Problem Statement

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Chapter 2:

Foundations of Criminal Justice Research

Learning Objectives

• Summarize three fundamental features of social science: theory, data collection, and data analysis.

• Describe why social scientists are interested in explaining aggregates, not individuals.

• Understand that social scientists are primarily interested in discovering relationships that connect variables.

• Understand the difference between idiosyncratic and nomothetic explanations.

• Distinguish between inductive and deductive forms of reasoning.

• Distinguish between quantitative and qualitative approaches to research.

Learning Objectives, cont.

• Recognize that intersubjective agreement, not objectivity, is a fundamental norm of science.

• Describe the traditional image of social science theory. • Understand how scientific inquiry alternates between

induction and deduction. • Describe how observations contribute to theory

development in grounded theory. • Discuss how criminological theories draw on other

social sciences, and sometimes on the natural sciences.

• Describe how theory and public policy can be closely linked.

The Creation of Social Science Theory

• Social scientific inquiry generates knowledge through logic and observation

• Theory and observation go together in science, but sometimes theory precedes observation, and other times observation precedes theory

• Three key aspects of the overall scientific enterprise: theory, data collection, and data analysis

Social Science Theory

• Social Scientific Theory: Discovering what is, not what should be – Cannot settle debates on value

• Problematic Evaluators – Ex: What Constitutes a good Parole Officer?

Regularities and Exceptions

• Social science aims to find patterns of regularity in social life

• Norms and rules and observations in society create regularity – Ex: A person is not eligible for a driver’s license until a certain

age

• 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

• Social scientists study social patterns, not individual ones

• Aggregates are more often the subject of social science research

• Distinguishes the activities of criminal justice researchers from the daily routines of most criminal justice practitioners – Ex: Processing and classifying new inmates

Variables and Attributes

• Theory is written in a variable language; people are the carriers of those variables

• 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)

Discussion Question 1

What if someone asked you which should be the focus of social scientists: attributes or variables? How would you respond?

Variables and Relationships

• Theories describe the relationships that might be logically expected among variables

• Causation: A person’s attributes on one variable are expected to cause or encourage a particular attribute on another variable

• Independent Variable – “cause,” “influencer” • Dependent Variable – “effect,” “depends”

– Ex: Type of defense attorney -> prison or probation

Differing Avenues for Inquiry

• Ideographic Explanation - When we attempt to explain a single situation exhaustively – Fully understands the causes of what happened in

this particular instance; comprehensively explains one case

• Nomothetic Explanation – Seeks to explain a class of situations or events rather than a single one – Explains efficiently; settles for partial explanation

Deductive Reasoning

• Moves from the general to the specific • From a logically or theoretically expected

pattern to observations that test the presence of the pattern

• “Why something happens” -> “Whether it actually does”

Inductive Reasoning

• Inductive – moves from the specific to the general

• From a set of observations to the discovery of a pattern among them

Qualitative and Quantitative Data

• All observations are qualitative at the outset

• Qualitative: Nonnumerical – Greater richness of meaning

• Quantitative: Numerical – Carries a focusing of attention and specification of

meaning

• Both are useful and legitimate – choose based on topic or combine aspects of both

Terms Used in Theory Construction

• Theory – Systematic explanation for the observed facts & laws that relate to a particular aspect of life; propositions explaining why events occur in the manner that they do

• Objectivity – “Independent of mind”; not utilized – Rather, we use intersubjective agreement – If several of us agree that something exists, we

treat it as objective

Terms Used in Theory Construction, cont.

• Hypothesis – Specific expectations about empirical reality, derived from propositions

• Paradigm – Fundamental model or scheme that organizes our view of something; a lens through which we view a certain piece of reality in our world

The Traditional Model of Science

• Three main elements: – Conceptualization – Scientist use theory to develop

research questions that can be examined through observations

– Operationalization – Specification of the steps, procedures, operations to identify and measure variables

– Observation – Look at the world systematically, develop theoretical expectations, and measure

• Shaw and McKay – Crime in Chicago – Concentric Zones

Two Logical Systems

• Deductive (general to specific) • Inductive (specific to general) –

“grounded theory” • Role of race in police decision-making • Theory -> Operationalize our hypotheses

(method) -> Observation -> Empirical Generalizations

• Field research & survey research – used to develop theories from observations

Discussion Question 2

What if you were a criminal justice researcher? Which do you think would be your strength, inductive reasoning or deductive reasoning? Why?

Theory, Research, and Public Policy

• Crime is a social problem; research driven by theory is linked to public policy

• Theory structures research, which, in turn, is consulted to develop policy

• Research guides the ways in which the government and public respond to crime

• Policies often take the form of if-then statements, and are subject to empirical tests

Discussion Question 3

What if the federal government gave a large grant to criminal justice professionals for applied research? Which criminal justice policy do you think should be the research focus?

Criminological Evolution

• Maintains that behavior is affected by environmental forces

• Explores the link between urban design, human behavior, and crime

• Crime is more common in urban transition zones where the physical environment (crowded housing) is unpleasant and the social environment (poverty) is undesirable

• Based on ideas of Defensible Space and CPTED

Ecological Theories

• Led to the development of situational crime prevention – as a policy measure

• Directed at highly specific forms of crime • Involves the management, design, and

manipulation of immediate environment to increase effort and risk of crime, reduce the perceived reward, and remove excuses and justifications

• Prevention of auto theft/vandalism in parking lots?