Research and Terminology

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Research Process and Terminology Paper
Liz Monroe
CJA/334
July 9, 2012
Jody Pennington

Research Process and Terminology Paper
Introduction
Research is an important aspect of the human experience, it is how humans have grown, developed and survived for millions of years. Research is built into all aspects of lives, all vocations, even everyday living. The field of criminal justice is no different, research is essential. The branch of criminal justice with the most obvious ties to research would be police officers. Police officers solve crimes using a variety of interview methods and experience many professional hazards as a result. As a criminal justice student and prospective police officer it is important to question and understand the risks one faces professionally.
Goals of Research and Interview Structure
As a criminal justice student it is essential to explore career options in order to better understand the opportunities and risks of each profession within the criminal justice field. Since I am interested in becoming a police officer, I have decided to explore the professional hazards related with this field. The goal of this research is to better understand the risks police officers face on a day to day basis and weigh these risks against other career paths within the criminal justice field.
In order to fully understand the professional hazards police officers face daily, a survey would be administered to several police officers in various departments through email. This type of research is called survey research (Hagan, 2010). This form of research would be most efficient as many police officers work varying hours and are often out on patrol rather than at a desk. Providing the questionnaire would allow the officer to answer the questions on his or her own time.
Questions in the interview process would include; “What do you think is the most dangerous aspect of your job and why?”; “What is the most dangerous situation you have ever faced at work and how did you handle that situation?”; “What are some of the ‘horror’ stories you have heard about and do these ever deter you from doing your job?”. While these questions ask for an opinion or personal experience these questions are non-leading and are open ended which allows the officers to explain why he or she answered the way he or she answered.
Case studies would also be an appropriate method of researching the professional hazards of police officers. Case study research involves finding patterns in records, sorting and analyzing data (Hagan, 2010). The case studies would be conducted by reviewing instances of violence against police officers, workman’s compensation records and police reports involving an officer getting injured. This method would reduce biases from the researcher as well as instrument intrusion. This is known as an unobtrusive measurement and would eliminate personal biases that often accompany face to face interviews and questionnaires (Hagan, 2010).
Questions in this research process would include general questions about safety and would look to answer “What is the most dangerous scenario I could face?”; “What is the most dangerous scenario I could face on a daily basis?”; “How often can I expect to be put in life-threatening situations while working as a police officer?”. By answering these questions through case studies, the information found will be unbiased by another’s opinion and the researcher will be allowed to draw his or her own conclusions based on the information provided in the case.
Advantages of Various Research Approaches
One method of research is qualitative data analysis. Qualitative research explores social phenomena using statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. Qualitative research creates openness by looking deeper and encouraging people to expand upon his or her response and also stimulates people’s individual experiences. Like many forms of research, qualitative data analysis has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages of qualitative research include; avoiding prejudgments by allowing the subject to explain his or her response, providing depth and detail by looking deeper than analyzing ranks and recording attitudes, and allowing the individual to build a picture of his or her actions through narrating his or her responses (Hagan, 2010).
While qualitative research has many advantages, there are some disadvantages as well. Usually with qualitative research fewer people are studied as a result of time constraints which limit the responses obtained (Studer, 2006). Qualitative research is more difficult to generalize and actual numbers must be reported rather than percentages, making the results harder to understand (Studer, 2006). The responses given are highly subjective so systematic comparisons are difficult to formulate (Studer, 2006). Lastly, qualitative research is completely dependent on the skills of the researcher who are conducting the interview (Studer, 2006).
Informed Consent and Confidentiality
While conducting research, a researcher must ensure that his or her research is considered ethical. In order to ensure that one’s research is ethical one must obtain informed consent from those he or she interviews and maintain confidentiality. Informed consent means that each interviewee must be asked if he or she consents to be involved in the research and the type of research, purpose, how the data is collected, stored and used as well as the implications of this research must be explained. Maintaining a subject’s confidentiality is also important. Confidentiality is maintained by ensuring that the appropriate measures are in place to make certain that the information disclosed and participants’ identities are kept in confidence. This achieved by using unique identifying codes and conducting double-blind studies.
Maintaining confidentiality and obtaining informed consent is important not only to the subjects involved in the research but also in the community to which the information is being reported. If neither of these is meant the research conducted along with the results that are obtained could be discredited and the researcher could face social, professional and legal consequences. In the case of a student assignment such as the one I am performing, a student could be expelled from the university or school, lose funding, or lose creditability and trust of his or her professors and fellow students.
Conclusion
As a current criminal justice student and hopeful police officer, research is extremely important. Research is built into the human experience, it is how humans have not only survived but also thrived longer than most other species. As such, it is important to make use of the resources available in order to better prepare oneself for the upcoming hardships and hazards faced on the job by officers every day. Much of the research and research methods police officers use on a daily basis put officers in harm’s way. Therefore, researching and understanding these possible hazards before choosing this vocation become essential to the criminal justice student.

References
Hagan, F. E. (2010). Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Studer, U. (2006). Probability Theory and Inference: How to Draw Consistent Conclusions from Incomplete Information. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (4) 329.

References: Hagan, F. E. (2010). Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Studer, U. (2006). Probability Theory and Inference: How to Draw Consistent Conclusions from Incomplete Information. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (4) 329.