METHODS IN CONTEXT

It’s important that research methods are understood in particular to specific categories, institutions and areas of society to understand crime and deviance. This is because different research methods have their own specific and fundamental advantages to certain issues.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Advantages

· There is greater need for confidentiality. Why because the victims may be afraid they will get abused even worse if information gets out that they told authorities.

· Better to take a more flexible approach to research. Why? Because the traumatic nature of domestic violence could cause unpredictable reactions to the victims. Thus it’s better to use an approach that isn’t structures or standardised.

Disadvantages-

· Official Statistic under represent the true rate of crime. For example victims are likely to suffering without reporting crime. (Yearn shire- Found women suffer an estimate of 35 assaults before making reports to the Police.) (Unreliable, invalid)

· This is an issue that takes place in private so it’s difficult to practically study through observations and opportunities.

· Difficult to gather a large sampling frame as not many like to confess about their abuse with the news going public. This theoretically means that hard to gather a representative sample so general statements can’t be made.

· There is greater need for confidentiality. Why? Because the victims may be afraid they will get physically abused even worse if information gets out that they told authorities. (Thus suffering from physical harm.)

RESEARCHING VIOLENT CRIMES

Disadvantages

· Opportunity to study the context because violent acts are swift and unexpected in society. The researcher may have to wait a long time to obtain data.

· Researcher may have to physically go to a high crime area to do studies related to violent crime. This can put them in danger to physical harm. (Gangs)

· Privacy of the act makes this hard to verify the truth of such as crime. This truly applies to domestic violence in households.

ETHICAL DIFFICULTIES FOR METHODS IN CONTEXT

Disadvantages

· There are ethical issues to face for researcher when studying crime done by minors, the young or even children.

· Covert Observation methods often don’t allow researcher to gather any consent from the person being studied.

· Criminals often lie about the context in study to maintain the network of criminality and because they don’t trust or respect authority. Researchers are seen as authority figures and this was proved in Zimbardo’s and Milgram’s experiment of obedience.

· Participant is physically endangered when experimenting with criminals. This applies to observational methods and interviews. Criminals can snap and attack them.

Many people are incorrectly put in prison that is innocent because of the corrupt justice system. Thus, believing they are criminals due to being put in that institution is not fair or just.

RESEARCHING YOUNG OFFENDERS

Advantages

· Opportunity is much higher to find because the young are more violent due to vulnerability and immaturity.

· Unstructured and flexible approaches are better to adapt to youths during communication.

Disadvantages

· Practical concerns in research for age of youths could sympathetically cloud researcher’s judgement. (Parker withdrew info to stop publication of youth crime.)

· Practically researcher can be viewed as officer in disguise. Many rebellious youths tend to low respect for authority.

· It’s practically difficult for youths to communicate with a researcher who is more likely going to be educated. Researcher’s speaking in a different speech code so communication between them is difficult. (Elaborated and Restricted)

· Difficult for researcher to get involved in participant observation as they won’t fit into the youth subculture of criminality. They won’t understand their lifestyle and way of behaving which can get them sussed out and even in physical harm.

METHODS IN CONTEXT IN GENERAL

Advantages

· Particular methods have their own beneficial contributing to the context studied. (E.g Unstructured Approaches good for allowing Victims to express themselves without a fixed answer so validity and rapport benefits)

Disadvantages

· The time consumption faced in researching. You will need to gain the trust of the subject being studied whether they are a victim or criminal in order to establish a rapport and get valid data from them.

· Practical failure to visually be at the scene when a crime occurs.

· Practically some areas in research may go under-investigated due to the dangers of using the method. For example a researcher is not likely to commit a crime to understand how it feels to achieve masculinity as an accomplishment from it due to ethics.

· Practically theoretically impossible for sociologists not to help triangulate the data as bits of knowledge are obtained from here and there.

· Practically some areas remain not studied or ignored because it goes beyond the sociologist’s resources or frame of study.

· The lack of Education or English skills can make it difficult for the researcher to communicate with a victim or criminal. This is because they have separate lifestyles and researcher likely to use an elaborated code of speech rather than restricted. (Basil Bernstein)

· Theoretically Researchers choose geographical areas to study so their values affect the research in hand. For example, certain geographical locations are often studied for opportunity and due to crime rates in that location. (Thus generalizability is disregarded.)

CORPORATE CRIME

Disadvantages

· Practically a low visibility of knowledge about it. Official Statistics even fail to represent it to the public.

· Ethically/Practically not reported as businesses don’t want a damaged reputation.

· Practically it’s a very complex crime that is difficult to study and goes across borders. Many businesses are transnational. Could go over sociologist’s resources to identify crime and find victims or criminals.

· Those committing such crimes are more likely the wealthy and powerful in society. Thus it’s underestimated in official statistics from a positivist POV.