Researching Crime and Deviance - Methods in Context

Question 1

Why can domestic violence be hard to study?

Answer 1

it takes place in private - few adult witnesses so few opportunities to observe
interview and data is difficult to validate.
traumatic nature means victims may discuss unexpected things so methods need to accommodate
victims may be embarrassed or traumatized and be unwilling to talk about it
there are few sampling frames - official records incomplete and victim information is confidential so unavailable to researchers

Question 2

What does Walklate say that might relate to why domestic violence official records are incomplete?

Answer 2

In rape cause it is the victim on trial who has to prove her respectability to have evidence accepted.
So women may not want to report the crime.

Question 3

How many women will suffer domestic violence at some point in their lives?

Answer 3

1/4

Question 4

What did Dobash and Dobash expose in their study of 109 structured interviews that they had with victims?
And where did they go for their sample?

Answer 4

They exposed 32,000 assaults, of which only 517 were reported to the police
Sample from a domestic violence refuge

Question 5

Why can it be difficult to study violent crime?

Answer 5

Context it appears in is often unexpected
investigating perpetrators raises problems of cooperation, money and ethics for example, information could be given to the police to prevent further attacks.
In some participant observations observers have been threatened with or involved in violence raising ethical issues and safety concerns

Question 6

When observing high crime areas, researchers may be asked to leave as were who? And for this reasons who’s researchers were told to carry questionnaires in bags rather than official looking briefcases?

Answer 6

Maynard’s home office sponsored team investigating victim intimidation.
Walklate’s

Question 7

Why can corporate crime be difficult to study?

Answer 7

Low visibility
More complex so harder to investigate
some is international so beyond sociologists resources
often involves huge diffusion of responsibility so tracking roles of individuals difficult
powerful, organised groups may have political protection as Pearce reflects in his definition of them as ‘crimes of the powerful’
Clarke and Croall - middle class crime is relatively invisible

Question 8

Why can it be difficult to study young offenders?

Answer 8

Language, literacy and cognitive skills likely to be less developed, especially as many underachieve at school so problems devising questions
Underachievement may encourage hostility to authority (Cohen lack of status and skills leads boys to form delinquent subcultures and Messerschmitt - boys oppositional in school working to present themselves as masculine)
age of offenders may generate sympathy, affecting the study
creating samples of young people isn’t straight forward - can’t use electoral register as too young to vote.
there is a need to put young people at ease

Question 9

Who withheld information about the boys he studied as publication would have caused them problems.

Answer 9

Parker

Question 10

How did Maguire put young people at ease when interviewing them?

Answer 10

She decided never to use tape recording as it made it too formal and guarded their responses

Question 11

How can observation be difficult to observe young people?

Answer 11

The researcher may not fit in due to age, class and gender differences

Question 12

What is difficult about studying the victims of crime?

Answer 12

Not always obvious who the victim is - in a fight they might be responsible
not all victims know they are
some victimization is hidden from view - child abuse and domestic violence
being a victim is traumatic
researcher and victim may have different aims - research/ therapy
victim research is memory dependent and studies show memories are quickly forgotten or repressed
may conceal victimization undermining validity

Question 13

Why is the definition of policing problematic?

Answer 13

Because it can involve not just officers but police community support officers and private security companies

Question 14

How can groups solidarity in police and canteen culture (Reiner) be a barrier to research?

Answer 14

Holdaway suggests that the lower ranks ‘shield questionable practices’ from the view of outsiders which makes it difficult for individuals to break ranks and makes confidentiality important

Question 15

Some areas within the police cannot be studied - give an example -
Officers can often regard researchers as critical of the police -

Answer 15

Reiner was not allowed to ask police officers political opinions
The officers Reiner studied thought of him as a home office spy

Question 16

Through their training, what do officers have lots of experience of that may be a barrier to research and how can researchers overcome?

Answer 16

Presenting themselves professionally so researchers need to use methods that enable them to get behind the impression

Question 17

Some areas within the police cannot be studied - give an example -
Officers can often regard researchers as critical of the police -
Access to senior officers can be difficult -

Answer 17

Reiner was not allowed to ask police officers political opinions
The officers Reiner studied thought of him as a home office spy
It took Reiner 10 years to be allowed to research chief constables

Question 18

What are the advantages of studying the police?

Answer 18

Researchers have an advantage of being able to locate the police easily as they have a high profile public body and once permission has been obtained the hierarchical nature of the police force means that officers may be required by their superiors to cooperate.
As it is an official organisation, ready-made local and regional sampling frames exist.
Officers used to form filling and being monitored so will be used to the research process however more used to asking than being asked

Question 19

What is difficult/easy about studying prisons?

Answer 19

• closed and controlled setting
• little roles for researcher to play so have to be overt
• separate institutions for males, females and young offenders so one prison not representative of all prisoners
• hierachal nature may mean several layers of permission required
• may be resistance from staff throughout research
• researchers safety
• offenders in prison are easier to locate than those who aren’t
• institutional control over prisoners may mean they can’t be researched, e.g. if they are in solitary confinement

Question 20

what can be difficult/easy about studying the courts?

Answer 20

• some activity takes place in closed settings e.g. the law permits asking jurors about cases
• the public nature of justice offers non-participant observational opportunities
• researchers aren’t trained in law so may find procedures
• power and status of legal profession can make lawyers unwilling to be researched, however the publicity surrounding miscarriages of justice may have reduced their power to resist investigation

Question 21

What did Davie feel the prison managers thought about her when she was doing her research in a prison?

Answer 21

she felt they hoped she would get fed up with their blocking tactics and go away

Question 22

who identifies the ethical knowledge faced by researchers who receive guilty knowledge from inmates or staff give examples

Answer 22

martin

being warned a prisoner is at risk of attack or admitting to a crime for which they have not been charged

Question 23

what are the issues of researching societal reaction?

Answer 23

• the volume of media reports poses time problems e.g. content analysis may be representative but time consuming
• structure of media ownership makes the process of news creation difficult to investigate
• moral panics are hard to investigate since people may not know where their knowledge of the event comes from and it is hard to know how much of the deviance is real
• different researchers interpret media messages differently posing problems with validity

Question 24

what are the issues with researching suicide?

Answer 24

• absense of main actor makes it difficult to investigate
• highly sensitive issue, people close to the decease may feel unable and unwilling to cooperate with researchers
• coroners have to interpret a death as a suicide, not always accurate, Atkinson gave Danish and English coroners as more likely to define deaths as suicides