Theory in the Field of Criminology - Assignment Example

Criminology Criminology Theory in the field of criminology is defined as the explanation of the relationship between different events. For example an individual who is pondering about the causes of crime rate elevation within a particular society may hold a theory that crime rate escalation is arising due to increase in poverty within a particular society. This theory or belief is even recognized as a hypothesis. But this theory cannot be applied to the field of criminal justice until there is research done to validate or verify this theory. In other words, the purpose of research in the field of criminology is to verify the authenticity as well as the generalizability of a particular theory (Vito, 2012, p.23). Similarly, the role of research in the field of criminology is even to rectify or make improvements to a previously held theory or belief. For example a research conducted to validate the theory that crime rate is increasing as a result of increase in poverty levels may reveal that only a certain percentage of the increase in crime can be attributed to increase in poverty. Therefore, further research must be done to identify what other factors are increasing crime rates and in turn it leads to development of a new theory. 2. There are various criminology theorists who have researched and developed various theories while focusing on various aspects of crime including the psychological, social, biological and various other causes of crime. Based on these theories the criminal justice system and the policy makers create punishment and rehabilitation policies while focusing on the causes of crime to target and reduce those causes in order to deter crime in future. For example the deterrence theory of crime states that individuals take into account the costs and benefits of committing a crime and if the believe that the costs are less than the benefits, they will indulge in criminal activity (Vito, 2012, p.51). With this theory the policy makers realized that if the punishments allotted to criminals are severe such as capital punishment, individuals who are planning to commit a crime will be deterred from indulging in deviant acts. This means that policy makers targeted the element of punishment in order to reduce crime rate. 3. Experimentation is one method for conducting research and developing or verifying and validating theories. Experiments are varied out by hiring subjects and situating them in a particular environment or by removing and adding stimuli to the subject’s natural environment. This is done to identify the behavioral as well as psychological alterations that occur when an individual is in contact with particular stimuli. The findings of this research help in developing theories that are testing in real world situations. The diagraming of the experiments is dependent on the kind of experiment. For example if a researcher wants to only identify the changes in behavior after an intervention has been applied, the researcher can use Posttest-Only design using one group of people (Thyer, 2001, p.197). While following this design the researcher may want to identify whether training and development or punishment such as sentencing has a significant impact on the subjects’ behavior. Therefore the researcher may follow the following diagram: X - O Y – O This diagram exhibits that one group of individuals were provided education (X) and the other group was provided jail time (Y), if the deviant behavior of a the group that was provided with education was significantly impacted as compared to the group that was provided with jail time, then this would mean that providing education can help in deterring crime rate. Various threats to the validity of the design of the research can take place in Posttest-Only design that includes only one group or contains groups with similar backgrounds. These threats includes the threat of history which means that punishment or education were not really the only factors that caused the outcome and another threat is called the maturation threat which refers to the assumption that similar outcomes could have been derived without education and sentencing (Thyer, 2001, p.207). In order to avoid these threats to validity researchers can increase the number of groups or add a group with different backgrounds. 4. The purpose of qualitative research is to define as well as analyze factors that result in certain behaviors, while the purpose of quantitative research is to quantify the findings of qualitative research and estimating the number of people who are associated with the findings (Thyer, 2001, p.345). The number of subjects required for qualitative research is relatively lower than the number of people required for quantitative research. In order to collect data for research that is qualitative in nature techniques such as observations and interviews are conducted, while surveys are used for quantitative research. The benefits of qualitative research is that it helps in clarification and definition of unknown constructs and provide solutions to problems that cannot be solved with quantitative research (Thyer, 2001, p.609). The issues with qualitative research are that it require the researcher to himself collect data and is more time consuming as well as require more capital. The benefit with quantitative research is that it helps in validating theories and outcomes of qualitative research. The results derived through quantitative research are based on statistical tools and may not be a real representation of the respondent’s ideas and beliefs. 5. A researcher belonging to the field of criminology has to take various ethical issues into consideration. One of these ethical issues is harm that may be caused to the social and psychological aspects of those individuals that have been hired as subjects of research. Since criminology research requires people to disclose personal issues, publication of these issues can result in stress and feeling of shame for the respondents. Another issue is that voluntary participation of the subjects and their consent to be observed should not be derived through any form of coercion. In order to avoid these issues the researcher should maintain the confidentiality of the subjects that were involved in the study. While publishing a study, the names and the backgrounds of the study participants should not be revealed. Secondly, the researcher should not indulge in unlawful acts to obtain the consent of the respondents and all the details regarding the research should be provided to the subjects before research is carried out. 6. The main impact of any form of criminology research including experimental research is to promote the social policy makers to create policies that focus on the social aspects of crime and the social reasons that promote an individual to indulge in criminal behavior (Vito, 2012, p.160). Various components of research focus on social elements such as ethnicity, race, gender, social institution and groups that can help in reducing and elevating crime. The social policy makers use the findings of these studies to target the elements of society in order to deter crime and reduce crime rates with the help of their policies. For example a research may indicate that poor people do not have the money to pay for their medical expenses and thus they steal money in order to pay for their medical bills. Policy makers might have been motivated by such a research to develop the Obama Care Act. The Act focuses on providing less expensive medical treatment to those who cannot afford it. Therefore, they may have designed this policy in order to deter the poor population of United States from indulging in criminal activities such as stealing by providing them funds and insurance through which they can attain medical attention at subsidized prices. 7. Most of the research reports that are developed by criminology researchers starts with an introductory section that focuses on the background and the definition of the variables that are being studied along with the reason for conducting the study, the problem that the researcher wants to study and the stakeholders that will benefit from the study. The second section of the report comprises of the literature review that focuses on researches that may have been conducted on the same topic while using the same subjects and same variables. The third part of the study is the method that was used for the study (Finch, 2012, p.227). The methodology section includes information regarding the nature of the study, the time frame in which the study was conducted, the population and the sample that were employed for the study, the techniques and methods that were used for the collection of information and the procedure that was used to analyze the data. The fourth section contains information regarding the findings and analysis of the study and the last chapter focuses on recommendations for practical use and use of policy making, the limitations that were experienced by the researchers and the conclusion of the entire research. The findings of a study can be published and reported through several means including print material as well as visual material. Most of studies conducted by criminology researchers are published in research journals that publish studies conducted in the field of criminology. The findings may even be published on governmental and law enforcement websites as well as online and physical newspapers and may even be televised. References Finch, E., & Fafinski, S. (2012). Criminology skills. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Thyer, B. (2001). The handbook of social work research methods. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Vito, G., & Maahs, J. (2012). Criminology. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Learning. 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