capstone research paper in progress against the required criteria. Is your work on each section of the paper satisfactory, or does it need improvement?

3. You used the textbook Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology in the course CRJ-467 Research Methods and Analysis in Criminal Justice. In preparation for this assignment:

a. Review Chapter 6, "Survey Research: Interviews and Telephone Surveys."

b. Download and review the Chapter 6.ppt PowerPoint presentation.

4. View the lesson presentation Live Sources  to learn more about preparing for and conducting an interview. https://learn.indwes.edu/CLI/CRJ-486/2.2/story_html5.html

5. Learn how to create good interview questions by going to the IWU Resources link under the Course Dashboard. Visit the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) website.

a. Use the search term "creating good interview questions" to locate the relevant information.

6. Navigate to the threaded discussion and respond to the following discussion questions:

a. Identify the sample population for your case study and describe your sampling criteria (e.g., one or more persons? What type of genre? Police officers? Police chiefs?)

b. What impact does the wording of interview questions have on the responses from subjects, as it pertains to the research questions?

c. Discuss best practices in designing interview questions that will help you to elicit the information needed for your case study. What are some of the mistakes you need to avoid?

d. Draft two to three interview questions that you could use in the upcoming interview with your case study subject. Explain how they support your problem statement and research questions.

e. Be substantive in your responses.