Key Aims of Criminological Research - Assignment Example

Research and Crime Deviance Key Aims of Criminological Research Criminology research plays a critical rolein enabling individuals to think logically and in an informed way on criminology matters. Criminology research focuses on a set of social phenomena on which the research seeks to avail information regarding the phenomena. The definitive aims of criminology research are to produce measurable and testable data, progressively adding to the accumulation of human knowledge. Criminology research, as part of social research, seeks to identify and explore the complexity of social life. Since the society is diverse, multifaceted, and comprising of antagonistic groups, it follows that the goals of criminology research are numerous and sometimes contradictory (Geis and Dodge 2002, p.225). The aims of criminology research differ according to types of research whether policy-related, intervention-based, theoretical research, and critical research. For instance, in exploring the problem of youth violence, the aims of criminology research will take diverse motivations. First, the criminological research may have policy motivations in seeking better assessments and descriptions of the youth violence, perhaps to guide the development of social service budgets and programs such as rehabilitation. Secondly, the research may have academic motivations to respond to several issues such as the impact of social conditions such as poverty on behaviour (Noaks and Wincup 2004, p.177). Thirdly, the criminology research may be driven by personal motivations such as conducting of research on youth violence so as to prevent it or ameliorate the consequences of this violence on occurrence. Theoretical approach to criminology incorporates an attempt elaborating on criminal behaviour by defining and understanding the understudied areas of pro-social, anti-social, and civility. # 2 The Process of Conceptualisation Conceptualization infers the process through which individuals specify what they mean when they employ certain terms in research. Operationalization refers to the development of certain research procedures that will yield empirical observations representing those concepts within the real world. Conceptualization represents a series of processes by which theoretical constructs, ideas, and concepts are illuminated, distinguished and awarded definitions (Maxfield and Babbie 2012, p.100). For instance, a research may believe that that religiosity has a linkage to crime shaped by the hypothesis that individuals who are highly religious are less probable to be criminal. Obviously, religiosity is a common concept, but the less direct is how religiosity can be measured in an individual. The researcher may opt to probe church attendance as an effective measure of religiosity, and hence, the researcher may collect information on the number of times (in a month/year) an individual attends church services. For those who are religious but fail to attend church, the researcher may seek to study individuals’ beliefs in a higher power or whether they pray. A level of measurement in this case represents the precision by which a variable may be measured. Conceptualization incorporates refinement and specification of abstract concepts representing an aspect of reality (usually in the form of an object, issue, policy, problem, or phenomena). In inductive research, conceptualization is a part of the process employed to make sense of related observations. Undoubtedly, devoid of conceptualization, research in criminology would be entirely different and almost certainly less efficient (Maxfield and Babbie 2012, p.101). #3 Why Criminologists do not Rely Solely on Quantitative Police Recorded Data in Explaining the Levels and Patterns of Crime There is no way of measuring crime that can be termed as perfect. First, crime is mainly a label on some behaviours and hence carries the inaccuracies in the labelling process; secondly, the bulk of crime goes undetected, and thirdly, some crimes are not reported to police, which means that crimes that are undetected and unreported cannot be tallied. Similarly, the police, for diverse reasons, may deliberately downgrade, underreport or discard some crime incidents (Hagan 2011, p.25). Observation presents a problem of measurement as not all crimes can be observed by police or reported by other individuals such as drug dealings. There are several errors manifested in uniform crime reports. First, the crime reports fail to tally all reported crimes (Hagan 2011, p.25). For instance, index offences that constitute Part I crimes are only tallied if they are reported and recorded by police. Furthermore, there are always reports of crime of which the police may choose not to record due to various reasons. Secondly, the crime reports will not incorporate Part II crimes unless the arrestee has been formally charged with a crime since various jurisdictions may possess diverse definitions of such crimes. Thirdly, crime reports are intrinsically erroneous owing to the hierarchy rule employed by police agencies, which translates to the observation that when a number of crimes are committed within one incident, only the most serious crimes remain recorded in the crime reports (Hagan 2011, p.26). The crime data contained in crime reports falls into the pitfall of under-observation and under-reporting, which presents measurement problems. Hence, criminologists ought not to rely exclusively on quantitative police recorded data in elucidating the scale and patterns of crime. # 4 Complexities in Collecting Valid and Reliable Data about Criminological Phenomenon Criminology research is practically always “sensitive research” as there are multiple ethical issues to consider within criminology inquiry. Significantly controversial topics and questions, plus working with the vulnerable victims (such as crime victims) are some of the prominent ethical issues evident in criminology research. Reliability revolves around whether a certain technique, employed repeatedly to the same object, yields a similar result each time while validity refers to the degree to which an empirical measure sufficiently mirrors the real meaning of the concept under consideration (Dantzker and Hunter 2012, p.53). Like in any other social research, accuracy, consistency, and precision in measurement are critical steps within criminology research process. While some concepts such as age, sex, and education can be accurately and readily measured, others concepts utilized in criminology research such as attitudes or opinions regarding a certain subject can be complicated and often present challenges when it comes to evaluating the reliability and validity of data (Dantzker and Hunter 2012, p.54). Constructing valid measures is a continual problem in criminology and criminal justice since the researchers within the disciplines study exceedingly complex and difficult concepts. Measurement error can be regarded as one of most persistent problems threatening social and behavioural sciences (such as criminology). This informs the assertion that collecting valid and reliable data on criminological phenomenon can be difficult for researchers (Krohn, Lizotte and Hall 2009, p.9). The discrepant findings manifested in criminology research, which influence reliability and validity of data, stem from the inconsistency in measurement, sampling, data collection methods, and analytical methods (Jupp, Davies and Francis 2010, p.106). References List Dantzker, M. L., & Hunter, R. D. (2012). Research methods for criminology and criminal justice, Sudbury, Mass, Jones & Bartlett Learning. pp. 53-54. Geis, G., & Dodge, M. (2002). Lessons of criminology, Cincinnati, OH, Anderson Pub. pp.225-227. Hagan, F. E. (2011). Introduction to criminology: theories, methods, and criminal behavior, Los Angeles, Sage Publications. pp.25-26. Jupp, V., Davies, P., & Francis, P. (2010). Doing criminological research, London, SAGE. pp.106. Krohn, M. D., Lizotte, A. J., & Hall, G. P. (2009). Handbook of crime and deviance, Dordrecht, Springer. pp.9-10. Maxfield, M. G., & Babbie, E. R. (2012). Basics of research methods for criminal justice and criminology, Belmont, CA, Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. pp.100-101. Noaks, L., & Wincup, E. (2004). Criminological research: understanding qualitative methods, London, Sage. p.177. Read More