Criminal Justice Research and Methodologies Quiz

Criminal Justice Research and Methodologies

• Research in criminal justice has immediate implications for policy and practice decisions and is often applied research addressing specific, concrete questions.
• The distinction between applied and basic research can be blurred, but most criminal justice research falls more towards the applied end.
• Competent research can enhance the quality of day-to-day decisions and improve policy formulation and implementation.
• There is a distinction between quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches in social science research.
• Philosophical disagreements about the nature of human knowledge and political struggles have influenced the debates surrounding research methodologies.
• The quantitative-qualitative debates have mainly subsided in recent years due to the recognition of the merits of both approaches and the emergence of mixed methods research (MMR).
• Methodologists have identified false and misleading distinctions and recognized the importance of integrating or mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches in research.
• Quantitative methods are rooted in positivism, seeking general and universal truths through objective inquiry and emphasizing numerical measurement of variables and statistical analysis.
• Data in quantitative studies are gathered in numerical form or other measurements that can be converted to numbers, and data analysis relies heavily on statistical procedures.
• Quantitative researchers tend to ally themselves more with the natural sciences.
• Emile Durkheim was a pioneer in quantitative social analysis, studying the relationship between suicide rates and various statistical indicators of social disorganization in European countries in the 19th century.
• Positivism or positivistic empiricism is a philosophy emphasizing the reliability of the senses and the possibility of objective observation and analysis in determining universal scientific truth.

Research Methods and Criminal Investigation

• Variables are factors in a situation that change and can alter the outcome, such as cold or humidity affecting the chances of starting a car.
• Data is the recorded observations and measurements gathered by researchers to search for meaningful patterns.
• An experiment is a research project conducted according to scientific rules, with the researcher having control over some of the variables.
• Hypotheses are statements about the effects or results certain causes or actions might produce, often in the form of "if x, then y."
• The text emphasizes the application of new terms to everyday situations to understand fundamental research concepts.
• It suggests that understanding the intricacies of the research process will require careful reading, thinking, and diligent study.
• Basic research concepts and methodologies are introduced in the chapter to structure all scientific studies.
• The text highlights the similarities between a criminal investigation and the research process, as both involve gathering, documenting, and evaluating facts.
• Investigators gather specific pieces of accurate information about a crime and systematically observe the details of the crime scene.
• The process of determining which apparent facts are real facts, which are relevant to the crime, and how they are interrelated is crucial in a criminal investigation.
• Creating hypotheses that link facts and constructing a theory to explain the crime is an essential part of the investigation process.
• Laboratory work to match the blood type of stains on a knife to the victim's blood type and examining wounds to determine if the knife could have caused them are necessary steps in a criminal investigation.