All lectures Criminological research
Lecture 1 – Introduction to Criminological Research
Why do we do research?
- Understand new developments – Globalization, Privatization, Digitization
- New, or expand, theoretical, insights – Psychological, sociological, economic etc.
- Importance of critical reflection and discussion
o Can environment be seen as victim; do we need to protect the environment?
o Dig a bit deeper
New development or outdated idea?
- Is it new or outdated ideas again?
- Research from whom?
- Scientific research or investigative journalism?
o Scientific research is more broad than investigative journalism
o Both: build an understanding
How do we do research?
1. Interviews
2. (Participatory) Observation
3. Discourse Analysis
4. Online Methods
5. Visual Methods
6. Surveys and questionnaires
7. Statistics
8. Mixed methods
Methodology
- “Concerns the process of examining methods and comparing the kinds of knowledge
they produce”
Ontology
- The theory of “reality”
- How we consider reality
- If there is a tree in the woods and it falls but there is no one around to hear it, does is
make a sound?
- They would say yes because it exists, there is a sound
- Or they would say what is sound if there is no one around to hear it? (More
constructivist we ‘made’ it)
- Is determined by how we see reality
- Reality is constructed
- Or reality exists despite of us
Epistemology
- The theory of “knowledge”
- How we see reality, determines how we see knowledge
1
,Methods
- Qualitative
- Quantitative
Quantitative approach
- Larger numbers
- Descriptive
- Positivistic
- Deductive
- Validity and reliability
- Generalizability
- Measuring the magnitude and nature of a phenomenon; testing theory;
generalization
Qualitative approach
- Ontology that reality is constructed
- Explorative: get an understanding of what is going on
- Interpretive
- Constructivist
- Inductive: goes from the data to the theory, and from the theory to the data
- Exploratory; in-depth interviews; observations, participant observation; media
research
Mixed methods
- Increasingly being used in social sciences – including criminology
Focus on qualitative methods
- Qualitative (anthropological) approach within cultural and critical criminologists from
the Utrecht School of Criminology
- Empirical research
- Fieldwork
- Primary data
Criminological Verstehen (Ferrell, 1997)
- Immediacy and lived experience of crime
- Sympathetic understanding
Share situated logic, meaning and emotion
- Vocabulary of motive
- “As all criminologists know, criminality is decided as much by legal and political
authorities, and by their strategies of criminalization, enforcement, and control, as by
criminals themselves.”
2
,Qualitative research in criminology
Overview of qualitative research
Cyclical or iterative process
- To step back and forth (iterative) between the stages of research, and repeat
- Different from the classic PTO – Problem statement – Theory – Operationalization –
from abstract to measurable observations
o Usually, no hypothesis
o The goal is not to test but to explore, understand
o Not deductive (theory to empiricism) but Inductive (empiricism to theory)
- From theory to framework – to interpret / describe / explain data
Qualitative research designs
- Cross-sectional or snapshot (one moment)
- Comparative (meta-level and parallel studies)
- Longitudinal (more measurements, development, longer time)
- Retrospective (biography, life history, perceptions before and after intervention,
historical)
- Case study (n=1)
- Ethnographic (small groups, thick descriptions, Verstehen)
Elements of qualitative research
1. Defining the problem and the research question
2. Data collection methods
3. Sampling
Defining the problem and the research question (1)
Typical subjects of criminological research
- Practices – drug trade, fraud, corruption, human trafficking, wildlife trade, sexual
assault, scam
- Events – Covid, wars (Syria or Ukraine), a greenwashing scandal, a data breach, a
ransomware attack
- Interactions – offender/victim, police/citizen
3
, - Roles – in (criminal) organization, families, companies
- Relationships – criminal, professional, law enforcement, state-corporate,
pharmaceutical-medical
- Groups – gangs, networks, Hell’s Angels, squatters, graffiti
- Organizations – companies, prisons, charities
- Small Communities – Streets, Neighborhoods, Ethnic or religious communities
- Social worlds – Traders, artists, drivers
- Lifestyles and subcultures – queer scene, elite clubs, sport and social
Problem definition and research questions
- Literature search/information first!
- Investigability (empirical – ethical)
- Feasibility (time – money – response / access)
- Simple and clear
- Relevant (scientific, social, policy, criminology) and original (never investigated, not
much investigated or investigated but from another perspective)
- Balance between focused and broad
- Who, What, Where, How and Why?
- No YES –NO research questions, better open questions
- Be careful with Why questions (Better: What factors? What motives?)
Data collection methods (2)
- Interviews, focus groups and collective interviews
o Semi-structured, unstructured
o “Rich” data
o Lived experiences
o Open ended questions
o Interviewee at the heart of the conversation
o Instead of gaining “truth” the goal is to investigate a person’s/group’s own
reality
- Participatory observation in situations/locations, within groups, networks,
organizations, etc.
o Under the umbrella of “ethnographic” research
o Immersion, participation, observance
o (Participant) observation
o People, locations, organizations, communities, groups, institutions
- (Auto)biography/life histories
o Oral history
o The telling and documenting of one’s own life, an event (social, political,
economic), or place
o Used in many disciplines outside of criminology
o Multiple discussions
o Storytelling
o Interviews, photographs, videos, documents
- Discourse analysis of images, sound or art (photos, film, videos, songs, etc.)
o Visual/audio/textual data
4
Lecture 1 – Introduction to Criminological Research
Why do we do research?
- Understand new developments – Globalization, Privatization, Digitization
- New, or expand, theoretical, insights – Psychological, sociological, economic etc.
- Importance of critical reflection and discussion
o Can environment be seen as victim; do we need to protect the environment?
o Dig a bit deeper
New development or outdated idea?
- Is it new or outdated ideas again?
- Research from whom?
- Scientific research or investigative journalism?
o Scientific research is more broad than investigative journalism
o Both: build an understanding
How do we do research?
1. Interviews
2. (Participatory) Observation
3. Discourse Analysis
4. Online Methods
5. Visual Methods
6. Surveys and questionnaires
7. Statistics
8. Mixed methods
Methodology
- “Concerns the process of examining methods and comparing the kinds of knowledge
they produce”
Ontology
- The theory of “reality”
- How we consider reality
- If there is a tree in the woods and it falls but there is no one around to hear it, does is
make a sound?
- They would say yes because it exists, there is a sound
- Or they would say what is sound if there is no one around to hear it? (More
constructivist we ‘made’ it)
- Is determined by how we see reality
- Reality is constructed
- Or reality exists despite of us
Epistemology
- The theory of “knowledge”
- How we see reality, determines how we see knowledge
1
,Methods
- Qualitative
- Quantitative
Quantitative approach
- Larger numbers
- Descriptive
- Positivistic
- Deductive
- Validity and reliability
- Generalizability
- Measuring the magnitude and nature of a phenomenon; testing theory;
generalization
Qualitative approach
- Ontology that reality is constructed
- Explorative: get an understanding of what is going on
- Interpretive
- Constructivist
- Inductive: goes from the data to the theory, and from the theory to the data
- Exploratory; in-depth interviews; observations, participant observation; media
research
Mixed methods
- Increasingly being used in social sciences – including criminology
Focus on qualitative methods
- Qualitative (anthropological) approach within cultural and critical criminologists from
the Utrecht School of Criminology
- Empirical research
- Fieldwork
- Primary data
Criminological Verstehen (Ferrell, 1997)
- Immediacy and lived experience of crime
- Sympathetic understanding
Share situated logic, meaning and emotion
- Vocabulary of motive
- “As all criminologists know, criminality is decided as much by legal and political
authorities, and by their strategies of criminalization, enforcement, and control, as by
criminals themselves.”
2
,Qualitative research in criminology
Overview of qualitative research
Cyclical or iterative process
- To step back and forth (iterative) between the stages of research, and repeat
- Different from the classic PTO – Problem statement – Theory – Operationalization –
from abstract to measurable observations
o Usually, no hypothesis
o The goal is not to test but to explore, understand
o Not deductive (theory to empiricism) but Inductive (empiricism to theory)
- From theory to framework – to interpret / describe / explain data
Qualitative research designs
- Cross-sectional or snapshot (one moment)
- Comparative (meta-level and parallel studies)
- Longitudinal (more measurements, development, longer time)
- Retrospective (biography, life history, perceptions before and after intervention,
historical)
- Case study (n=1)
- Ethnographic (small groups, thick descriptions, Verstehen)
Elements of qualitative research
1. Defining the problem and the research question
2. Data collection methods
3. Sampling
Defining the problem and the research question (1)
Typical subjects of criminological research
- Practices – drug trade, fraud, corruption, human trafficking, wildlife trade, sexual
assault, scam
- Events – Covid, wars (Syria or Ukraine), a greenwashing scandal, a data breach, a
ransomware attack
- Interactions – offender/victim, police/citizen
3
, - Roles – in (criminal) organization, families, companies
- Relationships – criminal, professional, law enforcement, state-corporate,
pharmaceutical-medical
- Groups – gangs, networks, Hell’s Angels, squatters, graffiti
- Organizations – companies, prisons, charities
- Small Communities – Streets, Neighborhoods, Ethnic or religious communities
- Social worlds – Traders, artists, drivers
- Lifestyles and subcultures – queer scene, elite clubs, sport and social
Problem definition and research questions
- Literature search/information first!
- Investigability (empirical – ethical)
- Feasibility (time – money – response / access)
- Simple and clear
- Relevant (scientific, social, policy, criminology) and original (never investigated, not
much investigated or investigated but from another perspective)
- Balance between focused and broad
- Who, What, Where, How and Why?
- No YES –NO research questions, better open questions
- Be careful with Why questions (Better: What factors? What motives?)
Data collection methods (2)
- Interviews, focus groups and collective interviews
o Semi-structured, unstructured
o “Rich” data
o Lived experiences
o Open ended questions
o Interviewee at the heart of the conversation
o Instead of gaining “truth” the goal is to investigate a person’s/group’s own
reality
- Participatory observation in situations/locations, within groups, networks,
organizations, etc.
o Under the umbrella of “ethnographic” research
o Immersion, participation, observance
o (Participant) observation
o People, locations, organizations, communities, groups, institutions
- (Auto)biography/life histories
o Oral history
o The telling and documenting of one’s own life, an event (social, political,
economic), or place
o Used in many disciplines outside of criminology
o Multiple discussions
o Storytelling
o Interviews, photographs, videos, documents
- Discourse analysis of images, sound or art (photos, film, videos, songs, etc.)
o Visual/audio/textual data
4
